Membership of Compass & Camel Trails is what sustains the logbook between visits — the November and March seasonal updates, the citizen-science programme at Wadi El-Hitan, the methodology document and the cooperative office in Tunis Village. The trail fee paid to the guide family on the day of the walk is separate; the cooperative takes no commission on it. Membership is not required to book a walk, but it makes a real difference to the cooperative's ability to keep the catalogue honest.
€18 / year
For a family planning a single visit to Fayoum and the desert this season.
€48 / year
For families returning to Fayoum more than once a year, or planning a multi-trail visit.
€120 / year
For families and individuals who want to directly sustain the cooperative's conservation work.
The cooperative does not handle trail-fee transactions. When you book a walk through the contact form, the relevant guide family quotes a fee directly — typically four hundred to nine hundred Egyptian pounds per person per day for adults, two hundred to four hundred per child depending on age, with overnight trails adding a per-night camp fee that covers tent, sleeping mat and meals. The fee is paid in cash on the morning of the walk, in Egyptian pounds or in US dollars at the day's bank rate. The guide family issues a hand-written receipt on the cooperative's headed paper.
The cooperative is not a booking intermediary; the membership pays for the logbook work, not the trail itself. This separation is deliberate and is what allows the trail files to remain editorially independent from the commercial pressures of selling the trails. We are aware that the model is unusual for a guided-walk service; we have not found a more honest way to run it.
Within two working days of payment clearing, the cooperative office sends a welcome email with the membership identifier, the link to the members-only trail files in PDF, and an introduction to the member family or families whose trails you have indicated interest in. The printed update arrives by post in November or March depending on the date of joining. The phone-consultation slot for Trailwalker members is booked by the member directly through the office; we hold one Tuesday afternoon and one Friday morning per week for member consultations.
Per household. One Trailwalker membership covers a single household of any size; the printed update arrives at one address, the consultations are with one family decision-maker. We have not yet had a situation requiring a more granular structure.
No. Anyone may write to the desk, book a walk through the cooperative and pay the guide family directly. Membership sustains the cooperative's editorial work; the trails are open regardless. Roughly forty percent of visiting families are non-members.
Bank transfer in euros to the cooperative's account at Banque Misr Cairo, or by PayPal at the member's preference. We do not retain payment cards or auto-renew. Renewal is by your active choice at the end of the membership year.
Cancellations are arranged directly with the guide family, not with the cooperative. The standard practice in the cooperative is no deposit and no cancellation fee for cancellations more than seventy-two hours ahead; cancellations within seventy-two hours are at the family's discretion and usually involve a token contribution to the wasted preparation. This is set out in the booking confirmation email.
Yes. At the contact form mark the topic as "gift membership" and tell us the recipient's name, the address you would like the printed update sent to, and the date you would like the welcome email delivered. We hold the gift until the date and send the welcome with your name attached as the gifting member unless you ask us not to.
Yes — Egyptian residents pay the membership in Egyptian pounds at the equivalent of half the listed euro amount. This reflects the cooperative's commitment to keeping the trails accessible to local families and is funded out of the Fayoum Heritage Foundation grant. Mark your country as Egypt in the form and the office will send the Egyptian-resident invoice.
The December update, sent to every active member, contains the year's catalogue changes, the citizen-science annual results, the board minutes summary, the financial transparency note, the year's correction list, and a feature essay by one of the member families. It runs to twenty-eight pages in print.
Write to the chair. The cooperative has accepted three larger benefactions in its history — two from individual donors and one from a Cairo-based educational foundation — each negotiated directly with the board. There is no listed price beyond Patron; larger contributions are by conversation, not by tier.
The annual financial statement is published in the December update and made available to members and journalists on request. The cooperative is a registered Egyptian agricultural-tourism cooperative subject to annual ETA filings; the filings are public records and the cooperative's filing number is 11/2007. The annual income split among the three revenue sources is published openly each year.
Questions on membership handling, billing, refunds and Egyptian-resident rates should be addressed to the office at the contact form. Reader questions about which trail is right for your family go to the same form — mark the topic accordingly and the right member family will reply.