A Bedouin Dinner In The Desert
A Bedouin dinner is a great way to get a bite-sized experience of the Sinai Desert. We can arrange for one of our Bedouin friends to pick you up by camel, or you can choose to travel up to the wadi by jeep.
Last week some guests asked me to organise one of these trips for the full moon …
so I rang my friend Eid to get it sorted. I met Eid ten years ago when he was filling tanks at a dive centre I was working at. He loves spending time in the desert and is a great safari guide.
We were met by jeep at RED C just before sunset, loaded an ice box full of beers into the back and were whisked off into the desert. Eid greeted us at a beautiful, secluded spot tucked between the mountains about a 10 minute drive up a dirt track off the coastal road. Our chef for the evening already had dinner cooking on an open fire. A few of us then wandered off for a look further up the wadi (dried up riverbed), which was littered with boulders that have crashed down from the surrounding mountains. We returned, opened some ice cold beers and relaxed on the cushions and rugs with which our Bedouin hosts had furnished our camp.
As the light dwindled, the Bedouin got a shisha (waterpiper) prepared. They packed it with a sweet apple-flavoured tobacco, broke up some glowing coals from the fire, got it smoking and then passed it round. One of our guests was so taken with shisha smoking she bought one to use for the rest of her stay at RED C and has left it with us so that our future guests can sample its delights.
As we chatted over beers and shisha, Eid and Moussa made fresh Bedouin bread. They rolled out a simple dough of flour, water and salt, then threw it between their hands like an Italian making a pizza base. They cooked these giant chapattis over the fire on what can best be described as an upturned mini satellite dish. Hot off the fire this bread is completely delicious; hard to explain, so you with have to come and sample some for yourselves.
The Bedouin Dinner was served – we gathered round and helped ourselves to a huge chicken and vegetable stew (a vegetable version for our vegetarian guests), rosemary flavoured rice, salad, tahini and bread. Once we’d eaten our fill, tea was bought to us little glasses. The Bedouin love it very sweet.
As we then lay down to enjoy the star- filled sky, some smart phones with star map apps came out to settle some constellation disagreements. Away from any light pollution the stars are incredibly clear in the often cloudless Sinai sky. The full moon rising over the mountains marked the end of our Bedouin dinner desert adventure and gave us plenty of light to break camp and climb back into the Jeep. Back at RED C we dived into the pool to rinse the off some desert sand and enjoy the full moon.
For more info on our Bedouin Dinner in the desert and other ways to explore the Sinai Desert, check out our Things To Do page.
You can simply ask us to organise a trip on your arrival at RED C, all we need is 24 hours notice. Please don’t hesitate to contact us for more info or if you’d like to booking a Bedouin Dinner in the desert.
In other news
We recently had a large delivery of goods from Cairo to kit out the kitchen in a new apartment that will be ready to welcome its first guest during the Eid. Eid al-Fitr, which means ‘feast of breaking the fast’, celebrates the end of Ramadan. Here’s Rio showing his huge strength by carrying a 90kg fridge on his back. Rio is a Coptic Christian so is not fasting for Ramadan.
Till next blog,
Dom.
