South of the high massif the land falls toward the Gulf of Suez, and the wadis fall with it. The route I run here starts at Wadi Rumhan, a 4×4 transfer from St Katherine, and walks downhill for three days: about 1,500 m of descent in all, gradual rather than steep, on sand and gravel.
The rock changes as the height drops. Granite walls in the upper wadis give way to mixed volcanic rock, then to sandstone and gravel as the coast gets closer. The walls are lower each day. There are springs and acacia along the way, and Bedouin gardens where the route stops for the night.
This is Awlad Said ground. The tribe belongs to the Suwalha, together with the Qararsha of Wadi Feiran and the Awarma, and the Suwalha sit within the Tawara, the alliance of South Sinai tribes named for the holy mountain. Richard Pococke recorded them here in 1738. Their cooperative assigns the guide and arranges the gardens where you sleep, and which gardens depends on which families are in the wadi that week. Mattresses in the arisha, water from the well, bread made on the fire, tea with habak.
The walk ends at a small village at the bottom of the wadi system. From there it is about an hour by 4×4 along the road to El Tur, the town on the Gulf of Suez coast.
This route is for people who want distance more than height: three days that start in the mountains and finish near the sea. A long descent is harder on the knees than on the lungs, and walking poles help. It joins onto the high mountain routes with one night in between. Finish a garden trek behind St Katherine, sleep in town, and start south in the morning.
October to April. Spring is the best of it. In summer the upper wadis can be cool in the morning while the lower stretches are hot by afternoon, which is the wrong way round for a route that goes down all day.
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