Camel Trekking in Sinai

Sinai, Egypt

Let me tell you upfront: a tripod on a camelback is useless. And, if you get seasick easily, wait until you get on a camel!

Oh, there's one more thing to keep in mind: a tripod in a slot canyon is equally useless.


Riding a camel - I think - is somewhat related to belly dancing. I discovered that one way to make it enjoyable was to let my waist act as a loose spring, simply letting go of it. My lower body was out of my control anyway, bouncing and swinging and twisting at the camel's leisure. But, if I kept my upper body somehow straight, it all worked somehow. Well, all except taking pictures.


Yd and his young camel Zourloul - ie Baby - were waiting for me at the beginning of a wadi where the bedouin boss dropped me off. Here the camel got loaded, I got packed on top and off we went.
We entered a scenery out of the picture books. I felt like a fake Laurence of Arabia, but equally blessed and enchanted to see and walk through this scenery. The red desert was barren except for a few herbs and some acacia trees. But the colours and the shapes of all the ridges and boulders and peaks were beyond anything you can imagine.
In the morning the breeze was carrying the delicate scent of the blossoming acacias all the way through the wadis. I simply breathed it in deeply and closed my eyes. It was divine.

The wadi became narrower and more twisted, sometimes it was just wide enough to allow a camel to pass. Above us were towering peaks and steep walls or slopes with crumbly terrain and boulders - an extremely spectacular landscape.
We only met people on our first day. We stopped for a break in the shade of an adjacent wadi. And here, around a tiny fire, there were a bedouin, Maya and her little daughter, Luna and the dog and 3 camels they had with them. Maya is a young Israeli woman who likes travelling and trekking. She was now on a trek similar to mine together with her beautiful daughter. Around 4-5 years old, Luna was walking and running barefoot on the rocky terrain, wearing only a colourful summer dress. And she looked comfortable and at home in this environment like a princess of the desert. She was playing with the little baby camel like two old time friends. And clearly the baby camel was enjoying that. It was lovely to watch them together.

Their bedouin guide was busy making fresh dough and we arrived just in time to share some of their salad and the fresh bread. It was actually Yd who took over the bread baking. All the charcoal was gently swept on the side, the spot evened out and the dough placed on the ground. Then the charcoal was spread out evenly over the dough. At some point the flat bread had to be turned around and in the end Yd beat it and scraped off the coal from its surface. It was fresh, crispy and simply delicious!

After some more walking in the afternoon we reached our "campsite". On the way we had a little incident which, luckily, ended well. We were going up a steep slope and the trail was a mix of sand and scree, plus some bigger rocks. The trail was actually bordered by bigger rocks piled up by the bedouins. It all happened in a second. Zourloul slipped, hit the rocks, fell down and the rocks started rolling down. I merely had time to jump on the side and out of the way of the smaller rocks. Fortunately, the big one, about the size of a Pilates ball stopped short. The camel was scared, trembling and crying out loud. Its whining was heartbreaking. I felt bad thinking that it had broken a leg or something. Yd acted quickly by unloading it and tying it down. He then started to work feverishly to make room around the camel and even out the trail ahead. With his bare hands he was digging in the dust, rolling rocks and boulders or lifting them and throwing them away. Then he basically pushed the camel sideways away from a sharp rock he could not get out from beneath the camel. Only after he was satisfied with what he had done did he untie Zourloul and led it safely further up. I felt relieved and helped Yd carry up all the stuff. There was a lot: a big cannister of water (40l or so), his blankets, the vegetables and cans of food, a box with mineral water bottles, pots, food for the camel, my sleeping bag, Yd's ancient radio-cassette player :-)

The campsite was on a wide flat area that could have been the bottom of a lake. It was bordered by high peaks and ridges and it was barren except for a few acacia trees. A little further back there was a little oasis though where a few huge palm trees and a few very young ones seemed to thrive. Behind some grass Yd showed me where the water was: a small pool of still water. It was not good for us, but good for the camel, he explained, because the water was salty. Apparently the water in this wadi was all salty, unlike the neighbouring wadi. We had passed on the way up another spot where some huge palm trees were tucked beneath an impressive wall. And their sight was totally unexpected, such was the contrast between their green healthy leaves and the apparently lifeless surroundings. The desert clearly had many secrets, a magical place to explore.

We were the only people on this planet of tranquility and mystery. There were a few birds around, too, but they only voiced their presence in the early morning hours.
I watched Yd for a while climbing up one of the acacia trees and cutting little twigs for Zourloul to eat. He stayed up there in the tree for more than an hour carefully cutting the twigs and letting them fall down where the camel was eating happily. I feared he would eventually chop down the whole tree so I went exploring the area and scrambled up all the bumps and mounds nearby. The views of the distant ridges at sunset were stunning. I felt blessed and happy to be there.

Later I watched Yd making a little fire and brewing fresh tea for us. He added a little twig from a little bush he had pointed out to me earlier and the resulting fragrance and taste of that tea was amazing. He cleaned and cut vegetables and cooked for us and I enjoyed watching his face lit by the warm glow of the fire and his forehead all wrinkled in concentration.
We also chatted a bit but the communication was not the easiest. Again I wished I knew some Arabic. But we understood each other well, even with our limited vocabularies. Snippets of our conversation went like this:

- Children? he asked.
- No.
He nods.I sigh.
Pause.
- Doctor? he asks.
- Yes.
- Allah, he says turning his eyes up to the sky.
I nod.


After dinner and tea we lay there in silence watching the sky. We kept refilling our tea cups and he smoked his cigarettes. I saw 2 shooting stars before I surrendered to sleep.

The next day we didn't move from camp until the early afternoon. We went to the water with the camel in the morning and Yd cut some more twigs for Zourloul. I noticed that the young hungry camel was picking up all the wilted flowers from beneath the acacia tree and so I spent a while collecting handfulls of flowers and feeding them to a happy camel.

By 2 pm, after cooked lunch and some more tea we headed for the canyon. The reason why we started this late was to avoid the police checks in the area. Yd was walking fast ahead. I actually had trouble keeping up with him on the dusty slopes :-) The trail went up a ravine then across a wide wadi, over another hill into yet another wadi and then it turned right.
This is where the canyon begins in a very benign way. Up a short chimney we first made it onto some sort of a plateau. The views of the eroded rock walls and towers around us were amazing. However, from here things became more and more spectacular. The trail on the plateau dropped a little bit and entered a narrow canyon which became narrower and narrower. At times we had to do some stemming to get over a spot or up, at other times we had to crawl under boulders. It was fun! It was also incredible to notice the complexity of shapes and the richness in pink-red shades the rock presented. By the time we emerged at the other end into the bright sunlight I was thrilled. It was nice, cool and shady in the canyon, so different from outside of it.
But the fun wasn't over yet. We were here above another canyon, wide and bright and we descended into it. In the distance high on a ridge Yd pointed out the police check booth and the coffee stalls. That was where the parking lot was. People usually parked there and then walked down to here for about half an hour had a coffee or tea and went back. They actually missed the fun!
Following this new canyon we were actually closing a loop. Again I was in for a big surprise. Gradually the walls changed their colour and consistency and the canyon narrowed more and more. It became what is commonly called a slot canyon. It was twisted and very narrow. The walls were smooth and with beautiful concavities. Sometimes the ground was not sandy anymore but a smooth round bowl carved into the rock by the force of water during flash floods. We had to stem, crawl, jump, squeeze our bodies through. My backpack took a toll. The side pocket mesh at the end of the canyon had holes in it from the friction against the rock in places where I had to push myself through. And the tripod bag had one, too :-)

I loved this trek for the sense of adventure it gave me. But not just that. The beauty of the lines and shapes was simply stunning. The force of nature was incredible and the results mindblowing creating magnificent, dramatic work of arts along millions of years. And the remoteness and tranquility of these places is simply touching a string in me. I could spend days after days there without longing for any of the civilization's benefits.

To return to "civilization" we backtracked our steps with a notable exception. Nearby the spot where Zourloul had the little accident on the way up and I noticed the palm trees Yd suddenly stopped and said: "You can go up there and take pictures and come down the other wadi. I wait for you at the junction below with tea."
That was lovely! Behind the ridge there were more palm trees. It was a lush green spot in an otherwise dusty and dry environment. I did not find the water hole, but there was clearly water there. It was incredible. And the tea at the end of the wadi delicious.

Upon saying good-bye Yd pulled out a little thing out of his pocket - a souvenir for me: on a black string a green glazed ceramic heart, all handmade. I felt extremely touched. And I found it very hard not to hug this man. It would have been a big misbehaviour, going against his culture and tradition.