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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Safety situation in Egypt for birders 09/2014? (1 Viewer)

opisska

rabid twitcher
Czech Republic
I am headed for Egypt on Monday for a conference and will have ample free time, both in Hurghada and in Cairo for some birding. However I am not sure how is the safety situation now for a lone birder? You all probably understand that a birder has quite a different questions about safety than a normal tourist - we don't care about scams around pyramids, but about the feasibility of walking around with a camera at some strange rarely visited place.

I was in Egypt in 2009 before all the coups and unrests and already then it seems like a little difficult place for a birder with all the regulations and police controls and stuff, but it was pretty safe on the other hand, because the police would just escort you should you appear on a place that they deemed dangerous. I guess this changed a lot since then, for the worse? I heard about a violence in Hurghada and a lot of checkpoints around not letting foreigners to ho anywhere ...

So if anyone has reliable information on the safety and possibility to wander around some interesting birding locations, I would be very thankful. (I would like to note that I am not interested in organised excursions or hiring a guide, not even if that were the only option.)
 
Good luck is the only thing I can add! I have not been there for about 10-15 years, so no current info.

Niels
 
To answer myself, everything seemed to be quite normal - well, as normal as it gets in Egypt, I guess. After all I did not go to many really weird places, simply because I didn't have time for that and reaching anything that is even slightly out of the beaten path takes a lot of patience and dedication in Egypt. However, at the places I visited (El Gouna, Hurghada Sewage works and the counryside around El Qanatir north of Cairo) I did not meet any issues and police presence seemed rather lower than 5 years ago (I was for example never bothered in the Cairo-Hurghada bus at any checkpoints).

At the end of the day, the only thing I was slightly disappointed about was the birding itself, end of September seems to be not the most optimal time (or I have been quite unlucky) as the species list was rather limited (I logged only 57 birds in some 3.5 days of birding).
 
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