Two Egyptian hikers walked the Sinai Trail recently, covering every part of the route except the last stage in the mountains of St Katherine. Marwan Abdellatif from Mansoura and Shady Mokhtar of Alexandria started the trail together, beginning from the more difficult one of the Sinai’s two alternative starting points to tackle the huge El Gardood plateau: a 1000m-high tableland with views to the Hejaz mountains of Saudi Arabia. This is the hardest part of the Sinai Trail for hikers, which makes their achievement all the more impressive, because they were noth novices with no previous hiking experience before this trip. Marwan and Shady plan to return to the Sinai soon to complete the final section of the hike near St Katherine. These two hikers have walked further than any other mainland Egyptians, setting an inspirational example for others to follow, and we send them a big congratulations!