Now obviously the area is dangerous. Dahab was just bombed by extremists. But, as I tell my friends, there’s never a good time to visit and I’ve been there a lot. But if you go, I can recommend backpacking in the Sinai with a bedouin. It’s a surreal experience. You can’t bring enough water to survive, so you’re basically at the mercy of your friend the bedouin guide and his intimate knowledge of the all the oasis, which you use to travel from point to point. But don’t worry, you’re fine as long as you get one of the guys without Alzheimer’s. Those guys just end up taking you in a circle and saying, “This is good, no?” Good memory or bad, I can tell you watching the moon rise in the Sinai, eating fresh bread prepared by bedouins, and listening to them sing songs that probably go back to Moses, is like nothing you’ll ever experience in you life outdoors.
Have to say GoBlog’s been on a tear of late, which means, of course, that they haven’t been getting out enough, but still: Props to the Berkeley Cabal!