THEN – On the tip of the Sinai Peninsula, Sharm el Sheikh was nothing but a strip of sand along the Red Sea dotted with empty, rusting oil drums, deserted pieces of military equipment from the war, and an occasional full oil drum used to store spring water. The drivers would stop to refill the 5-gallon jugs we drank from with water from these oil drums. The pure water came from deep aquifers in the Sinai and no one in the group ever got sick despite handing the 5-gallon containers from mouth to mouth for drinking.

There were occasional gas/petrol stations along the shore road and whenever the driver stopped to refill, we ran to empty bladders in the toilets. It didn’t take long to discover that this was a big mistake. The toilets hadn’t been cleaned in years and were totally disgusting. One of the two big questions asked of me by friends and families is, “But, where do you go?” The trip in the Sinai was my watershed in life, the spark that enables me to “go” anywhere, at anytime. Give me sand, trees, or bushes any day.

ex-Marine with remnants of the Israeli-Egyptian war, Sinai Desert 

Sharm el sheikh’s deserted beached in 1984
The entire Sinai coastline was nothing but blowing sand and desolation. By now, what little bread left in the food stores was as hard as the Sinai rocks. The group was fighting to open the remaining tins/cans of food because then the lucky person could slurp up the watery/juice mixture left from the vegetables to supplement their meager diet, and desperation was setting in. (Would this turn into Lord of The Flies?) The Sinai Desert Adventure was rapidly becoming unforgettable in more ways than one. We realistically knew that no one was actually going to starve to death in five days as long as we had water.

NOW – There are five-star hotels, intimate hotels, big complexes…View image, Bedouins with colorful tents offering camel riding, casinos, discos, nightclubs, golf courses, health facilities, water sports, shopping and entertainment. You can dive, snorkel, windsurf, ride horses take day trips to St. Catherine’s Monastery and climb Mount Sinai. This is the face of Sharm el-Sheikh today.

The days were always fraught with peril and fun. The perilous part was getting stuck in the dunes and shifting sands. The Bedouin drivers always knew exactly where they were going (without a GPS) but that didn’t stop the vehicles from getting bogged down. When that happened, one and all would jump out of the truck and help push the jeep or truck out. With shouts of Y’alla/yela’s (let’s go…move it…), we’d move on until the next vehicle got stuck and repeat efforts.

stuck in the Sinai desert sands
Besides the unworldly scenery, there were sand dunes to climb and slide down. If you’ve never had a chance to actually walk up a sand dune, it’s very difficult. For every deep step forward, it’s two steps backwards. Slow and hard progress but once we got to the top, there were incredible views of mountains and wadis (an Arabic name for the deep canyons that fill with tsunami force waters during rain). You never want to be caught in a wadi during a rainstorm.

climbing a sand dune in the Sinai Desert 

Sinai mountain and wadi views from the top of a dune