I'm back, since about ten days ago, from my quick trip to the south Sinai with Al Dalil. Ten days back home, and not a single day passed by without connecting with the memory of the eyes and the hears back to this beautiful land and its people.
It’s been a great experience that re-charged me with energy, I was relieved from all the flatness that slowly settles on you in the daily life in Milan.
I spent full days in Sinai, where I could pamper myself in the grandeur of the nature and the gentleness of the people. Spending some time in the tent of Al Dalil means getting in deep contact with the surrounding environment and the people who inhabit it.
The scenery is superb, essential. The desert merges with the sea. Only two chromes of colors, exploding into a thousand and sophisticated shades: turquoise and blue water, honey and ochre color of the desert. The tranquility of the white beaches and the harshness of the surrounding mountains.
I walked on long and lonely beaches, only in the company of the wind of the smooth and harmonious fish eagle ospreys’ flight. I bathed in clear waters, between sea stars and white shells, playing with small waves and tides.
I walked on gazed wadis and drowned my look between ridges of ancient and mysterious mountains. I breathed in the desert, its heat, its sand.
I was lucky enough to see the rare magic of its flowers.
I listened to the night. I heard the whisper of the wind and the waves. The sweet music that spreads around the fire and the endless embrace of the stars.
I watched sunsets and sunrises repeating themselves daily in ever new color-games, dazzling in the transparency of the air and sometimes delicate in the dissolving lights of the mist.
But above all, I met gentle and hospitable people, with whom I had the chance to share all these beautiful emotions. People who are open and available, who helped me getting closer to this land, to this culture.
Many fragments come to my mind, so many warm images follow one another in the memory of those days. A tea always ready to drink with the guests and friends, the smell of the bread baked under the embers, the freshly caught fish, games and drawings with the children, carpets and rugs that turn every corner of the beach or of the desert in the most comfortable lounge, the drowsiness of the afternoon in the hammock, the sweetness of the night with the laughter and the chatter around the fire or under the moon, the soothing rhythm of the music, the candlelight, a genuine smile, the quiet sweetness of being in good company.
These and many, many more pictures yet. Great memories, pictures etched in my heart.
To me this holiday was the discovery of a marvelous place. It was a meeting with wonderful people who gave me moments of intense serenity.
Now this is to me a place to go back to, with friends to meet again.
Daniela
