Wadi Waddan
The Valley of the Barbary Sheep

To visit the high sector of the Jebel Uweinat along the Sudanese-Libyan border without assuming risks we decided to hike from the north, starting from Karkur Ibrahim-Wadi Abd el Malik. It was a difficult and fatiguing hike, along a stony track barely visible, something dangerous because of the instability of the slopes. To enter in Wadi Waddan we walked for 14 km and climbed a total difference in elevation equal to 1000 m. We established a bivouac at 950 m a.s.l. A small party of us did the second ascent of Mount Bagnold (former Cima Mussolini, 1850 m), the second highest peak of the Jebel Uweinat first ascended in February 1934 by Prof. Umberto Mònterin.

Our fellow climbers (Paolo Carmignoto, Luciano Cosmo, Susanna Delcolle, Gert Pader and Alessandro Romanzi) succeed in reaching the top and placing a book of the top in a metallic box (congratulations!). While the mountainers were busy in climbing, I and my friend Michele continued our hike southwards. We descended the Valley of the Barbary Sheeps looking for new rock art sites. There are few shelters in the valleys nevertheless we found six new painted sites. One of them quite important from a scientific point of view. We wrote a report and now we hope it will be publish very soon on a specialized scientific magazine.

I was told that following the long quest for new rock art sites by Andras Zboray in the Egyptian-Sudanese sector of the Jebel Uweinat, a new kind of fashion evolved and other people is now looking for new discoveries. Actually it is a pleasant game only the first time. It take a very short time to discover that things are not so easy as they could appear by reading reports on the Internet. You have to be physically fit and eager to assume risks; high in the mountain there is no possibility to receive rescue. The Jebel Uweinat is not like the Swiss or Italian Alps; you need some good luck. A very minor accident could become deadly. In addition, after a while, all the Uweinat painting seems monotonous and not worthy the fatigue. You need to became a serious student to appreciate the subtle scientific meaningful differences you could note admiring the painted figures on display otherwise a cow... is just a cow regardless is painted or engraved. Be aware that much of the enthusiastic writings you can find on the Internet are just adverstising from selft-promoted micro-tours operators that want you to pay for their desert holidays.

However it is very curious to note that no professional researcher is really interested in doing exploration by foot: may be it is for this reason that the free-lance amateurish archaeologists were successful in discovering new sites. We were particularly successful in the Libyan sector because it is for climbers and extreme hikers. We love the Libyan sector of the Jebel Uweinat also because during the '30 it was under the Italian flag and was explored by some very romantic explorer or scientist like Prof. Umberto Mònterin.

However I wonder how many sites could be still waiting to be discovered (or re-discovered). Although the findings were the outcome of private amateurish researches, the exploratory efforts of these last years were very well directed and systematic. The virgin space left is only the space enclosed in the most difficult corners... but there are hopes that the ordes of people travelling by car did not paid enough attention even to the most obvious locations. I am quiet confident that also along the main routes usually travelled by car something important is still awaiting to be discovered by the modern traveller on foot. The Foggini Cave was discovered so near to the beaten track... not to mention the Carlo Bergmann's discoveries very near to Dahkla, in terms of 4x4 travelling of course!