Almost the Last Adventure....

One week ago the struggle was to make it out alive! Here I am today, thankful to be alive and thankful for everything God has given me!

As some of you may know I am in the process of training for a charity climb up Kilimanjaro.... Here is my 3rd training hike....

Start of the hike....

A two-day desert-mountain training hike took several drastic turns for the worse! What should have been a simple 30 minute hike up and down the base of a mountain to get a better look at a route, left us unable to safely come back down to where we had left our backpacks with all our supplies and emergency gear.

No way we were making it back down this way...

From the 1,600m peak, I was told by the 50-year-old Monk who lives in a cave on the mountain, it would only take 5 hours to hike down to the base of the mountain along a different route that would be safe to descend.

1,600 meters.

Not an issue when it's 7am and you have food and six liters of water. It does become an issue when it's 120*F and it actually takes 28 hours and you soon run out of water. We spent 13 hours without water or food and an additional 15 hours drinking the minimum to keep our mouths from feeling like we had had a cup of superglue and sand shoved down our throats; because that how it felt the whole time! Dehydration and extreme exhaustion quickly set in; every step was a struggle to maintain any sort of composure and I was constantly out of breath regardless of how slow we were moving!

Father resting under the sun after I tied the sole of his shoe back on using his shoe lace. The sole had had completely fallen of.

It was impossible to walk more than ten minutes without collapsing under the sun onto the hot desert floor to regain the strength to even stand up again and try to take another step. After laying on the floor to rest it would take me 10 second after I sat up to regain my bearing, like 20 seconds with my head at waist level and then another 20 seconds before I would take a step and not fall over from being dizzy!

Half way down. From here it took another 10hr of hiking and an overnight rest.

Ultimately, I was rescued by a search and rescue party of two Jeeps that the father had run into when he raced ahead to get help. The Egyptian search and rescue helicopter making final preparations to take off just minutes after they found me.

After over six liters of re-hydration liquids and a visit to the hospital for an IV, blood, urine, EKG, and ultrasound test, along with a head CT scan, the doctors confirmed there would be a full recovery!

The longest 28 hours of my life! Amen!

AEGS

Gilf Kibir expedition; sneak peak.

Hello hello...  ok i know I have been falling back big time on posting fotos... Have a back log of the East Africa trip, Lebanon, London, a few random desert trip and the Gilf.... :-/ Hope to catch up soon!

Waddi Hamra, the Red valley. Located on the north side of the Gilf Kibir plateau close to the boarder of Libya and Sudan.The sand and rocks in this valley are red due to the iron oxide in them. The other side of the valley is much more red and less orange.Part of a 10 day, 2,400km desert trip of 4 jeeps along with 3 support vehicles and 5 military escorts for security.

The Foggini Mestekawi Cave, one of the worlds most spectacular examples of prehistoric cave carvings and paintings. Located on the south side of the Gilf Kibir plateau close to the boarder of Libya and Sudan.
Discovered in 2003 it contains over 1,000 individual figures dating back to more than 11,000 years. Mind blowing is the depiction of animals like buffaloes, giraffes, octopus, ostriches and other unidentifiable animals that 11,000 years ago lived in what today is one of the driest and most inhospitable place in the world.The climax of a 10 day, 2,400km desert tripof 4 jeeps along with 3 support vehicles and 5 military escorts for security.

Check back soon for a full report!

1st night camping. Due to some delays we did not make it too far out into the desert. Close to a military check point, that's why we have cell phone service.

London sneak peak!

Took advantage of an unexpected 4 day holiday in Egypt to fly over to London!

Click for larger version.

Shark Teeth Fossil Moto ride...

Hello! 1st real post of 2013... and its going to be a quicky!

Was an interesting weekend... Original plan was to go on an unofficial company/work department desert trip but due to some complications it got cancelled, backup plan was to go climb Mt. Sinai/St. Catherine Mountain in the Sinai Peninsula... But then Thursday night Dave called me up to see if I was up for a overnight camping trip on the bikes with some others in 4x4s.... Sounds like a plan. I can basically go climb St. Catherine any weekend alone, but I cant go out into the desert on the motorcycle alone; to risky even with the satellite phone.

The Jeep sad because she was not going to get to play in the sand! [Note how clean the Jeep is.. For the work trip... Before that with all the rain it was more of a brown color! :) ]

All loaded up in Dave's truck!

Its been more than a month since I have gone on a proper motorcycle trip (due to all the travel, so its not that bad)... But I really have missed the desert and the bike! In this trip we went to a familiar area but took a different and very beautiful path.

Mid trip... Up on an escarpment after playing in those dunes for a while.

The next place we stopped at is what made this trip extra memorable! Steve took us to the side of a mountain where he has found lots of shark teeth fossils in the past. Yup, that's right, shark teeth in the desert. In one of my previous blog entries; mid post I talk about a visit to a whale cemetery. In short the whole desert use to be underwater and that's why there are shells, whale and other marine fossils!

I must admit, Steve found almost all of these fossils... It was Steve, Phill and me looking for shark teeth for like 45 min and the record ended up being 12, 0, 2. Steve has more practice then we had! I was in my moto gear with knee pads and elbow pads... After a while of not finding anything I was crawling almost kissing the ground... Steve was just walking slightly bent! 

After a long day of riding we made it to camp!

For dinner Sarah cooked a delicious chicken curry! (Mark was missing in action with back pain, may have been a good thing for the cooking part) 

Once the sun set the temperature dropped quickly... It was in the low 40's *F/4+ *C... I really did not want to make my tent so I just slept outside... Good thing I brought my winter sleeping bag that is rated for 0*F Never got cold... But I did sleep right next to the fire, more for amusement then for warmth.

After sun rise we had a really really good breakfast! Lets just say it was better than my everyday cereal and better then on the weekends when I make eggs!! Thanks Steve and Pam!

Sausage and bacon imported from the UK, beans, mushrooms, bread and fried eggs!

The rest of the crew headed out for a few more hours of playing in the desert and Dave and I headed back towards Cairo...

Great weekend!

Hello from 2013!

Hello from 2013!

2012 ended with a bang and 2013 started just how I would have liked!

For the Christmas holidays I was fortunate enough to go on a 11 day safari from Dar el Salaam in Tanzania, though Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe; ending at the magnificent Victoria Falls!

The 1st weekend of 2013 I took advantage of a 4 day weekend we had in Egypt for Coptic Christmas and I hopped over to Lebanon!

But with all that time off comes a lot of make up work at the office... Hope to post pics in the next week or so... 

Here is one picture from Zambia to make you hungry for more!

Happy New Year!!!!

UAE, Dubai & Abu Dhabi....

"Last months I took advantage of a long weekend to go see Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and visit three Colombian friends who had just recently moved to the UAE.... 

Dubai is a great modern city and I would say one of its major attractions is its no cost spared architecture. While it does have some cultural aspects people go just to see the city... and that's just what I did.

The other interesting aspect of the UAE is the desert which I have heard is beautiful. But with a limited amount of time and having spent a lot of time in the desert in Egypt i skipped out on that part...

Lets start off with Dubai.

Probably the most recent iconic building in Dubai is the Burj Khalifa. Which to this day is the tallest man made structure in the world at 829 meters/ 2,722 feet. For comparison the Empire state building is just 381 meters/ 1,454 ft... The Burj Khalifa is more then twice as high!

Something I found interesting was that while I was doing the course to get my sky diving license one of the requirements is to do emergency procedure jump from 3,000 ft. Basically you jump out of the plane and have to immediately pull your main parachute. If even the slightest thing goes wrong you have to cut away the main and pull your reserve parachute. The exercise is meant just as practice in case you ever have to ditch the plane soon after take off... The point is that the building is just a little shorter then that emergency jump height.

Here is the view from the platform at just 451 meters.

The other buildings that are also high look miniature!

At night there is a really cool water show.

The Burj Khalifa is very impressive when looking at the numbers.... Dont get me wrong, when you see it in person it is impressive as well, and you can tell its super tall. The thing is that because its thin it does not have that monstrous big square presence that a building like the Sears/Willis tower has....

One of the world famous shopping malls is The Mall of The Emirates. Its most famous attraction is Ski Dubai which is the silver portion of the building you see below.

The mall also has a massive aquarium that offers scuba diving

 Some pretty cool water fountains...

...And even airplanes...

Click below for the full post and lots of more pictures!

Here Sharky Sharky... Video of Cage Diving with Great White Sharks!

If you go to Cape Town, South Africa one of the things you must do is to go Cage Diving with Great White Sharks.... and that exactly what I did...

In Oct/Nov this year we had a nice extra long religious holiday in Egypt so I added a few extra days and a good dose of adrenalin and had a fantastic 10 day trip along the coast of South Africa with my buddy Kevin who is a Trans Oceanic Yacht (sail boat) Captain ... A few days in Cape Town and then the rest doing a camping road trip along the coast!

When I first told my buddy Kevin I was going down to Cape Town his first reply was: We have to go free diving with the Great White Sharks! I generally take a lot of risks in my activities, but you see there is a method to my madness. All the risks are what I call "Calculated Risks". I do my research on how to prevent, deal with and overcome any problem I may face. Based on that i make a decision..... But free diving with Great White Sharks, there just is no calculation to do. Yes GWS are not interested in eating humans, but they may make a mistake, or it might just be having a bad day... So I declined the opportunity to free dive with GWS!

You must be asking yourself why would anyone want to free dive with GWS... Maybe you are not but anyways... Both Kevin and I are watermen, we enjoy the ocean.... The problem is that the method of chumming to attract GWS can have a negative long term affect on the behavior of sharks which may lead to them more often mistakenly attaching humans.... I agree... Actually on our trip we had a very unfortunate accident. One of the big sharks got tangled around its body/gills in the bait line/rope (fish heads on a rope, no hook). The crew acted fast and cut the line and the shark untangled itself and went on its way. But I am sure it was a traumatic event for the shark. I wont publish those pictured.... Good news is a little while after the shark passed by and was fine.

Be sure to click full screen!

On our particular trip we saw like 14 or 15 different GWS according to the marine biologist who was part of the shark diving company. Of those sharks 5 of them were 4.5 meters/15 feet long. For reference in the video thats the size of the cage we were in, and bigger then the wheel base of a Ford Excursion!!!

Hope you liked the pictures and video! Soon I will be posting the other videos and pics from Bungee Jumping, Rock Climbing, Kiteboarding and a lot of other activities from this trip to South Africa!

Burj Al Arab... The only "7 star hotel" in the world....

Last months I took advantage of a long weekend to go see Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and visit three Colombian friends who had just recently moved to the UAE.... Later ill post the whole story and pics of the visit. Today I will focus on The Burj Al Arab hotel.

Dubai is a great modern city and I would say one of its major attractions is its no cost spared architecture.

The Burj Al Arab is a prime example; commonly described as the only 7 star hotel in the world. While a 7 star rating does not really exist... From what I saw, and from what I have heard from friends who have stayed there, its hard to imagine how it could get more luxurious!

As much as I would have like to experienced staying over a night... The least expansive room for one of the nights I was in Dubai was $1,800... Pretty cheap compared to $18,000 for their top room!

So Jonathan and I settled for visiting the hotel and paying the three digit USD minimum spend at its SkyView bar.... Of course you cant just walk up the hotel and ask for a beer. You have to make reservations and provide information to clear a 7 point security check. Ok, I kid about the security check, but you do need a reservation.

The hotel is located 280 meters off shore on a man made island that is connected by a bridge to the main land, at the gate they politely ask for your reservation, its verifies and then they allow you to proceed.

Of course we were driven to the hotel due to the UAE's zero tolerance on drinking and driving!
They are serious, as per the US State Departments web site "Persons arrested for drinking and driving are often jailed for many days as they await a court hearing. Penalties may include hefty jail sentences, fines, and, for Muslims (even those holding U.S. citizenship), lashings."

The hotel is meant to resemble the sail of a dhow which is the traditional sail boat of the region. The main surface you see in the above pictures is actually made of a sail like material.

Outside the hotel we were greeted by 3 of the hotels white Rolls Royce Phantoms, just 3 of the armada they have. Then we were greeted and welcomed to the hotel.

Lets just say Jonathan and I did not make a bee line for the bar... We took some time to see the areas of the hotel that we could at that time since we were arriving at 10pm.

You enter the lobby and are presented by a cascade of dancing fountains flanked on both sides by enormous fish tanks.

The highlight is the atrium!

More pics in the full post!

3rd Dream Come True! Climbing To The Top of a Pyramid!

Yesterday I made a dream come true, I accomplished a mission. Soon after deciding to to go live/work in Egypt for a few years I came up with three goals/missions/dreams! One was to go kiteboarding on a lake in the middle of the desert and another was to buy a off road motorcycle to explore the Sahara desert on two wheels.

The third one to become a reality was to Climb to the top of an ancient Egyptian pyramid and stand on the top with my arms in the air and fly the Colombian flag!

The Pyramid of Senusret II 

Click for larger version.

The Pyramid of Senusret II is from the 12th Dyansty and was finished around some time between 1897 BC and 1878 BC, which makes it just shy of 4000 years old! What you see in the picture is the inner pyramid which is made of millions of mud and hay composite bricks that literally look like they are made of cow dung including the strands of grass/straw. The bricks are about the size of two large show boxes placed end to end. The unusual thing about this pyramid is that it has at the corners and at the center of the face some large stones. From some research it turns out that it has an internal stone structure and originally had a smooth limestone outer covering like the pyramids of Giza. Whats unusual is that the pyramids of Giza are around 4600 years old. So this one is new but in much worse condition.... Just goes to show how things were built better back in the old days!

Egypt has over 100 pyramids but the vast majority have basically turned to rubble! Obviously I would have loved to climb to the top of one of the 3 main Pyramids of Giza but that would have landed me in jail.... So the trick was to find one that was still in somewhat good condition but did not have military patrol or a care taker... Although a few hundred pounds could have got me access to just about anywhere....

Here is a the pyramid as we approached it in the Jeep.

So what I did was find a list of pyramids and then go one by one using their GPS coordinates to identify one that was still in good condition but remote enough that it did not have tourist or was guarded! I basically identified 3 pyramids that I could go to on a day trip in the Jeep. The first two I went to on two separate trips were basically rubble, in much worse condition then what they looked like from the satellite pictures.... But the 3rd one as you can see still has a pretty decent shape and structure.

Detail of the bricks and the corner stones

View from the top down and Agnes.

Back side.

So there you have it! I still have a few other pyramids on my list.... We will see if I find another in better condition to climb!

Special thanks to Agnes for the company and helping me take the pictures!