Tag Archives: nomads
Why we need to be kept in the dark…
Last week I learned why we really shouldn’t be afraid of the dark…and why we need to be kept in the dark… During my long years as an outdoor guide, I spent many a night gazing at the beautiful starry nights with my international clients, quite in awe, and wondering all those things that you […]
Bedouin women making history
Um Yasser, a middle-aged Bedouin woman of the Hamada tribe in South Sinai, was born in a rock house, but spent much of her childhood living in a cave dwelling in the desert, where she and her mother tended their herd of goats. The Bedouins are an old, conservative ethnic group, with laws that govern […]
The Sinai Trail – a 220km hiking odyssey across the desert
The Sinai Trail is a 220km epic walk accompanied by Bedouin guides through the mountains and desert of South Sinai
A fascination for the Sahara
Sahara is the Arabic word for desert. Visit a desert or two, and you will find out that the desert is a magical, ever-changing landscape and not just a huge pile of sand: huge golden dunes, flat packed desert, a moonscape scattered with strange rock formations or craggy and colourful mountains. If you care to spend a few days […]
Desert Days – spending time with nomads
Recently I had the privilege of spending a couple of days in the Sinai desert with a nomadic family. They are not quite as “nomadic” as they used to be, as modernity and necessity has crept into their lives, forcing them to adapt in different ways. Whereas children used to learn survival in the desert (how […]
Changing Bedouin lifestyles: from the tent to a house
Times are changing fast for the Bedouin tribes of the South Sinai. Up until around 30-40 years ago most of them used to live a nomadic lifestyle in the desert, moving with the seasons to feed their herds of goats and camels on the fragrant desert herbs. They lived in tents woven from goat and […]
10 Weddings and a Funeral
The Women’s Party – Part 1 I’d just arrived back in Egypt to hear that my Bedouin neighbour was getting married, and there was to be a party for the women only in 2 days time. Great! The party day arrived, and the sunset prayer sang out from the local mosque. This meant the party […]
Dahab Days – life in another land, Egypt
This is a kind of photo-diary about life in the South Sinai, the random things that happen and people you meet. Enjoy! It was a rare windless winter day today, 22 Feb 2014, so I went for a bike ride out of Dahab and down the coast. The beautiful turquoise water kept drawing me further […]
Adventures of Venus 