Kidnappers seize foreign Tourists in Egypt.

This news is 3 days old. It happened on Monday.

You can read more about it on CNN, BBC or Yahoo News

A lot of blame has been apportioned on Egyptian authorities by the media for not preventing this from happening.

An Egyptian friend who is an avid off-roader helped explain why the government isn't necessarily to blame.

To help illustrate the reasons, take a look at this map.

The kidnapping took place here (in the little red box)



1. Gilf Al Kebeir where the group was kidnapped is in a remote area of South West Egypt and practically in a no mans land between Sudan, Libya and Egypt's borders.
2. As you can see in the map, this is in the middle of the deep desert many days tough ride away from Aswan (the closest city).
3. People who do make this trip are well aware of the dangers of making such a journey where every drop of water and fuel and every grain of food has to be carried with them for all the days journey from Aswan and the return journey and some extra to spare. Often one 4x4 is required just to carry the fuel and another to carry the food and water. Even if just 1 or 2 tourists wish to visit this area, they need to travel together with at least THREE 4x4's for a relatively safe journey.
4. If you look at a map of Africa, there are plenty of straight lines diving the countries (unlike say Europe) and a lot of this continent is arid desert where habitation is impossible. These borders are evident only on a map, but being in the middle of the desert it is easier to cross national borders without even realising it, unlike trying to cross a busy street in Cairo.
5. Given points 2 and 3, it is ridiculous to expect a security presence at these borders.
6. Given point number 5, it is easy for smugglers, outlaws and gangs to cross borders and operate with relative freedom exploiting the vulnerability of tourists to the area. (although they too have to do this in extremely tough conditions)
7. The army/tourist protection sometimes sends an officer with such groups (as anyone who has driven in an official convoy in Egypt from Aswan to Abu Simbel or Sharm to Luxor would know) armed with a basic gun, who would be helpless when faced with gangs with advanced weaponry from Sudan or Libya (where it is relatively easy to come across arms and ammunition)

The government of Egypt cannot practically do anything to patrol the middle of the desert. The only thing they can do is prevent permission and access to these areas, which unfortunatley may be the result of this tragedy as the media keeps hyping up how ineffective the government is. For heavens sake media members (I refuse to call them professionals, as most of their ilk, doesn't qualify to be called that), stop trying to hype up the situation (and increase readership or eyeballs) and try to think of practical solutions instead!

And for those of you who are planning to visit Egypt, don't let this incident scare you off. A large part of this country is much safer than a lot of other places in the world and the government is doing its best to keep most tourist locations safe for tourists.

Transportation to St Catherine with prices

My friend- Ahmed- collected this information from his many trips to St Catherines.

As I go periodically to South Sinai (St Catherine and El Tarfa) I have found many means of transportation with different costs.

Sharq el Delta bus (Cairo – Suez—St Catherine ) :

2 buses daily from El Torgoman (Ramses) and then from Almaza Station (masr el gedida)

From Almaza they leave at 11.45 am and 2 am, tickets are for 30 LE

Description :

It takes a very long time as it passes through Suez first. Usually they have the worst buses on this particular route, so you may not be satisfied by the cleanliness of the bus. also they constantly keep stopping as the bus engine keeps giving trouble.

Any bus to Sharm el Sheikh :

Many buses leave from Cairo from different companies like El Gouna and super jet. They leave periodically at morning or at night, tickets range from 50 LE to 80LE according to time and company .

Description

Buses on this line are more brand new and with high level of maintenance. You can ask the driver to drop you at (Mafareq St Catherine or lagnet el mafare2 ) .

You should coordinate with a driver from St Catherine to take you from el Mafare2 .

Transportation from el mafare2 to St Catherine cost about 100 +_ 20 LE .

Here is a driver whose number you can call :

Shick Eid 0693470040.

This means of transportation is suitable if you are an individual and need to go there quickly and inexpensively with flexible time of leaving Cairo.

Car Renting :

As I go there periodically, sometimes I need to rent a car to be more flexible in time and transportation so I made a good deal with the car rental agency which I think is offering me a good price.

From the start of Cairo-Suez road to El Tarfa (25km before Catherines) by a car model 2007/2008 ( mainly Mitsubishi) for 400 LE (not including transportation inside Cairo which you can add 10 LE to 50 LE depending on the deal between you and the agency ) .

This means of transportation could be suitable for a group of 3 persons as it is faster, flexible as you can take rest whenever you want, you will have less waiting time at police check points and if u have heavy luggage, the car could take you from home to your final destination.

The owner of the agency I use, is called Adel and his number is 0103979759

Best of luck and hope you enjoy your coming vacations

Egypt’s desert art in danger

From Khaleej Times

22 November 2007

CAIRO - A rising tide of travellers seeking out the new frontier of Egyptian tourism is threatening priceless rock art preserved for millennia in one of the most-isolated reaches of the Sahara.

In Egypt’s southwest corner, straddling the borders of Sudan and Libya, the elegant paintings of prehistoric man and beast in the mountains of Gilf Kabir and Jebel Ouenat are as stunning in their simplicity as anything by Picasso.

But lying 500 kilometres (330 miles) from the nearest habitation, the desert offers little sanctuary for these masterpieces and any effective protected designation first requires a deal between the three sometimes quarrelsome nations.

Not only the rock art is at stake, but the region’s entire cultural and natural heritage.

“You can’t estimate the amount of damage done,” says Dr Rudolph Kuper, a German archaeologist involved in trying to protect the art, mostly dating from when the desert was a receding prairie 5,000-7,000 years ago.

“People put water or oil on the paintings to make the faded colours look brighter, causing irreparable damage,” he says.

The story is even more tragic just across the border in Libya, where the delicate brush strokes of human figures at Ain Dua appear to have been shot at by bored soldiers.

Nearby, a painted cave is filled with rubbish while outside a giant portrait of Bob Marley shimmers garishly in the white of the desert.

Paying up to 10,000 dollars for a two-week expedition, travelers drive through the desert to reach Gilf Kabir, site of the Cave of the Swimmers made famous by the 1996 film “The English Patient.”

While only a handful came here in the 1980s, the numbers have been rising steadily through the 1990s as some of the millions of tourists visiting Egypt seek out something more exotic than the sandy beach of a Red Sea resort.

“By 2006 there were probably 800 people coming and this year we expect more than 1,000,” says Kuper.

Rock art specialist Tilman Lenssen-Erz says that in prehistoric times the sites would have been known for thousands of square kilometres (miles).

Religious power

“This was a place so highly charged with symbolism and with the world views that were fixed there in the rock art that it would have been like a huge cathedral in a European context,” says Lenssen-Erz.

“People from far away would know about the significance of the religious power that is collected in this place “ where the supernatural powers of the world were fixed on rocks making the whole area a sacred landscape.”

Even more recent artefacts like the world’s westernmost example of ancient hieroglyphics known as Meri’s rock, to the northeast of Gilf Kabir, have not gone unscathed by the passage of modern man.

The hieroglyphs are evidence that, contrary to the idea that pharaonic trade with sub-Saharan Africa only went via the Nile Valley, the ancients had a major trading route cutting straight through the desert.

Last year, someone embellished the ancient writings with a giant engraving of a topless woman.

“You can’t put barbed wire around it so we developed the idea of mental fences,” Kuper says of the importance of educating guides and tourists alike.

Saad Ali, a young tour operator based in the oasis of Farafra who also runs the Farafra Development Institution NGO, also realised that the only long-term solution was through education.

“We always arranged trips to clean up the desert and every year we found more rubbish so we found the solution is to train the guides,” he says.

“Now it’s changed a lot. Last year we went to clean up and we collected only 4.5 tonnes of rubbish while the year before it was 11 tonnes.”

His next target is tour operators working out of Cairo, still largely unaware of the damage they wreak.

Kuper says that such programmes help to manage “70-80 percent of people” but that others — tourists still living with a colonial mentality and Cairo-based expats who take away artefacts in their 4x4s — are difficult to control.

With untold damage already wrought, getting Egypt, Libya and Sudan to agree on policing the militarily sensitive area is a conservation conundrum.

The hope is to have the area designated as a trans-boundary cultural landscape UNESCO World Heritage site, but that requires the three nations to all first declare individual national parks.

So far, only Egypt has designated a park, but officials from all three countries are due to meet in Cairo in December in the hope of hammering out a deal, despite their occasionally fraught diplomatic relations.

With the support of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Kuper and Prof Mustafa Fouda from the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency want to build a museum-cum-educational centre in the oasis of Dakhla, the jumping off point for most trips to Gilf Kabir.

“Hopefully we can make our dreams come true, with a museum to explain the relationship between man and the desert, to explain how man can make use of the resources in a sustainable way,” says Fouda.

Pending the politicians’ decision, Kuper says that recently some tourists have returned to the Cave of the Swimmers to try to erase their names. For the desert’s desecraters, it seems the writing is on the wall.

Bahariya Oasis

We had the most wonderful time in Bahariyya oasis at the end of last winter (end April). Given the weather then and its similarity to the weather now, I think this would be an ideal time for a visit in case anyone is interested.

Special thanks to Sahara Safarist Kareem Hashem who helped with so much information & recommended Ahmed Safari Camp.

Ahmed Safari Camp Cabins

This camp was the first operational lodging facility in Bahariya. Rooms are clean, but the sand does manage to get in. Basic facilities. We took the cabins on the side. 2 rooms adjacent to each other. Twin beds, mosquito nets, domed roofs, attached baths, air conditioning. But they are simple. Not the cleanest in the world, but tidy. Because of the high salt content in the air, the water, the land the oasis, there are salt deposits in the bathroom. If you like pristine surroundings, then the Minamar hotel may be a better bet for you. For us, this was an awesome experience. It felt more natural and comfortable and the people - owner / staff are awesome!
Minamar Hotel across the Oasis
We just loved the place. The desert was absolutely marvelous. It was the first time we were doing something like this. In India, even the deserts are populated, you keep running into groups of banjaras (bedouins) in the desert & the desert is all about sand & sand dunes. Never before have we encountered something as wonderful & unique as the black desert / crystal mountain / desert rose or the mind boggling white desert.

White Desert

There were so many wonderful moments that it is impossible to say which was our favourite. The complete lack of tourists (after the Cairo/Luxor/Aswan circuit) made the trip all the more special. We could actually "hear" the desert.

Crowning glory : we slept under the stars & watched the meteor showers that were happenning at that time.

Black Desert

Crystal Mountain

If anyone is staying at Ahmed Safari camp - do ask for Talaat as your guide in the desert. He is absolutely wonderful. (He speaks basic English and fluent Arabic) He even had extra supplies that some of the other neighbouring campers came to borrow from him.

The most touching moment for us was when Ahmed invited us to his house for a home cooked meal. Ahmed's email address is ahmed_safari[@]hotmail[.]com and his mobile is 010 501 4595 in case anyone would like to contact him.

Ramadan Kareem to everyone.

Running 111 days in the Sahara

"you know if you ask me today that I do it again knowing what i know now. the answer is No. i wouldn't do it again!" Charlie said. "unless it was air conditioned 4wd" Ray added.

http://news.yahoo.com/page/sahara;_ylt=ArmrCbYsODHoVVvk3GWGlyes0NUE