Charafantah's Cave

The following are some quick points to help you plan your future trip:

• Plan ahead, make sure you plan for your upcoming trip with at least double the time you plan to travel, e.g. if you plan to travel for 3 days, start deciding up on everything 1 week before, double this time if you’re travelling abroad.
• Decide what is your target of the trip. (e.g. take photographs, relax, party or see everything around)
• Confirm who is going with you (the people with you on a trip, *REALLY* makes a huge difference on how you enjoy a trip, make sure that everyone is compatible with each other)
• If you are the guide, make sure to announce *ALL* the details to the people going, highlight the *BAD* parts first so you don’t end up with people blaming you for not telling them.
• Read a lot about the place you’re going to.
  Check WikiPedia to read about the city or country you’re going to
  check WikiTravel to read about the tourist attractions in this area
  use google books to check the Lonely Planet Guide for that city or country
  use WikiMapia to see details of areas around the place you’re going to 
  post on the the Trip Advisor forum to ask about any questions you might need to know, many people will be glad to help. 
• Google for local websites about the place you’re going to, you might find more information from the local sources
• Write a detailed plan of the trip, for example:
  Day 1 – 10:00am leave to place X
  Day 1 – 02:00pm lunch at restaurant Z
  Day 1 – 08:00pm Checkin Hotel Y
  Day 2 – 09:00am Monument visiting 
• Try to stick to the plan as much as you can, changes are possible offcourse, but only make them when necessary, also, do not forget to calculate the time you will take to travel from one place to another.
• If you’re not travelling in your own car, make sure to read well about the places you’ll take public transportation from and the times they leave. As you might plan for example to travel from X to Y at 9:00pm while the last bus leaves at 7:00pm, this might destroy your whole plan.
• Make an estimate of the budget, include an average of all the prices you might need to pay, including food, transportation accomodation and gas prices.
• Make a packing list of all what you might need in your trip, before you travel make sure you revise that list not to forget anything.
  You can use this site to create a packing list. 
• Make sure you have entertainment with you for times you spend in transportation, or at nights if you don’t have plans, for example get a book, music or some games.
• Check the weather in the place you’re going to, this is very obvious, but trust me its very important.
• If you have a GPS enabled device, try to find the GPS co-ordinates of the places you’re going to.
• Get a map of the place you’re going to, and find directions on how to get there and keep them in a handy place. Use maps.google.com for some basic maps.
• Make sure you have enough money, your visa card is working, if you’re travelling abraod, US dollars and euros are usually acceptted everywhere, check for best rates to know if you should change in your home country first or not.
• If you’re going camping or to places like a protectorate, make sure to know if you need any special permissions from authoroties.
• Have fun, if something happens, work around it, and continue to have fun

This list is dedicated to ZeroEffect as promised (long time ago )
إيه وجة الشبة بينى و الشمعدان؟

زى الشمعدان بالضبط…..أشرف دايما يوفى بوعده  

Before I go to Ras Mohammed, i tried to plan my trip before i go from online resources, as I usually do. Only to be surprised by the lack of information! there is NOTHING useful whatsoever about going to Ras Mohammed protectorate or on camping there.

So now after i came back, i decided to write this “homage” post explaining every thing you might need to know about camping in Ras Mohammed.

Here’s a summary followed by full details:

• Camping allowed: Yes
• Entrance time: 8:00am to 6:00pm
• Cost: 5LE entrance fee
• No permissions needed (everything done by the rangers at the gate)
• Mobile signal: everywhere
• Electricity: no
• Non salty water: at the gates (not available after 6:00pm)
• Distance from Sharm El Sheikh: 20km
• Toilets: not recommended
• Places to visit: Mangroove channel, Earthquake crack, Yolanda beach (diving), Main beach (snorkeling), Observatory beach (EXCELLENT scenery)
• Recommended Camping time: 3days 2 nights

Before i go, i called the protectorate on these numbers: (069)366-0668/0559 they are available from early in the morning (7:00am) to noon. I asked about permissions and entrance fees and time, they told me that i could enter from sunrise (i asked if 6:00am was ok, they said yes….but in real life it was no )

We arrived early, you’ll know you’re there when you see the huge statues at the gates shown in the picture below, you’ll also be around 20KM away from Sharm. We had to stay until 8:00am for the rangers to come
.

As soon as they came, they were very friendly, they checked our ID’s gave us the tickets, each ticket is 5LE + 5LE for the car. They asked if we will camp, and asked for how many days. They gave us a few information about the place and on where to camp.

We had a map of the protectorate and a GPS device (i’ll put the coordinates soon).

As soon as we entered, we headed to the Visitors center, there was only us there, we met one of the workers, he showed us a 20mins movie about the protectorate in the video room(it was nice, but it seemed rather old and boring).

We then had a glance at the museum in the visitors center, nothing really interesting there, but you’re not going to spend more than 15mins there anyway.

We then headed to the camping area, it’s just next to the laboratories building, it’s guarded by borders guards, they asked the same questions we got asked at the gates and let us in.

There are 3 main places to camp, each separated by a small hill which makes it private. The best one is the one in the middle, the beach is sandy and not full of rocks like the others, it’s nice if you have kids or don’t have your swimming shoes. Though the corals there are not as good the main beach or Yolanda beach, it’s nice if you’re too lazy to go anywhere else while camping.

We chose a place for our tent, unloaded our stuff and left them there. We then headed to the Mangroove channel (المنجروف). It’s nice to see all these trees growing from the salty water, it was a little bit crowded then, there was like 3 buses full of Italian visitors

We then headed to the earthquake crack(شق الزلزال), which is a huge crack in the land that was done by an earthquake, and the water started to flow in the crack.

Right next to it, there is the Magic Bay (الخليج المسحور), the water magically disappear and then reappears later in the same day!!! (i couldn’t see it happen, but a friend of mine did)

We then headed to the Observatory beach, where you climb a small mountain (hill), well, actually you don’t really climb, there are stairs. On the top of it, there is a telescope (?) and there is the MOST AMAZING VIEW YOU COULD EVER SEE. You’d see Aqaba bay and Suez bay at the same time, a lot of yachts, corals, turquoise water and a lot of birds and falcons.

We then tried to snorkel at the main beach, but it was too windy on that day and were cold and tired, so we headed back to the camp.

Here is a list of the stuff you need to bring with you:

• Sleeping bags (very important)
• A tent (to sleep in with the sleeping bag, not REALLY important, but it will help a lot with the ants, bees and flies)
• Swiss Knife (very handy)
• A butane stove (unless you want to eat raw, cold and tasteless food)
  
• Canned food, bread etc (you could also have some BBQ if you have an ice box)
• Ice box (if you have one, not really necessary)
• Water and drinks
• Candles (you could use empty bottles to put the candles in, use the swiss knife to cut them in halves)
• Flash light
• Camera + batteries
• GPS (if you have one)
• Hammock (if you have one )
• Music + book + entertainment stuff (a.k.a Games)
• Wood & coal to make camp fire (there is wood in the protectorate, right after the the camping area entrance, on the left, there is a huge pile of unused stuff, you can take wood from there, but it’s not guaranteed to fulfill all your needs, or to be there when you go )
• Matches & lighter
• Marshmallows (for camp fire )
• Waste bags
• Snorkeling gear (or diving gear)
• Swimming shoes (you don’t want to walk on the rocks\corals with bare foot)
• Insect repellent (OFF!) and insects killer (New Pyrosol, ra7et el zanna )
• First aid kit (didn’t use it, but could be handy)
• Plastic plates, cups, forks etc
• Toilet paper & Tissues
• Binoculars (if you have one)
• Jacket (could be a bit chilli)

You are not allowed to go outside the camping area or use your car after 6:00pm until 8:00am, but you can have a walk on the beach around the camping area.
There is nothing to do at night, except watching the stars, walking on the beach, listening to the waves, sitting around the camp fire, playing games, talking with friends, listening to music, reading a book, eating marshmallows, cooking tea on the camp fire.

You have to watch out from the ants and insects, they will attack as soon as they smell food and they are very persistent.

Do not worry about seeing flashing lights in the sky, it’s not UFOs, it’s the discotheques in Sharm El Sheikh.

Here is a map of the protectorate from Parks Egypt

It’s a great experience, you have to try it, it’s one of the most amazing places in the world, it’s really fun and you’ll never forget the adventure of camping there.

Am going to Ras Mohammed protectorate today i’ll be camping there for 2 days.

With nothing but 3 of my friends, sleeping bags and canned food….we’ll see if we’ll survive

Pictures by Anel Van Veelen

Expect new stories to tell when am back