Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Giving up is unforgivable.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

This blog will pay for itself.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

The willow is too close to the house.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

They don’t have outfits that big. nor codpieces that small.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

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On The Road – TKH – Sinai Trail Part 2

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TKH

In Part 2 and 3 I will show some pictures of the scenery we walked through. I must confess that I really had no idea what to expect in terms of landscape and terrain before I started to do some background work while I was deciding whether this trip was for me or not. It turned that there was going to be mountains, lots of them, and so it was an easy decision to go for it. I am a mountain kind a guy.

Right off the coast as one drives North from Sharm El-Skeikh there are mountain in the several hundred to thousand meter height (1500- 3000 ft). Across the Gulf of Aqaba one has a view of Saudi Arabia and it looks pretty similar there (he says without having actually been there).

As you go inland the mountains get taller reaching 2650 m (8750 ft) at Mt. Catherine with several other summits nearby nearly as tall. The rock varies between granite of the grey and pink variety, sandstone and basalt. Between the mountains run the wadis, essentially flood plains, which can be deeply sandy (and I mean “deeply”) and often blindingly white, or rocky, filled with what one would call scree in the Sierra.

Both types of surface pose some challenges for the hiker as the sand “gives” and as you push off with each step your foot may actually slip back a bit before catching. The rocky surfaces just massage the soles of your feet and the soles after a while just don’t like it too much. The easiest surface to walk on was sand that had been hardened by the wind or by precipitation. If one got lucky it was a smooth surface so hard that one could walk on as if it was dirt. The absolute worst areas were those where the ubiquitous Toyota pickup trucks had passed through and left deep scars in the sand. Those stretches were really exhausting.

My desert hiking experience is mostly in the US Southwest, specifically Arizona/New Mexico/Utah. I had thought I had seen some rather barren places, but the Sinai peninsula can easily top that, especially after years of drought.

I had never been to a place before where the geology is so unobscured by vegetation as the Sinai. I found this “in your face” feature fascinating. Alas, I do not know much about geology as a science, so please do not expect that I expound on the features shown in the pictures to follow.

On The Road - TKH - Sinai Trail Part 2 9
UPSTREAM OF COLORED CANYON, SINAI PENINSULA
One of the first attractions we walked through was the Colored Canyon. I must confess that I was not as impressed as I was expected to be. But if you have hiked some of the slot canyons in Utah, it would take a bit to be impressed by slot canyons elsewhere. It did not help that while we were working our way up the slot the sun was obscured by clouds and the colors were not as Impressive as they could have been. We had hardly exited the slot canyon and the sun came out, illuminating Colored Mountain. Some fine banding there!
On The Road - TKH - Sinai Trail Part 2 8
Ein HadurOctober 24, 2023
Looking down on the Oasis Ein Hadur. “Ein” is the word for spring and there was indeed an abundance of water down there. They even had a swimming pool which we very much enjoyed after hiking for days in 90 -100 F weather. We took half a day off, just hanging out and swimming.
 
In the back is White canyon filled with blindingly white sand through which we hiked the next day. At the back you hit the limestone cliffs which required some quite exposed climbing to get over.
 
At the top we were picked up by a jeep and ferried across a highway. Owing to the strained relations between the Bedouin and the Egyptian officialdom it would not be good to be seen by police/military happening by if one were to cross the highway on foot. So whenever such a situation came up, a vehicle picked us up to ferry us across.
 
There are four major highways in the Sinai, one running from Suez to Sharm El-Sheikh, one running from Sharm to Taba on the Egypt/Israel border near the top of the Gulf of Aqaba via Dahab. A shunt from Dahab to St Katherine and a direct highway from Suez to Taba. The latter is not allowed to be used by tourists, Christians, members of police and military. There is a presence of Islamic militants up there and an encounter with those by any members of the aforementioned groups might lead to an unexpected end-of-life experience.
Notice at the right margin part of the skeleton of a telecom tower. This installation and many like it will be bringing telephone service and internet to the Bedouin. I am not sure that the culture is up for Tik-Tok and Facebook, to put it mildly.
On The Road - TKH - Sinai Trail Part 2 7
Sinai PeninsulaOctober 25, 2023
Shortly after we crossed the highway we reached these ancient ruins. Our guide said it was not known how old they were as there is no biological material that one could use for dating purposes by radiocarbon dating.
These were constructed from the unique rock in that location which peels off in 4-5 inch thick slabs. The round walls were constructed from this rock up to a height of about 5-6 ft and then longish rock slabs were layered on top of the wall such that it started to overhang the wall towards the inside. The next layer then reached further inside until there was a roof. The slabs reaching inside were weighed down by rocks on the perimeter flush with the wall exterior, hence the cylindrical appearance from the outside. What was left of the roofs did not show any evidence of the more modern way of constructing a vault in which the rocks of the ceiling support each other.
It is assumed that they were built for storage of supplies by the ancient people passing through or living in this area.
On The Road - TKH - Sinai Trail Part 2 6
Sinai PeninsulaNovember 2, 2023
Mr. Shadow in a particularly desolate area without a trace of plant life, but a good representation of one kind of terrain we walked through.
On The Road - TKH - Sinai Trail Part 2 5
Sinai PeninsulaNovember 6, 2023
A wide wadi in the early evening. The giant rock provided some very welcome shield from the bone-chilling wind that had pounded us all day. As almost every night it died down once it was dark. The camel drivers had collected firewood as usual so that we had a fire for cooking and social hour.
While we all had tents, some of us slept under the stars almost every night. If one chose ones sleeping place carefully to be shielded from the wind, a good sleeping bag and air mattress were quite sufficient to be warm all night. I guesstimate that the night time temperatures never fell below 45 F. During the entire trip (48 days) we were rained on only one night.
On The Road - TKH - Sinai Trail Part 2 4
Umm Schomar

One of the alpinistically most challenging days was the climb of Omm Shomar a peak of about 2400 m (7800ft), trail-less with some exposed rock climbing. But everybody made it!

There is a notch between Omm Shofar on the right and an even more challenging peak on the left. From this notch you have a view over the East bank of the Gulf of Suez and can see the gulf itself in the back (the bluish color above the red-brown stripe in the center of the picture).

On The Road - TKH - Sinai Trail Part 2 3
Mt. Catherine Sinai Peninsula

A view from the top of the highest mountain in the Sinai and in Egypt. We had climbed to the top from roughly 2000 m in the early morning hours to view the sun rise. I truly hate hiking with a head lamp, especially if the ground is as rough as it was here. In those cases the risks are often not commensurate with the payoff, but what would one not do for a sunrise viewing from the highest peak of the land?

On The Road - TKH - Sinai Trail Part 2 2
Sinai Peninsula

Look back at the mountains in the St. Catherine area as we are hiking  Northwest inland from the Gulf of Suez. There were still going to be mountains, but all of them would be well below the 2000 m (6600 ft) mark.

On The Road - TKH - Sinai Trail Part 2 1
Sinai PeninsulaNovember 24, 2023

This was one of the views that really surprised me, the presence of chains of mountains, one behind the other.

On The Road - TKH - Sinai Trail Part 2
Sinai PeninsulaNovember 30, 2023

This long escarpment of Jebel el Gunna dominated the scenery for several days while we were walking along its base. We eventually ascended it for a wide-ranging of the terrain we would walk across in the final days.

Reader Interactions

21Comments

  2. 2.

    BretH

    Really good writing! I’ll bet the social times around the fire were really great. A long time ago my wife and I did a camping safari in Kenya, and by far our best times were early on when it was just us and the driver and guide, hanging around the fire swapping stories with Tusker beer.

  4. 4.

    pb3550

    Lack of vegetation, day after day, is striking.  Difficult to imagine living in the landscape after looking out the windows here in north america – even in the southwest.

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I had never been to a place before where the geology is so unobscured by vegetation as the Sinai.

    I felt the same in the Badlands of SD. I suspect the Sinai is that multiplied by 3 or 4.

    I truly hate hiking with a head lamp, especially if the ground is as rough as it was here. In those cases the risks are often not commensurate with the payoff, but what would one not do for a sunrise viewing from the highest peak of the land?

    I had a similar experience in the Big Horns. We were going to fish some alpine lakes a couple thousand feet above our camp. Lost the trail. At one point my partner and I found ourselves inching across a cliff face several hundred feet up. Reached the lakes just as the sun came over the ridge opposite them. Felt like I was seeing the world when it was brand new. Quite the pay off. So was the fishing.

    Really cool stuff, TKH.

  6. 6.

    Trivia Man

    Fantastic. As a utahn i am familiar with “desolate” but this clearly next level. 48 days in the wilderness sounds like an epic adventure. Is there a local Edward Abbey equivalent (besides you!) writing about it? Desert Solitude but with camels 🐪 instead of Jeeps.

  7. 7.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @BretH: Ooh, big fan of Tusker! A favorite quaff when I was working in East Africa.

    ETA: I’m enjoying this travelogue. What is the name of the group that organizes these treks? Not that I’ll be going there under current conditions in the Middle East, but you never know….

  8. 8.

    Torrey

    Amazing pictures and very much echoing BretH on the writing: clear, precise, and elegant. And I’m going to keep “One of the alpinistically most challenging days” in mind, just because it is the perfect way to say that. Not that I plan to have any remotely alpinistically challenging days, myself. Which is another reason I really enjoy these travelogues.

  9. 9.

    Wapiti

    Thanks for this. I spent a year in the Sinai with the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) and the pictures rekindle memories.

  10. 10.

    stinger

    These photos and travelogue are wonderful. I think I especially like the ancient ruins and chains of mountains photos. Hard to imagine that firewood could be found anywhere!

  11. 11.

    TKH

    @stinger: Albatrossity made the same point yesterday, and you are both correct. In areas accessible by vehicle the competition for fire wood is more severe. In areas only accessible by camel, it is a bit more self-limiting (way fewer camels than Toyotas).

    I brought this up with the guides, essentially asking “ how are you going to keep this up if the trail becomes popular?” This was met with utter incomprehension.

    I guess they move on to charcoal which they already use at home. I have no idea where that comes from, though.

  12. 12.

    Kosh III

    Very interesting but I’ll stick to hiking in the mountains of East Tennessee.
    I’ll pass this on to some hiker buds.

  14. 14.

    Netto

    Thanks for dispelling my uninformed assumptions of the Sinai as a featureless plain of sand.  The geography looks so much more enticing than I imagined!

  15. 15.

    arrieve

    I am really enjoying this. I sailed past the Sinai in the Suez Canal and was curious about everything I couldn’t see from the ship. This trek is not something I would ever be able to–or really want to–do but I am loving the vicarious experience. And the pictures are wonderful!

  17. 17.

    TKH

    @arrieve: Yeah, I thought that was really fortuitous juxtaposition, your pictures from the Suez canal the week before with views of the Sinai in the distance and mine with a view of the canal in the distance.

  18. 18.

    way2blue

    Wow.  Just wow.  And beyond my skill set.  Tripping on rough trails is my middle name.  Nonetheless, I’ve started thinking about a trip to Morocco.  Looking at walking tours, but not scrambling ones…  Thanks TKH for a glimpse of this remote corner of the Middle East.

  20. 20.

    Chris

    There are four major highways in the Sinai, one running from Suez to Sharm El-Sheikh, one running from Sharm to Taba on the Egypt/Israel border near the top of the Gulf of Aqaba via Dahab. A shunt from Dahab to St Katherine and a direct highway from Suez to Taba. The latter is not allowed to be used by tourists, Christians, members of police and military. There is a presence of Islamic militants up there and an encounter with those by any members of the aforementioned groups might lead to an unexpected end-of-life experience.

    For some reason, until I read your posts here I’d been under the misapprehension that the entire Sinai peninsula had become off-limits to tourists sometime in the 2010s because of precisely your last sentence.

    Having done the Sinai myself in earlier times, I’m very pleased to have been wrong.  It’s worth the trip.

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