The camps on safari trips are staged. The culture behind them is real and considerably older.
Almost every desert safari ends at a Bedouin camp with tea, a fire and often a show. It is a performance, and knowing that makes it more interesting rather than less.
The peoples of Egypt's Eastern Desert are mainly Ababda and Bisharin, part of the wider Beja group, and they have herded camels and goats in these mountains for well over two thousand years — Greek and Roman writers describe them. Their languages are not Arabic, and much of the older generation is bilingual by necessity rather than choice.
Traditional life has largely ended. Drought, national parks, borders and the collapse of the camel trade pushed most families into towns along the coast within two generations. The camps are one of the few things that still pay in the desert, which is why they exist.
Drought, national parks, borders and the collapse of the camel trade pushed most families into towns along the coast within two generations.
The tea, at least, is genuine — strong, very sweet, poured from height, and refused only at the third cup. Take it, sit down, and ask the person pouring where their family is from. You will usually get a real answer.
