Travel: Adventure Tourism

The Independent
Robert Twigger has been off on his travels again. I reported one of his earlier trips to the Gilf Kebir in June 2005. This time Twigger looks at the phenomenon of Adventure Tourism - going to out of the way places which very few foreign people have visited. To tell the truth, I found it somewhat concerning.

I've recently been to the Gilf Kebir, an area the size of Switzerland in south-west Egypt with no water at all. Tourists travel with military escorts and it takes a week of desert travelling to get there, so very few do. However, imagine tourists going to Switzerland and only visiting Berne and Geneva and then scooting back home. That's what the Gilf is like – the tour groups visit two sites and then leave. We, however, stayed longer – on my last trip we discovered an ancient burial site and a new route on to a plateau unmarked with any tracks – we were the first Europeans here for sure, and possibly the first people since the rainy period in the Sahara of 7,000 years
ago. . . .

I knew there was huge groundswell of people eager to take part in real exploration when I wrote an article about searching for new examples of rock art in the desert – I was inundated with requests to join the expedition. But instead of just another touristic holiday, I had a vision of being able to give people the basic knowledge and experience, while on a real expedition, to be able to do it later by themselves. I had reported for magazines on adventure-tourist trips and I saw how the "clients" were made dependent on the tour leaders and their assistants. They were kept out of the
kitchen on spurious "insurance" grounds (really because they got in the way). They were denied the chance to help pack vehicles because that might slow things up. But people want to learn. On one trip I accompanied, an Italian woman showed me a lone GPS point that she'd copied into her notebook. Never mind that she'd never visit that spot again. For her it was a proof that she was involved in a real expedition.

On a very personal note, it seems quite sad that Adventure Tourism is becoming so popular because of the damage that is sometimes committed as a result. I talked to several people in Poland who work in the Egyptian Western Desert, and they told horror stories about the damage that is either unwittingly committed or perpetrated deliberately. Areas of archaeological significance are often damaged or vandalized, and archaeolgoical materials are taken home as souvenirs. There are no site management personnel or security guards in these areas, and it is left to the tour leaders and the individuals themselves to take responsibility for their own conduct and that of their fellow "explorers". I have no idea how one can guarantee that such tours are conducted responsibly and with a clear understanding of the impacts on both environment and heritage, but it is clearly something that needs to be considered and addressed.

Finally, although Robert Twigger has certainly put his finger on the pulse of a new craving, the little that I've learned about tackling the Sahara from those who do it on a professional basis suggests that it is something that should be tackled only with extreme caution, and should take place only with the aid of a VERY experienced professional team, with as much emergency back up as humanly possible.