Recently, a lot of people have become more tempted to explore places in Egypt that aren’t typically urban. Going back to nature in the most primitive of ways has been getting a lot of hype. But most people haven’t received the proper education on wilderness and the right way to survive in it. And this exactly what Sahara Survival School came about to fulfill. It was initially created to bring out human skills under-wrapped by modern city life.
A pharmacist and founder of Sahara Survival School, Ahmed Salem, started delving deep in the science of survival in the year 2004. Salem is a science-oriented person and therefore believed that his passion for wilderness wasn’t enough to get him going. After spending several years studying, in 2009 he decided to start putting to practice what he learned across the years on his friends and family.
At first, Salem was very skeptical that his passion would actually get anyone’s interest, but to his surprise, the plan took an interesting twist. In 2013, he founded Sahara Survival School and started his journey of helping people understand more about the “Will to Survive.”
So, what should people expect to get from this place?
Well, Salem explained that fun is definitely an integral part of what they do, but other important things have to come first. They start off by teaching people how to adapt and live in Egypt’s desert ecosystem.
In the training phase, Sahara school starts by introducing the know-how of using resources to turn a deserted area into a place suitable for living. People get to learn how to make tents, create fire, hunt for food and even sterilize contaminated water. “However, this is the easy part,” said Salem.
Salem divulged that the hardest endeavor about training is to teach people how to get past their fears and take decisions in critical situations such as acting quickly in very cold or hot weather or sand storms. This is by far the aim behind this school. People get to come out of their comfort zone and understand that fear is nothing but a lack of knowledge. However, Salem asserted that not all people are always allowed to go on all the trips. “I assess people after a period of intensive training and select those whom I know are ready to experience wilderness and all that comes with it,” he said to me.
Training people to adjust to their surrounding environment is what we do, but most importantly embedding in them skills that they can use in their everyday lives, is what matters most. The school’s main goal is to train people to assess their decisions, think before they act and understand very well that recklessness does not equate to courage.
“At the Sahara Survival School, we teach people that change is possible and that fear is inflicted only by oneself.” Salem said to me as we ended our talk.
