Desert run with the hashers

A quick blog today because I have to pack and get ready to go to the airport and catch my plane to Amsterdam. Yesterday, I joined the Cairo Hash House Harriers for a desert run in Wadi Degla and got some nice pictures in the desert. After the run, I spoke to one of the other runners who is a geologist here working for BP. He explained to me that the area was under a shallow ocean about 20 million years ago, but then when the African continent separated from the Sinai it pushed this landmass up, along with the mountains on the Sinai. So Mount Sinai is a result of the same geological forces that shaped this area. It was interesting and the desert sites are both beautiful and fascinating.


The run is held every Friday at different parts of the desert site. Yesterday it was in the very back of the park, so it was about a 30 minute bouncy ride through rough desert roads (more like paths, really) to get there.

Today was trash day for the run. Many of the regulars brought trash bags and picked up trash after the run. The park is really trashed out in some places, and it is a real shame.

You see zillions of these little snails in the desert. I originally thought they were fossils, but the geologist explained to me that the snails can go dormant for long periods of time, and they only "wake up" after a rain to eat, reproduce and go back to sleep. I said Oh, I see, these must be the males.

You can see the edges of Cairo in the distance. The city is expanding rapidly out into the deserts on both sides of the Nile. Wadi Degla is set aside as a national park, for now at least, so hopefully this area will remain free of development.


I made some videos during the run. It was very windy, so the wind is loud on the video, but it does give you a good idea of the landscape.