the first training course for desert drivers and guides ... reports... · the first training course...

The First Training Course for Desert Drivers and guides

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Report on

The First Training Course for Desert Drivers and Guides

Wahat El Baharia – Sept 10-13, 2006

By

Salwa El Halawany


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Background:

The World Congress for Sustainable Development, Johannesburg 2002, emphasized the importance of ecotourism as one of the aspects of the tourism industry that would contribute to poverty alleviation in local communities, through nature conservation and the declaration of Protected Areas.

Egypt is becoming in center of attracting eco-tourists, visiting for its natural beauty, especially the desert. The number of eco-tourists is increased greatly and 90% of all eco-tourists who come to Egypt go to the Western Desert (El Wahat).

Egypt has many qualified tourist guides who graduated from faculties and institutes for Tourism and Hotel Management. However, they do not always have enough experience and training in desert tourism, or enough knowledge of the local people and their cultural heritage.

Many skilled local desert guides lack an adequate background and formal knowledge on conservation of their environment. Therefore, training courses are desperately needed so that the guides can in future present a better service to the tourist and protect the environment during the desert safaris trips.

Tourism companies, who are working in the field of desert tourism, have been using the Wahats’ local people who are experts in the desert tracks and ways. Many of those local people became a professional desert safari’s guides and drivers either individually or through tourism company. In Wahat El Baharia, there are 8 hotels; and more than 200 four wheels drive vehicles are working in desert safari. But this work has been without a legal cover.

As a result of eco tourists’ increase, many drivers got into this career with lack of experience that caused a lot of problems and accidents in the desert.

After the declaration of the White Desert protected area in 2002, Working within Wahats’ local community was one of the alternatives to control the whole area especially with the lack of equipment and lack of communications. Thus, the idea of pursuing the local community to establish NGO’s up-raised.

Two NGO’s were established: Hayah Association in Farafra and Desert Lover Association in Baharia, which encourages the Nature Conservation Sector to move forward the local community participation in protected areas management.


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Training course funding and organizing:

The NGO (Hayat Association) was able to obtain an amount of € 12,000 from the IUCN (the world conservation union) with the help of the White Desert Foundation, which is a Dutch NGO that supports the White Desert protected area.

A committee of Hayah Association in Farafra and Desert Lover Association in Baharia members of board was formed to select the training course coordinator “Mr. Aly Hamdy”. Another committee was formed consisted of White Desert PA manager, Hayat chairman of board and the training course coordinator, in order to select lecturers and training subjects and materials.

All of the trainees who passed the courses signed a code of conduct that includes safety drive’s conditions, behaviors toward tourists and following the protected area’s instructions to conserve the nature as well as following the association’s instructions.

Every trainee successfully passes the course will receive a certificate of the Egyptian Federation for Tourism Chambers, approved by the Minister of Tourism.

Purpose of the training course:

This training course came as a result of the Local Community Participation in the Protected Area management Plan workshop held in Farafra, November 2005. The main purpose of the training course was to raise eco-tourism awareness of the desert drivers and guides, to enhance their skills, and improve their knowledge about:

1. To have a trained and certified desert drivers and guides for better performance in their career

2. Natural and cultural heritage:

• Local community traditions and roots

• Remnants of the prehistoric culture of the area

• Archeological sites

• Local people’s handicrafts

3. Geology of mountains, hills, valleys, sand dunes and soil

4. Biodiversity in the area:

• Wild plants and their natural and economic importance


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• Threatened wild animals

• Resident and immigrated birds

• Poisonous reptiles, scorpions, spiders and anti-venom

5. First Aid in case of accidents, bites by poisonous reptiles and scorpions

Conditions for joining the training course:

1. Trainee should be from the local community (Farafra or Bahariya)

2. Trainee should successfully pass medical and physical tests to insure his capability of working in desert areas

3. Trainee should successfully pass a basic environmental information test

4. Trainee should obtain at least a literacy certificate

5. Trainee should be nominated either by the NGO or by the tourism office of his area

Training course agenda:

Sept 10

Lecture Subject Duration

Morning session:

Dr. R. Kuper

Dr. Ihab Mourad

Ecotourism Impact on the Environment and the History of Human Habitation in the Western Desert

First Aid

1 hour

3 hours Afternoon session: Dr. Khaled Hassouna Ecotourism and Environmental Harmony 2 hours

Sept 11

Morning session:

Dr. Samer El Mofty

The Western Desert: Natural Landscape, Depressions, Oasis, Geological eras

4 hours

Afternoon session: Eng. Tarek Qanawaty White Desert and Law number 102/83 2 hours


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Sept 12

Morning session:

Mr. Amr Shannon

Mahmoud Nour El Din

Vehicle preparation and Driving Safety, Interaction with Visitors, Leadership Desert Navigation

2 hours

2 hours

Afternoon session: Ibrahim Hassan Desert civilizations and Oasis People 2 hours

Sept 13

Morning session:

Dr. Sherif Baha El Din

Mr. Ali Hamdy

Biodiversity of the Western Desert,

History of Western Desert Expeditions and Explorers

2 hours

2 hours

Questions and Test

Attendance:

There were 2 training courses; each course was for 4 days (22 hours), the first training course started on Sept 10-13 and the second started on Sept 14-17, 2006. 50 trainees from Wahats local communities and tourism companies’ guides participated in each course.

97 trainees passed the training course successfully. 3 trainees were excluded as they did not complete the training course.

Day 1

Opening speech:

Mrs. Anneke Hoogendijk introduced herself to the attendees. She expressed her pleasure at holding the training course and thus seeing a dream come true. She explained that the White Desert Foundation was founded in order to protect the White Desert and to contribute to development of Oasis inhabitants.

Morning session:

I. Ecotourism Impact on the Environment: by Dr. Rudolph Kuper (the presentation was interpreted into Arabic by Salwa El Halawani)

The presentation of Dr. Kuper was very interesting and the trainees were riveted by what he told them. Subjects he explained:


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1. The desert geological eras and how the desert started upon climate changes:

• The area became rainy which helped the savanna grass to grow. Therefore, the desert became a greenery area with a new era of wild and farm animals

• Climate change and subsequent desertification of the area

2. Evidence of Prehistoric human habitation and remaining rock paintings (with photos).

3. Proof that Egyptian civilization started in the western desert

4. The importance of El Gelf El Kebir to be declared as a Protected Area; for its geological diversity and for its evidence of prehistoric human settlements.

5. Dr. Kuper’s presentation included some old pictures that show the prehistoric sites that were discovered between year 1920 and year 1960; he presented new pictures of the same places as they are now and showed the destruction done by tourists, as proof of negative tourism impact on the environment.

Discussion and remarks:

1. Dr. Kuper is convinced that the prehistoric remnants will be destroyed unless the area is conserved and protected.

2. Vehicles should not proceed beyond a certain point in the desert where these remnants exist and tourists should be made to walk to these sites.

3. Training courses for the desert drivers and guides are an asset in order to teach them how best to conserve the desert treasures

II. Accidents, Poisonous Reptiles and scorpion bites - First Aid: by Dr. Ihab Mourad

In order to urge the trainees to interact with him, Dr. Mourad called for a volunteer from the trainees to describe the human body. He gave his lecture in the form of questions and requested answers from the trainees. He then explained what the correct answer was. The lecture was highly relevant and useful.

In his presentation, Dr. Mourad focused on life indicators: movement, consciousness, breathing, pulse and body heat in details:

• Movement:

- Human skeleton and description of muscles

- Types of broken bones: simple, compound and complex


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- How to deal with broken bones using first aid kit and simple materials

• Consciousness and unconsciousness indicators:

- How to deal with someone in shock

• Breathing:

- Description of the breathing system: nose, throat and lungs

- How to deal with the asphyxia and how to deal with food lodged in the throat or esophagus

- How to perform artificial respiration(mouth to mouth resuscitation)

- Asphyxia indicators: how to know if someone has asphyxia

• Pulse:

- How to check someone’s pulse

- How to calculate its rate (normal pulse is 70-80 per minute)

- Heart attack and when to apply “kiss of life”

• Body heat:

- How to treat heat - or sun stroke

- How to treat loss of body’s minerals

- The importance of drinking water/liquids

• Common matters:

- Burns: simple burns

- Bleeding: how to stop a nose bleed and how to stop a bleeding blood vessel

In general, the presentation’s main question was: how to know if someone needs first aid; the answer was: if any of life’s indicators is lost.

Dr. Mourad’s second presentation was about reptiles and scorpion bites; he focused on:


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• How to avoid reptiles(mainly snakes) and scorpion bites. He mentioned that all desert snakes are poisonous.

• Some instructions about how to deal with the bites and how to stop the poison within the bite area: do not panic and apply a tourniquet to prevent the poison from spreading;

• How and when to use the anti-venom

Discussion and remarks:

1. First aid kit for broken bones should be prepared for each trip. 2. Anti-venom should be included in the first aid kit

3. First aid training course is particularly essential for desert drivers and guides who go on long trips.

Afternoon session:

III. Eco-tourism and Environmental Harmony: By Dr. Khaled Hassouna

In his presentation, Dr. Hassouna simplified the meaning of eco-tourism to the trainees. He talked about:

1. The value of the desert

2. The harmony of the environment

3. Eco-tourism and its economic importance

Day 2:

Morning session:

The Western Desert: Natural Landscape, Depressions, Oasis and Geological Eras; by Dr. Samer El Mofty

Dr. El Mofty explained and discussed the following topics (in detail):

1. The scientific definition of the desert as a climate phenomenon 2. The desert culture

3. Egypt lay in the Mediterranean world’s desert belt (one of the great Sahara countries)

4. How the desert was created: climate reasons and geological reasons 5. Desert types and the differences of each one of them

6. The great Sahara in Africa and the Western Desert


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7. The geomorphology of the Western Desert

8. The Great Sand Sea from Siwa at the north to El Gelf El Kebir at the south

9. The geology of the Western Desert

10. The geological eras and ages of the Western Desert

11. Hyrecenyan movement

12. The meaning of the word Oasis (end of the trip)

13. How the oasis and depressions started as a result of wind movements

14. Eastern Desert and the Red Sea

15. Sinai desert 16. The geology of Sinai

17. Natural plant cover in the desert

18. Desert plants’ adaptation to the desert climate changes 19. The desert wildlife and fossils

20. Desertification phenomenon

Afternoon session:

White Desert and Law number 102/83: by Eng. Tarek El Qanawaty

Eng. Tarek El Qanawaty gave his lecture in the open air area outside the tent used for the training course. It was about:

1. The history of Protected Areas

- What the Protected Area is

- Objectives of the Protected Area declarations

- Varieties of protected area

2. The history of Protected Areas in Egypt

3. The White Desert Protected Area

4. The White Desert PA management plan and the participation of the local community:

5. Management procedures and issues:

- lack of environmental awareness

- lack of trained desert drivers and guides

- solid waste management

- lack of coordination among stakeholders


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- disturbance of wildlife by hunting

- loss of indigenous knowledge by the local community

- non-effective role of the local community

There was an open discussion on the protected area management plan. A small meeting was requested order to discuss other related issues, such as:

• The White Desert map

• Unify the names of certain places on the map, as each group of drivers gives them different names

• Planned tracks need to be re-selected

• A field trip to collect GPS data for the reselected tracks was planned on the last day of the training course.

Day 3

Morning session:

I. Vehicles preparation and Safety Driving: by Amr Shannan

All through this presentation important issues for discussion were raised. Mr. Shannon explained and discussed the following:

The difference between a vehicle’s driver and a vehicle’s leader: the leader is able to communicate with the vehicle and understands all the aspects of driving and leading the vehicle.

The meaning of the “leading driver”:

The responsibility of the leading driver toward himself

• How to keep his personal privacy

• How to develop and market his product

His responsibility toward his vehicle

• Vehicle preparation

• Vehicle marketing: to consider the vehicle as a product that needs to be marketed


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• Vehicle’s privacy: not to have intruders approach the vehicle closely as long as tourists are inside

• Punctuality and time usage: the tourist paid for his safari time, so the driver should respect that and give the tourist his money’s worth.

His responsibility toward his vehicle’s passengers:

• How to keep the personal privacy of each one of them

• Differentiate between personal and professional dignity

• The confidence of being powerful within his line of work

• How to give sharp answers: I know or I don’t know

• How to understand the others’ behaviors

• Self control while working

• Tourist time is precious, do not waste it

• How to improve your abilities to deal with problems

• Listening instead of talking

His responsibility toward vehicles convoy:

• The most experienced drivers always drive the first and the last vehicle in the convoy

• If there are many vehicles, a third experienced driver will be in the middle of the convoy

• Keep a distance between the vehicle in the front and the vehicle in the back

• Vehicle should follow each other and use the same track in the convoy, on the return trip they should drive either on the right or the left of the previous tracks.

The driver’s responsibility toward the environment:


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Mr. Shannan focused on skills development and training for safari teamwork, notably:

• What the environment is

• How to respect the place and its details

• How to keep the place clean and quiet

• Solid waste should be collected in a plastic bag in the vehicle; returned to the oasis and dumped responsibly

• Vehicle’s motor and pollution

Discussion and remarks

The trainees raised many questions and wanted to get more details. The discussion came as the result of one recommendation which suggested that an emergency track should be available in the “walking only” zone and should only be used in an emergency.

II. Desert Navigation: by Mahmoud Nour El Din

Mr. Nour El Din’s presentation explained the following:

1. Tools of desert navigation: map, compass and GPS

2. Latitude lines:

• They are imaginary lines running horizontally around the globe with an equal distance from one another.

• Zero degrees latitude is called the earth's Equator.

• This measurement tells how far north or south you are.

• The lines increase from 0 degrees to 90 degrees north (going upward from the equator to the North Pole), and from 0 degrees to 90 degrees south (going downward to the South Pole).

3. Longitude lines:

• They are imaginary lines running from north to south around the globe.

• Longitude lines are not parallel to each other, therefore do not have an equal distance from each other. The lines are widest apart at the equator and eventually meet at the poles.


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• Zero degrees longitude is called the Prime Meridian. Longitude lines are also called meridian lines.

• This measurement tells you how far you are east or west of the Prime Meridian.

• Degrees are measured from 0 to 180 going east and west from the Prime Meridian

4. Using Latitude and longitude lines:

• Putting latitude and longitude together creates a grid which can be used to identify any point on earth.

• Latitude and longitude are measured in degrees. The distance between each degree is 111 km.

• This distance is too large for practical use, so the system of minutes and seconds was developed.

• 1 degree = 60 minutes

• 1 minute = 60 seconds

• 1 degree = 3600 seconds (60 minutes x 60 seconds)

5. Maps: all maps have a scale and a legend:

• The legend (also called a key) is a small table accompanying the map that tells us the name of the area shown on the map and explains the symbols that are used on the map. It also shows the scale.

• The scale shows the actual distance between different locations. If the map scale is 1:500 000 then 1 unit onfiltered= 500 000 units in real life, then;1 cm onfiltered= 500 000 cm = 5 km in real life. The scale of a map is based on the physical size of the map.

6. Compass:

• It is a tool that helps to find directions, bearing, and plot your route on the map. The main directions are N, S, E, W. The needle of the compass is magnetized and will always point to the magnetic north.

• The earth has a magnetic field that goes north to south. This magnetic field affects the needle of the compass. True north, is the geographic or map north,


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the poles. There is about 15°difference between the magnetic and true north. This difference is called the angle of declination. In Egypt, the declination is between 2 and 3° to the west.

• A bearing is a horizontal angle measured clockwise from north to some point on a map or a point in the real world. Bearings are used to accurately navigate to your destination point

7. Measuring a bearing

• Draw a straight line on the map from the starting point to the next waypoint.

• Place the compass on the map with its center on your starting point and with the N on the rotating dial pointing up, parallel to the vertical lines on the map.

• The bearing you need to follow is shown on the rotating dial at the point where it meets the line you drew.

• To use this bearing, you must compensate for magnetic declination.

8. GPS

• It is a radio receiver that receives signals from 24 commercial satellites. Its basic function is calculating the time the signals take from the satellites until reaching the GPS receiver.

• It computes the information and translates it into longitude and latitude lines.

• The GPS is used to mark locations, track the route you are following and give you your actual position.

9. Waypoints and tracks

• The GPS allows you to enter and mark waypoints, and will keep track of the path you have traveled, also called TRACK.

• Waypoints are locations of interest. They can be downloaded to the receiver from the computer, or entered manually onto the GPS.

Afternoon session:

Desert civilizations and Oasis People: by Ibrahim Hassan

This presentation dealt mainly with the history of the Egyptian Western Desert; from the prehistoric era till now. It also included:


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1. Oasis areas in Roman , Christian and Islamic times

2. Geography of the region

3. History of oasis: Siwa, Baharia, Dakhla, Kharga, Farafra, 4. The tourist areas in all oases

5. Tourism activities in the region: eco-tourism, desert explorers 6. Hotels, camps and resorts in the area and their categories 7. Tourism companies in the region

8. Investment opportunities in the region: The New Valley Governorate is now facilitating procedures to develop the region and to create job opportunities for the local community.

Day 4

Morning session

I. Biodiversity in the western desert: by Dr. Sherif Baha El Din

In this presentation, Dr. Baha El Din showed the importance of conserving the wildlife in the Western Desert. He presented some pictures of the animals, reptiles of all kinds, indigenous and immigrated birds in the area as well as species of plants. He also talked about the threatened birds and the fact that they are hunted by the local people. Dr. Baha El Din talked about the White Desert Protected Area and the importance of local community participation in the Management Plan.

II. Western Desert Expeditionary: by Dr. Ali Hamdy

Mr. Hamdy explained:

1. How the Western Desert attracted expeditions throughout history, starting with Herodotus, Strabo, Gerhard Rohlfs and Ahmed Fakhry.

2. How the western desert explorers relayed the knowledge and information they gathered from their expeditions to the following generations.

3. Focusing on the Egyptian explorers in modern times, such as:

• Ahmed Hasanein who made the first trip by camels between Saloum in the north and Gabal Owainat in the south.

• Kamal El Din Hussein who discovered a road between Wahat Dakhla and wahat Kafra, as well as finding Zarzoura oasis.

• The archeologist Ahmed Fakhry who registered most of the architectures in all oases.

• Cassandra Vivian who wrote a book about the Western Desert in 1990. This book contains more than 50 maps and 270 drawings. The


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book covers the nature and the history of all oases : Kharga, Dakhla, Farafra, Bahariya, Siwa and El Fayoum.

4. The Great Sand Sea: the last point beyond which man can go no further 5. Sand dune and Owainat desert: Nature of the area, mountains and silica glass 6. The important eco-tourism areas in the western desert

• The White Desert Protected Area • Qasr El Farafra village which has more than 20 water wells • El Gara cave

Training course test:

The Training facilitator divided the trainees into four groups and each one was led by a lecturer. The first group was with Tarek Qanawaty, the second was with Khaled Hassouna, the third one was with Amr Shanan, and the fourth one was with Ali Hamdy.

Each lecturer asked his group a variety of questions about the subjects that were taught in his lecture. The trainees were expected to give answers and comments and in doing so their knowledge could be tested. All trainees successfully passed the test.

Training course overall comments:

1. The training course was well-organized

2. Trainees were very keen to attend morning and afternoon sessions and were very punctual

3. If any of the registered trainees did not show or only partially attended one of the training days, his registration was cancelled

4. Organizers were very strict about attendance and insisted on having cell phones shut off during lectures

5. Some of the lectures were very long and too academic for this course, such as: desert geology, Western Desert expeditions and parts of the biodiversity lecture

6. Dr. El Mofty’s presentation/lecture was very interesting but very long and very academic. The trainees requested a break after the first 2.5 hours of continuous lecturing. He continued the lecture for more than 2 hours after the break. Some of the trainees were getting bored during the lecture, although it sounded interesting in the beginning.

7. Trainees interacted positively during the course

8. At least 2 or 3 field trips should be organized for the trainees, especially to better understand the GPS and learn how to use it.


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Recommendations:

1. This kind of training course is essential and should be repeated frequently to update desert drivers and guides on all new environmental activities and events in the Western Desert. Not every driver/guide in Bahariya was able to register for this recent course, strictly due to lack of space. A repeater course was requested for next spring in Bahariya. The organizers would like to organize a similar course inDakhla and Siwa in 2007..

2. An English course –as one of the potentially most important trainings – should be considered for desert drivers and guides in future in order to improve their communication skills with the tourists. This is something that could easily be organized by the local NGO’s.


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The First Training Course for the Desert drivers and Guides Wahat El Baharia Summary of the Evaluation Forms 1 How did you find the: Excellent Good Weak a. Training course? 49 1 0 b. Training agenda? 37 13 0 c. Subjects? 46 4 0 d. Presentations? 38 9 3 e. Lectures and written materials? 40 10 0 f. Training course outcome? 44 6 0 Yes No 2 Would you like this training course to be held again? 49 1 3 Would you like to add other subjects next course? 41 9 4 Would you like to attend the next training course? 46 4 5 Would you like to have all subjects to be re-presented in a different way? 24 26 Geology First Aid White D. All well 6 What was the too difficult subject to understand? 29 1 1 19 7 Overall personal remarks: a. It was excellent

b. The course added more knowledge to our experiences

c. Desert drivers and guides were in a bad need to the information that has been presented during training courses

d. At least 2-3 field trips should have been arranged for the trainees


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Dr. Kuper during his presentation

Trainees were following the lectures


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Trainees were following Dr. Kuper’s lecture

Dr, El Mofty’s presentation


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Mr. Aly Hamdy during his lecture

Dr. Mourad with a volunteered trainee describing how to do first aid


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Trainees were concentrating to the lectures

Dr. Hassouna during his lecture


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Trainees were following the lectures


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Eng. El Qanawaty during the test preparation

Mr. Aly Hamdi with his group

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