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THE SAHARA ADVENTURE COMPANY
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Splash Beach Center:
Jet Skis, Jet Boats, Power Boats, Wake Boarding, Knee boarding, Ski Tubes, Water Skiing, Wind-surfing, Kite Surfing, Wave Surfing, Sea Kayaks, Peddle boats, Snorkeling, Spear Fishing, Deep Sea Fishing & Introductory Fishing Trips. Plus Scuba Diving by march 2007. Splash is Located at Ghazala Beach 30 k.m west of Alamain. It is right on the beach close to a 5 star hotel and a luxury apartment and villas resort. to book Beach activities and accommodation at Ghazala resort contact us. or contact the owner directly: Yasser Abu Ismail: (201) 0 300 2212
We also run Snorkeling trips in Ghazala bay on some old wrecks well what's left of them are some amphoras but if you are luck you never know what you can find.
Sea Kayaking safaris are also Available around the Ghazala bay beaches with a picnic at a beautiful deserted beach.
Ghazala is a magnificent spot on the Mediterranean coast it is the closest shore line to the deepest waters, less than a mile off the coast the continental shelf drops to a depth of almost 2000meters 6000feet which explains why the water is always so clear here and it explains the great fishing.
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Power Kites & Kite Surfing is the newest and without a doubt the most radical extreme sport to date. Jumps can go from 10 meters to 70 meters; this sport takes the best elements of surfing, wind surfing and wake boarding. We took it even further:
The Sahara Kite Adventure Company (Fly-Surf.com article October, 2002.)
The
brand new Sahara Kite Adventure Company concept will take place from October
20th to 31st. It’s goal is to associate kiteboarding with sandboarding (a
sandy version of the snowboard) !Let’s go!
"The Company will not be the first to try out this madness. In the
early 90’s, snowkiter Damien Richard, had had a successful run at it
on the
Island of Cabo Verde.
A 10 day camping trip is set to take place, 3 days on Alexandria’s west
coast (kiteboarding, buggying and sandboarding), 4 days in the Egyptian
desert (sandboarding and kite sandboarding), and the journey will gather 6
kiteboarders, 2 sandboarders, one photographer, one cameraman, one 20 seat
limo and 3 SUV’s. Now that’s what I call organization ! This event is set
together with The Sahara Adventure Company (Egypt), the Pure
Spirit team (Philippe Richard and Christophe Dudouet, Nantes), Jérôme
Gouby (Pure Kite), Manu Vergely (Team Advance) and the friendly
contribution of Advance Kites."Ride
the sand !
"Kiteboarding on water ? Boring. Experimenting kite sandboarding
or sand kiteboarding (whatever the name is !), now that’s what we call
daring.
Surfing down and up endless desert sand dunes is the challenge we want to
share with you.
To succeed in our quest, we definitely needed adapted equipment. That is why
Sahara Adventure
Company’s main partner,
Advance, has
decided to provide for a wide range of kites (Rhea De power, Rhea 1, Viper,
Offroad). Regarding sandboarding, Venomous is putting forth its
famous sandboards, specifically designed for sand !
More news as soon as we come back !!!"
Surfing Siwa…..
Adrenaline Personified! Campus Magazine December, 2002.
The recently concluded month of October witnessed the passage of a new born X-treme baby. Through an adrenalised placenta, and onto the lush sands of Siwa, the gnarly little creature literally rose to magnificent proportions, conquering the towering dunes, and creating a whole lot more than a ripple in the world of action sports. Power Sand-Boarding has seen the light.
This new venture into the world of the X-treme was nurtured by both the Alexandria based Sahara Adventure Company, and Team Advance, a well sponsored group of power kite professionals from the North West of France. Both Sides were previously set to get together in September 2001, but as we all know by now, Osama had other plans. They finally managed to get their act together, and hooked up from October 20th through the 28th, to provide some of the most hardcore action Egypt had ever seen. The troupe spent their first day together hanging out in Agami, and managed to get some Zodiac Kite surfing done. Their treck to the western desert took them across the North Coast, sparing a day in Marsah Matroh, where the Frenchmen enjoyed some more beach kite surfing, on what they called “the most beautiful waters they’ve ever seen”.
Next up was a south bound cruise towards Siwa oasis, where they set up base camp at the lusciously fabled Great Sea of Sand. The Sahara Adventure Company base camp is what they prefer to call “The Million Star Hotel”. Top notch luxury camping gear includes single and double tents, a first class cook serving steaming hot munchies, a certified medic, and state of the art eco-friendly toilet, which is a integral part of the company’s eco-touristic policy: don’t poop in the desert, leave it as you found it, clean. This is topped off with your literal “million stars”, a nightly gazing extravaganza at a godly canvas of stellar constellations and shooting stars.
With camp all set up; there was now room for nothing but pure adrenaline. The team headed off to a huge dune rightfully dubbed “Big man Little man”. The elements were a little disappointing though, as the wind was under par, ruling out any kiting activities. Instead the team whipped out their sand boards, and proceeded to rip down the dune, providing some wicked action for the camera lenses. Jodi, who had tagged along for the trip, courteously provided the wipe out of the century, as his attempt to try out the new “venomous” competition standard sand boards, had him tearing down the dune for about 50 meters before his run morphed into an instructional video on how NOT to sand board. His fractured wrist was well tended by the medics, and he was jolly happy with the fact that his choke had been caught on video, earning him the undisputed title of ahem.. “King of the Dune”. This high octane day was then suitably deflated as everyone gathered around the hot spring, watching an impeccable sunset amidst the steamy fumes of the natural Jacuzzi. Entertainment was plenty, as guitars and tabla’s were al on hand back at the camp, not to mention an eye-boggling fire breathing display by one of the French Kiters.
The action intensified the following day, and was directly proportional to the amount of adrenaline gushing through these people’s blood vessels. They kicked off with some more sand boarding runs, and out came the Gravity Buggy: a three wheel tricycle like contraption with big foot tires attached to prevent the bug from rolling over even at the most extreme inclinations, at the highest of speeds. The Buggy can comfortably (or not so comfortably) zip down inclinations reaching as insane as 80 degrees, with the team managing to notch up a rather impressive 1,2km run. The wind then picked up, and the kites were instantly unpacked. The whole point of this entire excursion (apart from the extreme adrenaline) was to experiment with modulating your typical kite surfing (on water) and mixing it with sand boarding. Thus the first officially documented quest to integrate kite surfing with sand boarding is what these intense people pulled of in Siwa. Major Kudos. They kicked off the preliminary runs off small dunes and managed to accomplish some big air in a highly eventful first day. Once again the day was brought to a close by a well chilled gathering around the hot spring.
They were up with the sun for their final day in Siwa, and headed off to Suliman’s dune. Urban legend states that Suliman, a desert local, is the first person to ever race down a dune on a sand board in Siwa. According to Tim Adham, Head of the Sahara Adventure Company, he was there first guide many years ago when they came down with a sand board prototype. “We found a huge dune with nothing but rock at the bottom, and while we were still checking out who had the balls to pull it off, the dude was already on a board, racing down the dune, with his galabiya flapping!...Hence the logo”. The wind was ultra good on the day, and once again the kites were popped out in a jiffy. This time the kiters experimented with simply jumping off the top of the dune, propelling themselves into the air, putting a whole new BIG in big-air. The footage obtained actually coaxed the mother company at Advance into sending a team of Para gliders in the future. The Team concluded their mega successful trip by cooling off in the cold Jaffar Spring, before heading off to Cairo to enjoy a rather dull (in comparison) tour of the major touristics.
This Siwa adventure has come to prove that adrenaline is plenty and quite possible here in Egypt, but sure as anything is not easy. “We have to be very picky about our clientele and never mix people” states Tim Adham. “Our goal is to attract people to adrenaline and expose them to the extreme amidst a surreal experience of a mid-desert 5 star hotel.” Tim and Co are expected to take out the entire Spanish Paris-Dakar rally team in January, in a clear singe of deserved international recognition. Siwa is one of the best eco-touristic spots on the planet, and mammoth efforts must be made to preserve it’s natural beauties, in order to insure that for generations to come, people can count on coming out to the same mesmerizing oasis. So get off your lardy asses people, stop surfing the net… and go surfin’ Siwa.
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We Can't wait to sea you, the Sahara and Splash Crews!!! Peace.
SUMMER SUN & WINTER FUN Sahara and Splash Crews
All info, photos & maps courtesy of:
Sahara Adventure Company, YEP Expeditions, The Zarzora Expedition (Colonel A. Mistikawy a.k.a. The Desert Fox)&(Wael Abed, The Other Egypt "Travels In No Man's Land"), Anthony Colas, C. Vivian, Frans Lemmens Photography, K Mohsen Photography, Advance Para gliders & Kites, Adham Compound Hotel, Siwa Shali Resort, The Greco Report, The Frank Goddio Society, Fliegel Jezerniczky Expeditions, Venomous Sand Boards, The Storm Rider Guide, The National Geographic society, The Mediterranean Data Base, NASA Applied Siences Directorate, Impossible Pictures, Mazag Productions, The W.W.W. & Local Bedouin Knowledge.