Hello all,

While the situation in N Mali and Mauri seems to deteriorate, I am glad to report that the area of Al Uwainat and south of Gilf Kebir in Egypt's Western Desert appears to be a bit calmer than last year.

Two weeks ago we returned from a trip there. Apart from the usual smuggling activity, there's not much to report on the security front.

It could be because the Egyptan army has started monitoring activities in that area. There are now two army outposts (one at N 22.13643°, E 25.80658 °, and another near Karkur Talh at N 22.00028°, E 25.28928 °). The army even allowed us to spend a night inside Karkur Talh, something considered quite risky last year.

But it could be also down to the fact that we were one of the very first groups travelling in the Western Desert this autumn. Maybe the guys having their bases in Chad haven't started the hunting season yet.

The officer at one of the posts event told us that the army was sending from the north a dozen cars to patrol the borded area, so if we see a fleet of cars heading our way we should stop and say hello rather than run away. Luckily, we never never had a chance to be faced with such a hard decision.

While army presence south of Gilf Kebir is rather unprecedented, it should not be taken too seriously. From what we saw , this is a rather feeble attempt by the Egyptians to control their southern border.

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Roman (UK)

Just returned myself from Uweinat, the area around the mountain was pretty quiet, the closeness of the checkpoint apparently does dampen illicit activity there. Few signs of visitors, apparently most operators are still concerned about going that close to Sudan. (Trip account will be up on my website soon, the name of which I dare not utter here...)

I did feel uncomfortable around Wadi Sora though (no Egyptian military presence there), plenty of smuggler tracks and we saw several single vehicle tracks with XS pattern - definitely not friendly patrols...

The post near Uweinat has two (!) vehicles, so definitely no serious patroling out there. I would not reccommend driving up to any unknown vehicles - better to stay on the shady side of the street. Did hear of a rumor that the army did shoot up one toiurist vehicle which fled, having not recognised that the 'pursuers' were the army. Fortunately no injuries...

All in all, looks quiet, but still a lot of tension and edginess from the side of the authorities, probably not totally without reason ...

Hi Andras,

Glad to hear you had a safe trip, too.

The operators would say there's not enough people willing to risk going there ...

We also did see same zig-zagging tracks, and between the Clayton Crater and Wadi Sora, about 40km north of the Aquaba Pass, we found abandoned personal belongings, possibly by robbers who chucked away what they had no use for. Another, rather curious, find in that area was a great many empty 1/2 litre water bottles.


When we were there they had only one, and it even wasn't running. I was wondering if the empty barrells along the piste were laid down by the smugglers to help the soliders stay on track :-)

Did you meet Herr Doctor Rudolph Kuper, occupying the Foggini Cave with his team? The way he had their camp set up near the cave made them a bit exposed and vulnerable, so we are wondering if he later moved it or just decided he was perfectly safe in his ivory tower.

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Roman (UK)

You saw the traces of the refugee smugglers - the Western Gilf has become one of the main throughfares for smuggling people - mainy Somali & Eritreans - to Italy. The Libyans have stepped up their patroling (the EU gave them heaps of money to do so), so the trade shifted east where there is no control whatsoever. Possibly the kidnappings and robberies were a 'portfolio diversification' from this unscrupulous lot.

Met Rudolph in Dakhla on our way out, the team was gone by the time we passed by, but all fine from what I've heared.