Who are we?
The Red Sea Mountain Trail is a community tourism project, managed by members of the Khushmaan. The Khushmaan are a clan of a Bedouin tribe called the Maaza, who occupy the northern half of Egypt's Red Sea Mountains and who trace their roots to the Hejaz of Arabia. A small, tribal organisation headed by a Sheikh of the Khushmaan oversees the operation and ongoing development of the Red Sea Mountain Trail. This organisation is known as the Red Sea Mountain Trail Association (RSMTA). The Red Sea Mountain Trail is the sister project of the award-winning Sinai Trail and was developed by the same team, according to the same tourism model. The founders of the Red Sea Mountain Trail, along with co-founders who had a central role in putting final parts of the project together over the last year, plus members of our wider community of volunteers and helpers, are introduced below.
The RSMTA
Mohammed Muteer (Founder & Guide)
Mohammed Muteer grew up in the mountains, living the nomadic life with his family. Over the early years of his life he moved the traditional Bedouin way, following the rains and grazing with his family, getting to know the paths, water sources, place names and stories of the landscape extremely well. He walked further than anybody else, covering thousands of kilometres on foot in scouting the route network of the Red Sea Mountain Trail. Mohammed will be one of the head guides on the trail and is passionate about passing his knowledge onto younger guides for the future. He is in his early 30s and still lives in the mountains with his wife and two small daughters. Mohammed is a voice for the Bedouin guides, cameleers and cooks on the trail in the RSMTA.
Ben Hoffler (Founder & Ambassador)
Ben is a founder of the Sinai Trail: Egypt's first long-distance hiking trail. He oversaw its development into one of the Middle East's leading hiking trails from the very beginning. He authored Trailblazer's 2014 guidebook Sinai: The Trekking Guide and founded the Three Peaks Egypt Challenge and Sinai is Safe campaign, which aims to create a counter-narrative to the bad news about the Sinai. Originally from the UK, Ben has lived in Egypt 10 years, walking over 10,000 km with its Bedouin tribes. He created the RSMT over five years with the Maaza Bedouin and volunteers today, helping to bridge it with the outside world. His focus is on exploring how modern tourism can be mobilised to conserve the critically-endangered heritage of the Middle East's Bedouin communities.
Hassan Musallem (Founder & Guide)
Hassan Musallem is the brother of Sheikh Merayi Abu Musallem and grew up between the mountains and the town of Hurghada. He has been working in tourism for over 20 years, helping with the management of Bedouin camps or 'mahattas' in the foothills of the mountains. Hassan helped advise on the development of the Red Sea Mountain Trail and scouted some sections of the route. He will work close to Sheikh Merayi in overseeing its future development for the wider Bedouin community. Alongside his work off trail, he will work as a guide. Hassan splits his time between the mountains and Hurghada - but much prefers the mountains - and his knowledge of the region and its people are admired by both other Bedouin and tourists alike.
Co-Founders
Tony Howard & Di Taylor
Tony and Di have been building grassroots tourism for decades. Tony led the British first ascent of Norway’s unclimbed Troll Wall in 1965. He co-founded climbing company Troll and created the climbing sit harness design still used today. In 1984, Tony and Di’s team discovered then developed climbing and trekking in Wadi Rum, helped by Rum’s Zalabia Bedouin. Exploration of Jordan’s trekking, canyoning, climbing and caving culminated in their initiation of the award winning Jordan Trail. They also climbed in Sinai and the Red Sea Mountains in the 1990s. Their books include climbing and trekking guides, Tony’s award-winning Troll Wall and his autobiography, Quest into the Unknown. They are a source of advice to the RSMTA and we hope will scout parts of the route in the future.
RSMT Team
Mostafa Abul Fadl (Manager)
Originally from Egypt, Mostafa spent long parts of his childhood in Saudi Arabia, where he developed an enduring love for the Middle East's deserts. In 2016, he was part of the first group crossing of Egypt's Sinai Trail. He began working for the Sinai Trail soon after and today he fixes trips, assesses hikers and organises community events for the Sinai Trail in Cairo. He is a member of the core team that has driven the project to success. Mostafa organised the inaugural hike on the Red Sea Mountain Trail - attended by hikers from Egypt and around the world - and will take a leading role in the management of hikes on the trail. His dream is to introduce more people to the beauty of his homeland's deserts and to build a tourism that helps its communities.
Martina Sedlakova
Originally from the Czech Republic, Martina has spent most of the last decade working in different parts of Europe and the Middle East. An Arabic speaker, she worked at the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Cairo, before switching to Holland to manage projects for SPARK; a charity supporting access to education for refugees. Her entry to the world of trails came in 2015, when she managed a World Bank grant assigned for Masar Ibrahim Al Khalal: a long-distance hiking trail in Palestine. She also worked on developing the Sinai Trail and a new trail in Saudi Arabia. Martina's focus is on growing tourism projects that focus ownership firmly in the hands of local communities. She helped strengthen the ownership body of the Red Sea Mountain Trail and gives ongoing advice.
Sara Ghanem (Volunteer doctor)
Sara was born in Hurghada and grew up on the doorstep of the Red Sea Mountains. Nevertheless, it was not until the inaugural hike of the Red Sea Mountain Trail in 2019 that she walked the mountains of her hometown. Sara is a medical doctor - working in Alexandria - and alongside hiking, she competes as a tri-athelete in events across Egypt. She is raising the profile of the Red Sea a wider community of volunteers around the Red Sea Mountain Trail in Hurghada. She is currently helping us develop a first-aid training programme for Bedouin guides and is working on developing the route for trail running events. Sara hopes the trail can benefit her hometown, creating a new tourism industry that shows Egypt's beauty to the world, whilst supporting its Bedouin communities.