#2: [18-Jun-04]

01-Jan-2004 -- This is my second confluence point and again I couldn't get spot on. For the new year celebration we were invited by our friends Shaheer and Claudia to visit the Bedouin camp of Šaykh Fahd out in the Eastern Desert of Egypt, about 100 km west of al-Za`farāna.

The camp for that moment was close to 29N 32E, so we decided to visit it on the first day of 2004. However, talking with Šaykh Fahd and the Bedouin men the evening before made it pretty clear that although there is a track running through the plains into Wādiy Askhar, leaving the track surely would catapult one into the new year with a big bang.

The whole area is infested with anti-personnel and anti-tank landmines. Military posts are abundant, a military airfield is close and so is a well with fresh water. All of it "protected" by these landmines. We were told that each and every Bedouin family in this area had lost at least one family member due to these horrible devices. So we never left the track, took some pictures from where we were and went along for our day trip into the mountains.

All of you readers in Egypt, please regard this visit as a warning to all of you. Always check with the local people if the area is safe, especially in the coastal areas.