copy Excellent Adventures in Egypt

2005-04-18T11:04:00.000+02:00

Greetings from murky Cairo. Im perched at the dining room table looking out over the balcony at the lovely east-side view from Mary Megallis Garden City Flat. So far the elevator has not eaten me, the washing machine has not held me hostage, and the Masri door has not swung shut against my too-small tush. Its been a rather dull existence so far - the only calamity occurred on the trip over when a baggage cart collided with my plane in London - the plane survived, I think the cart is on life support.

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Its a typical Cairo scene: sunshades for livestock and people on those breathless August nights, satellite dishes to keep in touch with the (Arab) world, and piles of stuff that will certainly be useful somedayall covered in the same thick layer of dust you can see in the air. It's khamseen season here, when the winds blow cold from the north carrying tons of sand in their wake. Some mornings are so murky you can hardly see down the block - fortunately, I haven't been yet treated to the full scale sandstorms that are a feature of the khamseen.

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Mary Megalli's flat.

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The not at all scary washer. It even comes with an instruction book - how boring.

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The oh-so-amazing kitchen.

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Reception room, looking into the large study cum extra bedroom.

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Sitting room.

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The small study.

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One of the joys of staying in this flat are all the little treasures Mary has collected in 30 years of living here. Bronze casket and mashrabeya screen.

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Bedouin basket.

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Geologic treasures from the Sinai & western desert.

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West side view - not very different from the east side view. The Nile is only about ½ mile away over those rooftops. When the family first moved to this flat in the 60s, this west-side balcony overlooked an extensive complex of gardens and orchards stretching all the way to an unobstructed view of the Niles banks. Fortunately, there is still quite a bit of bird life here (not to mention 4 species of bats) - the usual list of European house sparrows, Palm doves and pigeons, supplemented by small falcons, owls and the Senegal Thick Knee, whose acquaintance I made just last week. Its a wading bird, cousin to Stone Curlew, which lives along rivers edge and the rooftops of Garden City whooping a sad and eerie cry.

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Down the very scary elevator. I have heard way too many stories from Fulbright colleagues about getting trapped in their elevatorsand having to be tugged out through a 10 foot space between the elevators top and the floor above. En shah allah, not me!

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Out the front door.

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Down the street.

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Around the corner.

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Garden City used to be an upper class European district - lots of glorious old decaying pasha villas, now converted into falts. Today it's a mix of commercial uses, embassies and middle class housing.

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Neighborhood flats.

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The very busy Kasr el Einy, a major commercial thorough fare just two blocks form the flat.

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Gas in Egypt costs about 60 cents a gallon - no wonder they drive everywhere!

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You can grab breakfast on your way into work.

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This truck's owner did not want me to take pictures because selling vegetables on the street is illegal - albeit commonplace all over Cairo.

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Near the Saad Zaghloul Metro station.

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The Metro higab blur.

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Just 2 days after I arrived, I had the opportunity to participate in a community cleanup event at Wadi Degla, the lovely little protected area that lies just outside Cairo. There is a dump (not landfill: read dump) about 1 mile away from Degla and the fierce winds are constantly blowing garbage into the wadi. Plastic bags are a special menace since they get caught on the spines of the tamarisks and can strangle the trees by cutting off sunlight. I met up with one of the Shoprite crews (one of the local grocery chains) in Maadi at 10 am which inevitably became 11am, this being Egyptwhen we clambered into a van for a trip to the wadi along the brand new Ein Sukhna. We hung out at the top for while getting organized, then trudged down into the wadi for the mission.

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About 100 people took part in the cleanup, including 2 groups of school children: one group from the Fayoum where CARE, the sponsoring organization, supports a school, and another group from one of the American schools in Maadi. There was a fundraiser at the other end of the wadi, where bikers, runners and hikers were raising money by the kilometer trekking through the park. Cadbury (white t-shirts) and Shoprite (red t-shirts) were sponsors (providing water, fruit & chocolates, as well as bodies) and the Degla sporting club provided a BBQ. (They are busy recruiting new members - gave everyone a two week pass to try out the premises). These folks being Egyptian, food was, of course, the primary and most essential organization point. We ate early and often. It was a very breezy day, good for heat control, really bad for dust and basic functions like respiration..

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Mohammed Mabrouk, founder of Sahara Safaris, gave everyone a nice 10 minute talk on the area's geologic history and natural features - munching on oranges, bananas & chocolate all the while - then we donned gloves and bags and plunged into the ribbons of plastic trash.

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Kids from the American school.

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The Fayoum group.

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The work crew.

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The primary objective, we were told, was to remove plastic bags clinging to the tops of the tamarisks so they could get sunlight. Don't bother with the bags under the bushes - too scary, might be critters there - and don't wander beyond the 1/4 mile area we were in. Most weird.

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I didn't follow the rules (what a surprise) and dug out every bag I could get - frustrating, since they promptly disintegrated into plastic snowflakes on touching - kind of like a bad mummy movie. Paid my ransom in blood from the tamarisk thorns but had the satisfaction of freeing some roots and small animal habitat spaces - not that it will matter much in the long run, since the nearby dump with engulf the area with plastic streamers within a few days.

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After about an hour they declared victory and proclaimed that it was time for lunch. I was shocked - thought we were there for the day. (So did some of the Shoprite guys who had done the cleanup last year). To be fair, we collected an impressive mound of garbage bags - probably 50 giant Heftys - and the tamarisks did look more content. But there was so much more plastic begging for collection

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I was there...

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We all trudged back to the visitor center for the Degla club's BBQ - kofta, chicken and burgers, of course, with tiny plates of vegies and a few containers of hummus for those in search of a bit more balance in their diet.

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We had a lovely time eating and chatting while trash from the BBQ - styrofoam plates, aluminum foils, napkins and water bottles - blew down into the wadi we had just cleaned. The Egyptians didn't even seem to notice - I think they are so used to being inundated with garbage that they literally don't see it. American me was rabbiting around pouncing on flying pieces of garbage and hauling them over to the cardboard boxes serving as temporary trash receptacles...finally shamed a few Shoprite guys into following my lead. This culture has a long way to go in dealing with garbage.

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And there are people here who will be catalysts for that change. This is Hala Yousef, formerly a Fulbright staffer, now working for CARE. She gave each volunteer with a canvas bag and gave the usual spiel about lugging it along in order to avoid generating all that plastic bag waste in the first case.

2005-04-18T10:35:00.001+02:00

On Saturday – 3 days after my arrival, still jet-lagged, I gave a presentation to a group of “youth” at the Gezira youth club. This was the first of two presentations (the 2nd was in Alexandria) arranged by the American embassy. I really sweated over what to present. My mission: “…a talk that centers on the American experience of the conservation movement and promoting environment awareness that explains why Americans are supportive of this issue….we envision you talking to students and inspiring them to make a difference.” Piece of basbousa, no? After a lot of hair pulling, I put together a lot of pix illustrating the growth of the conservation movement in parallel with the country’s rapid industrialization and rape of the land, focusing on how the efforts of 4 individuals – Thoreau, Muir. Leopold & Carson – madder a difference in the national psyche/heart. I wove this together around verses from the Quran, emphasizing the Islamic message that we are God’s Khalifa (trustees) on earth and have responsibility to care for the “nations of Allah” (all those other species). The audience in both presentations was dominated by university professors and environmental professionals, with a scattering of students. The Alex audience included movers and shakers from the dynamic Iskandriya political scene, including several council members and a member of Parliament. Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The similitude of His light is as a niche wherein is a lamp. The lamp is in a glass. The glass is as it were a shining star. (This lamp is) kindled from a blessed tree, an olive neither of the East nor of the West, whose oil would almost glow forth (of itself) though no fire touched it. Light upon light. Allah guideth unto His light whom He will. And Allah speaketh to mankind in allegories, for Allah is Knower of all things. 24:35 2:164 Behold! in the creation of the heavens and the earth; in the alternation of the night and the day; in the sailing of the ships through the ocean for the profit of mankind; in the rain which Allah Sends down from the skies, and the life which He gives therewith to an earth that is dead; in the beasts of all kinds that He scatters through the earth; in the change of the winds, and the clouds which they Trail like their slaves between the sky and the earth;- (Here) indeed are Signs for a people that are wise. Note that English translation of last line varies: people who are wise, people who understand, people with sense or people who can see. I emphasized that these 4 individuals were extraordinary only because they were people who could see through that inner light that is the truth inside all of us.

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KJT presenting. Pretty risky! I didnt know how folks would react to this non-Muslim westerner talking to them in both secular and quranic language. But I seem to have struck the right note - the Embassy people were thrilled, so I satisfactorily completed my duty to America.

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One of the best things about presentations in Egypt is the discussion afterwards. Egyptians begin very graciously, bestowing copious praise and thanking the speaker for the wisdom/knowledge/importance blah blah blah of the talk. Then they go for the jugular - in a very polite way. This lady, head of an Egyptian NGO, is commenting about the sheer waste and stupidity of the US using all those resources to produce weapons that we use to blow up people in Iraq. Governments and NGOs need to work together to make the world a better place - I couldnt agree more. One speaker in Alex asked me if I thought it was ethical for the US to scatter depleted uranium around the world in our myriad weapons-related adventures. (Duh.) Many speakers went after the US on our failure to abide by the Kyoto treaty - clearly an issue that has been given prominent play in the Regional press. A regulator from the Egyptian Environmental agency asked how we balance the challenge of forcing non-complying factories to comply with the law when serious fines will force them out of business - a completely unacceptable outcome in this economy, where jobs are so scarce. My favorite commenter was an Alex city council man/university professor who complimented me on my scientific and romantic talk, then disagreed with my entire premise by stating that the message of change should be purely economic - without changing the economic system, we cant change anything. I agreed with his point about the importance of economics (especially in the West, where economics is a form of religion for many) and we had a lively exchange about how to best get concepts across to people - through the head or the heart.

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The students who spoke mostly asked how they could make a difference. I stressed the importance of each of us making changes in our own lives, and the cumulative effect this could have on the world. I ended the talk using Margaret Meads famous quote: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Supplemented by this little ditty that so accurately captures my nights in Egypt so far: If you think the efforts of one individual will be nothing, then you have never been to bed with a mosquito. Betty Reese

2005-04-18T10:33:00.000+02:00

The Mediterranean from my hotel room in Alex, just because its such a scrumptious view. With all these talks and my work with Helwan, I have been extraordinarily busy. The Faculty now seems genuinely interested in the idea of inserting sustainability modules into existing classes - I finally got a copy of the curriculum after only 8 months - in English, even! And the chair of the Tourism Guidance program seems committed to creating a naturalist/interpretation guidance program (with associated licensing) at the Masters/Diploma level. Since he is (a) the Tourism representative on the Supreme Council for universities; (b) likely to become Dean of the Faculty next fall (a return stint); and (c) is best buddies with the current Minister of Education (who use to be Prez of Helwan U.), he is uniquely situated to actually get something done. One complicating factor on the naturalist guidance side are the locals: so far, nature guides are being drawn from local folks who have existing knowledge about the natural environment in their area, with training efforts focused on helping them build basic skills around leading tours (language, time management, managing people, first aid, etc.) Both Eman and I think that these folks need to be part of the future for Egypt - they provide such an authentic voice for Egypt and the jobs are badly need to combat poverty. So we are trying to sort through two different systems for licensing guides, one at the university level and another at the technical/professional level. This week Ill be doing several workshops at Helwan. Tonight is a recruiting mission for the Fulbright program - the application period for the Egyptian student exchange program has just opened. Tomorrow morning Ill be meeting with some faculty to talk about teaching methods (well see if anyone shows up) and in the evening Im joining Emans Masters course on Tourism Planning for a discussion of tourism and zoos.

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Yesterday, after meeting with a scientist at Cairo U., I found myself across the street from the Giza Zoo - a place I have avoided like the proverbial plague. Since were talking about zoos tomorrow, I decided I should at least put my nose in the place. So I ponied up my 1 pound entrance fee (about 20 cents US), took a deep breath, and plunged in.

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It was every bit as bad as I expected. This is an old style zoological garden with lots of green space and pleasant sitting areas for families to stroll and picnic and just enjoy the shade. The animals are, at best, an incidental curiosity, and kept in appalling conditions. The hyenas were pacing up and down their 10 foot cages, the leopards were sprawled dully in the sand - children tormenting them all the while. Fortunately, this species appears to have become locally extinct at the zoo

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The guinea pigs were thriving.

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Foxes in a typical enclosure. About half of the cages I saw were empty, suggesting a very low success rate in keeping animals alive - probably a good thing from the perspective of the nations of Allah.

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I made it as far as the Barbary sheep before the animal agony - and the ubiquitous testosterone-driven adolescent boys - drove me out.

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And finally - the news youve all be waiting for: update on the baladi cats! The girls survived their long and adventure filled journey to the Us (actually I think the adventure was all on my end - fortunately for them - but thats a tale for another day). They are all doing fine in their new homes, adjusting quite well to the USA good life. I havent seen the boys yet - they are still here in Cairo, headed for the US this summer. Weve got a date next week.

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Tiger Lily, supervisor of Sara and her two college roommates.

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Amira - Princess Leia in her Arabic form - taking a break from exercising Frans two older cats.

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Layla, the kitten that my dear husband decided that we needed to keep (no objections here!). She is a delightful little personality who has taken to car-travel very well so far.

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Unlike her mother - the Cat Bastet in her American form - who still cannot be picked up without risking a trip to the emergency room.

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Shell no doubt mellow out over time Ill will end with a political joke - sorry I dont have a scanner to show you th real thing. I saw a great cartoon in a local mag yesterday around the theme of "kefaya," Arabic for "enough," the catchword of the recent spontaneous demonstrations that have been springing up in Egypt and other parts of the Middle East. Picture a row of riot police lwith shields lined up like a solid wall along a city street. Two little boys are walking in front of them. One boy asks "Why are people saying kefaya?" The other boy replies "I think its a big game to know if there are enough to enclose the entire country." Pretty good for an autocracy, nu?

Last posting from Cairo this round

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The flat is a very dangerous place these days. I have to carefully watch every move I make lest I am attacked – without provocation - from any direction, at any time. Of course, the attacks are mostly aimed at my ankles so the threat is not exactly lethal. It’s more like a larger, feline variant of whatever insect species has been nibbling at my anklebones ever since my arrival in Cairo. There are flying fur balls everywhere: clambering up chair legs, lurking beneath tables, using my legs for a jungle gym, bouncing off what remains of the Great Wall of Kitten (sadly reduced to a minute patch of cardboard precariously guarding the kitchen entry). They leap off the bed trampoline style, and dart beneath my feet whenever I have the audacity to try walking across the room. They are tiny terrorists, striking fear into the hearts of mighty potentates – until they fall asleep: suddenly, completely, irreversibly, their sweet little kitten faces all tumbled together in an angelic mass of downy fur. Mom-cat mostly tries to stay above it all (literally) by perching on her dining room chair surveillance point until the din dies down. My friends here are quite impressed at Mom-cat’s prowess in acquiring green cards for the entire family – a skill many of them would like to develop. The two kitten boys will come to the States this summer, after moving (early next week) into their new home with two US students who have one more semester to complete at AUC. Mom and the three girls will enjoy (or maybe not) Lufthansa’s efficient service to Denver late next week, making their march through customs around the 15th of January – assuming all of us survive the paperwork ordeals at which Egypt excels. Egyptians are intent on making it into the US one way or the other: the many cats worming their way into susceptible American hearts (remember those Puss eyes in Shrek 2?) to find homes in the States are simply the elite advance guard. It’s been such a busy month - I don’t know where the time has gone. This blog posting has actually been 3 weeks in the making – words jotted down here and there in between cross-town treks. I’ve been wrapping up my research, enduring multiple trips all across town to chase down and copy papers, discs and videos. No need to bore you with the dreary details of meetings, materials and memoranda: I have finished my curriculum outline, drafted 3 companion pieces and - en sha’allah - after only 5 or 6 more cross-town trips I will have everything collated, cross referenced, copied and ready to pack. Hamdulillah

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Such deceptive innocence....7 weeks old.

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At 5 weeks the Kitten Wars began. Princess Leia, Tiger Lily and AWOL take on Fatima.

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Shoes were a great discovery.

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Four weeks old and out exploring.

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They looks so innocent...

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Ghandi makes a dash out of the basket. AWOL is curled up on the left.

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Fatima, Princess Leia and Tiger Lily at 3 weeks.

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The Sinai visit was last months highlight. I was determined to visit the protectorates/national parks and ecolodges in the area, and Karen Kellen, Dina Powell and Fran Costanzi - visiting Egypt at that time - decided to tag along. We were joined for the first three days by by Mary Megalli, a delightful, spirited lady who has spent most of her last 40 years living in Egypt. Mary is a wonderful companion, a great source of knowledge about natural areas and recent Egyptian history, and a terrific birder, skills appreciated by all even if her practice of simultaneous birding-while-driving made us a bit nervous now and then. (Cries of look, its a brown footed yellow breasted chit-chat while barreling along the highway at 50 miles an hour can tend to take ones breath away.) KK, Dina, Fran and I flew from Cairo to Sharm el Sheik on Egypt Air, being treated en route to one of those lush travel videos extolling the delights of ones approaching destination. The outbound video featured lots of gorgeous underwater footage, with colorful coral reefs and elegant tropical fishes. Egypts Red Sea reefs are rated among the best in the world for snorkeling and diving, and we saw lots of footage of divers enjoyed themselves by swimming with, stroking and feeding the pretty little fishies - activities that are, of course, prohibited by the Nature Conservation Sectors coral reef protection regulations. The tourism industry does have a ways to go with ecological protection (here and elsewhere).

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Typical Mary pose.

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We spent the first two nights at the Sharks Bay Bedouin Lodge, a once-funky, beach-hut style, older resort located near the original Sharm town center. Mary arrived the night before and reported a great dawsha (noisy fracas) at the upper huts where we had planned to stay. So we moved into complexs lower cabins where we enjoyed relative quiet - whenever the pick-and shovel terrace renovation work outside our window was not underway. Marys window-sill dialogue with the workmen (in Arabic) at 10 pm on an otherwise blissfully quiet Sunday evening: What are you doing? Fixing the wall. Do you know what time it is? No, what time is it? Its 10 pm. Ah. Work continues. Do you do construction work at 10 pm in the middle of a hotel where people are sleeping? Ah. Work halts. Mary retreats into the room and shuts the window. Loud conversation ensues as the workmen discuss whether they should be working at night. Mary opens the window and tells them to stop talking. Quiet settles in. Twenty minutes later, the picks and shovels start again. Mary puts on her clothes and stalks out the door. Khallass! (Stop it, enough!) But tomorrow is my vacation and I have to finish this work. Your vacation is not my problem (followed by a number of comments that are probably not repeatable in polite company - Arabic is supposed to be a marvelous language for insults). Picks and shovels are hastily packed away and the workers retreat to the lower terrace where they huddle together for further consultation. Mary returns to the room. Being Egyptians, the conversational volume quite naturally rises to shouts. Mary flings open the window and tells them to stop the dawsha. The workmen flee - returning the next night for a second similar - albeit briefer - exchange. Customer service is a concept that has not quite made it into the Egyptian hospitalitys sectors collective consciousness.

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Shark's Bay has a certain funky charm - but that's unlikely to last, given the 300 additional units planned for the resort.

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Sharm el Sheik is one of Egypts favorite tourist destinations, touted as a lovely resort community nestled in a beautiful setting, with marvelous activities to occupy ones time. We thought it was dreadful. Sharm is kilometers of unplanned strip-development (picture a downscale Orlando, Florida). The areas is dominated by luxury gated resort and condominium complexes and giant shopping malls (Naama Bay, mall number 18), punctuated by ticky-tacky cafes, curio shops and odd collections of beach huts. The once beautiful sea vistas are almost totally obscured by a discordant blend of architectural styles packed together in an exceedingly unattractive jumble. We were happy to escape into Ras Mohammed National Park.

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We voted this casino tackiest resort. Shot from the road, it's a bit out of focus - but I think that adds to the effect. That's Ben Franklin on a US $100 bill surrounded by playing cards.

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This is old Sharm.

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There was no escape from commercial Christmas.

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Ras is Egypts first protectorate, established in 1982. Although protection languished for much of the Parks first 25 years, over the last 5 years the Nature Conservation Sector (NCS) has taken many steps to conserve the areas natural resources. Guidelines for underwater behavior were developed with local diving clubs, and dive guides are part of the awareness and enforcement program. (Now if they could just change that video) Protectorate status was recently extended along the entire coast from Sharm to Taba (located at the top of the Gulf of Aqaba), with beach setbacks and construction standards now in place for resort development. These development regulations are implemented through an environmental impact process jointly administered by NCS and the Ministry of Tourism. With European Union financial aid, NCS also recently built an impressive environmental training center and a brand new visitor center at Ras. Lots of exciting projects underway. Ras major attraction is the afore-mentioned coral reefs. As Mary drove us - bouncing, swaying and birding - along the parks roadways we saw dozens of dive boats clustered into quiet coves with hundreds of nearly naked European tourists spread out across the beaches. Being mountain people, we did not, of course, venture so much as a toe into those tranquil aquamarine-and-emerald waters, but the Russians (presently dominating the mass-tourism market here) clearly loved it. My favorite theater-of-the-absurd moments came while watching TV-style video cameramen follow their tour groups around, recording every moment of the tourists glorious vacation in the sun. Said tourists were clad in the skimpiest of costumes (g-strings and thongs), with various rather unattractive parts bulging out in all sorts of unlikely places - not a scene I would personally care to have recorded for posterity. (We all agreed that no human male should be allowed to wear a g-string in public after the age of 18.) And all of this taking place in a conservative Muslim culture Dina's shot of a typical Ras scene.

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There is a small mangrove channel within Ras Mohammed. Nabq, a protected area up the coast (north) is dominated by mangroves. The other PA's in South Sinai are Abu Gallum, containing red canyons that snake down to the sea and Taba, with Moab-like vistas of slickrock and gnarled arches.

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Lots and lots of dive boats.

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The reefs drop off quite sharply.

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Kind of like Cornwall without the green.

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On Tuesday we left the charms of Sharm, traveling through gorgeous desert scenery to the St. Katherine protectorate in the Sinais high mountain region. This a region of gold-and-amber sands and wind-sculpted red rock, striped by black granite intrusions (called intrusive dykes to our great amusement). The landscape is similar to the North American Southwest, sharp crags and curved hollows, faces and demon shapes stalking steep slopes which rise up above sinuous wadis and pancake-flat plains. Vegetation is sparse but breathtakingly beautiful when visible: the forse, or desert carpet of spiny shrubs, fragrant herbs and ethereal acacias raising their soft fronds in solitary grace above the dry surface below. Human habitation is also sparse: scattered patches of stone houses, cloth tents and palm-branch animal pens dotted across the vast vistas. The Jabaliya Bedouin were nomadic until this generation; most of the permanent habitations we saw were less than 30 years old. In addition to its status as an Egyptian national park, St. Katherines is a UN World Heritage Site due to the presence of Mount Musa (Moses or St. Katherine Mountain) and the St. Katherine Monastery (with its priceless collection of Byzantine manuscripts and art). Hundreds of thousands of tourists come here each year, rising at 2 am to climb the 3700 steps of the path of Lord Moses to view the sunrise at the exact spot where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God. Many then descend the mountain to pass through the monasterys gates, kissing grubby icons and gazing in awe at the original burning bush where God first appeared to his reluctant prophet. Of course, there is no archeological or historical evidence that any of these events happened at all - let alone happened here - but that is an insignificant detail. Religious pilgrimage, an early and still thriving form of international tourism, has been part of the life of St. Katherines for the last 1800 years. The other major category of tourists visiting St. Kats is hikers and mountain climbers coming mostly from Germany and Israel - at least before last falls attack on Taba. For mountain people, this is a sacred landscape venerated in much the same way as our wilderness areas in the western US. The mountains are quite high - St. Katherines is one of several peaks topping 5,000 feet - with exhilarating climbs and spectacular panoramic views. Dina snapped this stunning shot.

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Dina and I spent a memorable day climbing Gebal al-Banat, led by Salah Ansour, our Bedouin guide. We scrambled up steep inclines, clinging to narrow crevices and tiny ledges with all our fingers and toes fully extended. We edged around inverted boulders and tiptoed up slick, slanting surfaces that looked more suitable for mountain goats than us. Our pants and coats bruised fragrant herbs as we edged around corners, releasing the sweet and elusive aromas of “the land of wormwood and scent and helianthum and pyrethrum,” the region’s Bedouin name. We finally emerged above a broad cirque valley to stand on the gebel’s flat peak, with a 360 degree panorama of central Sinai’s high mountain region in view. Absolutely magnificent. I plan to come back during my spring-time visit to do a 3 day trek (with camels toting our gear) through wadis and across mountain passes to one of the region’s lush springs. Salah, our intrepid guide.

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After descending from the mountain, we had lunch in the wadi. Salah made bread for us - delicious!

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The dough was buried in coals for baking, Salah tapping on it now and then to test for done-ness. The finished product was dusted off, checked for pebbles and quickly devoured by all of us.

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In the wadi.

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More suitable for goats than humans.

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Petrified orc?

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View from the top.

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We stayed at the Al-Karm ecolodge, a Bedouin owned and managed facility started just a few years ago through an EU-financed protectorate conservation project. The lodge is a cluster of stone buildings built on the site of an older abandoned Bedouin residence. The architecture is drawn from an ancient indigenous style, updated with modern features like composting toilets and solar hot water for the shower rooms (no electricity). Guest rooms feature sleeping ledges piled high with foam pads and wool blankets (woven by local women from the hair of camels, sheep and goats) accented by simple, elegant touches of carved woodwork appearing in the form of mirrors, chairs and low tables. There are outdoor and indoor gathering places centered around firepits - necessary to ward off the frosty air - plus Bedu tents and palm-frond pavilions for lounging on hot days (not an issue for us). It is a lovely, peaceful retreat set in heart-stoppingly beautiful country.

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Karm from the road (if you can glorify that bumpy, misbegotten track with such a name - 4 wheel drives only need apply).

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Main gathering space hall on the left, guest rooms alla tool (ahead).

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Outdoor eating area.

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Sleeping area.

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Guest room.

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The lodgekeeper, Gamil Atya, is a gracious host who managed to make us feel most welcome even without benefit of English. He cooked up some of the best food Ive had in Egypt - we recommended that they create a recipe book to sell as a tourist memento. He and a colleague led Fran and Karen on a separate trek to a neolithic village on the day Dina and I climbed Gebel Banat.

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An interesting follow up item: two weeks after our visit I got a call from one of the St. Kat rangers asking if Fulbright could send some volunteers to help Gamil and his staff develop some basic English language skills in exchange for full board for 7-10 days. Such a deal! Gamils request was prompted by my visit and the communitys fond recollection of a Fulbright-sponsored English teacher who had worked in the area some years ago. Two of the FB students are at Karm now, taking advantage of this wonderful mutual exchange opportunity.

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Another highlight of St. Kats was visiting the brand new visitor center due to open this month - a world class facility in every way. Before leaving for Sinai, I got the opportunity to meet John Grainger, the dynamic leader of the St. Kat protectorate project whom I have admired from afar through readings. He is a warm and engaging man with a fascinating history - I hope to do some work with him in the spring. He told me not to miss the Pharaonic toilets, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourisms contribution to the local ambience - oy, vey!

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This landscape has been intensively managed by humans for several thousand years - people and place are inextrciably linked.

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Amazing geology.

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Not a lot of the CLMs left, but significant populations of most everything else - lots of insects, including the smallest butterfly in the world.

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Land of wormwood and scent and helianthum and pyrethrum.

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No comment.

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We also stayed at Basata, Egypt’s oldest “eco-lodge” (although Sherif al-Ghamrawy created the “resort” in 1984, before ecolodges were much of a concept). Basata means “simplicity” in Arabic, and the complex functions on trust and simple living. There is a large communal kitchen with a small stock of foodstores; people simply take what they wish to eat/cook and make a note on a tally sheet for later payment. Washing up water comes from the desalinatization plant’s brine, later mixed with greywater from the communal showers and sinksto use as local landscape and garden irrigation. Solid wastes are sorted and recycled, with food wastes going to local Bedouin animals and everything else processed through a transfer station in Nuweiba. Basata is the nucleus of a waste collection system that now extends along the entire coast (Nuweiba to Taba), they organize regular cleanup days (terrestrial and marine) and have started two wind generators for a local Bedu village. And they’ve done all this quite profitably, experiencing no downturns over 18 years in business – even through terrorist attacks in Egypt and 2 Gulf wars. Quite an inspirational operation, which I hope to research further in the spring. Dina's shot of the Basata entry.

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Communal kitchen area.

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Basata beach, courtesy of Dina.