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Article: Eye of the storm
- Article from:
- New Statesman
- Article date:
- July 21, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright New Statesman Ltd. Jul 21, 2008. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Travels
For all its warlike past, the Sinai peninsula is a quiet success story in a troubled region, writes Simon Akam
The guide, Nasser, appears in the pre-dawn halflight, padding across the square with the horses. It is warm already, at just after five, and the last stars are setting behind the jagged, dental peales inland. We exchange a few words in vernacular Arabic, and I slip my boot into the stirrup and hoist myself up, sniffing the familiar, sweet reek of horse sweat and the scorched scent of the desert. In the gloaming, the quilted red of the saddlecloth is faded to a monochromatic grey, as though deep underwater.
"Yalta?" Nasser flashes a quick glance at me. I nod back, and ...