Guidebook: highly commended

Quick post to say Sinai: The Trekking Guide – my guidebook to the Sinai – was HIGHLY COMMENDED  at the recent awards ceremony of the Outdoor Writers and Photogaphers Guild (OWPG) in the UK. Getting the guidebook out in the first place – with Egypt’s 2011 revolution, the 2013 revolution that followed, and the media’s coverage of the Sinai in recent years – was a big challenge. The book still faces big challenges today, with government warnings about the region and more ongoing bad press for the area. Working in the Sinai has been hard for all of us connected to it in recent years – especially those of us in the hiking field – so it’s great the OWPG have recognised the book and – through it – the Sinai region and its Bedouin communities. A big thanks to them, to all the folks behind the book – including the Trailblazer team – and to the Bedouin of the Sinai, especially Faraj Mahmoud, whose knowledge of the Sinai forms such a big part of the book itself. Here’s what the OWPG judges said about the book in their comments:

‘I’D NEVER CONSIDERED THIS PLACE AS A TREKKING DESTINATION, BUT THE BOOK IS SO WELL WRITTEN, I WAS LEFT FEELING THE ONLY THING I NEEDED WAS THE CASH FOR THE AIR FARE. IT IS A SPLENDID INTRODUCTION TO A LITTLE-KNOWN SLICE OF BACK-COUNTRY THAT CLEARLY DESERVES MORE ATTENTION AND A WIDER AUDIENCE. THE AUTHOR HAS UNDERTAKEN A VAST AMOUNT OF RESEARCH AND CLEARLY KNOWS THE AREA WELL. HIS LOVE AND ENTHUSIASM FOR THE PLACE COMES OUT IN HIS WRITING AND THE HAND-DRAWN MAPS INCORPORATING THE AUTHOR’S PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS ARE CHARMING‘ – JUDGES COMMENTS, UK OWPG AWARDS, 2014.