Wander for Pickleball!
WanderinGwyneth wanders for her favorite sport – pickleball!
How does someone combine a passion for travel with their favorite sport? In Fall 2021, before I was even out of Cairo International Airport, I met my first friends in Egypt who would introduce me to pickleball. Like most pickleball fanatic greetings, one of the first questions I was asked was “do you play pickleball?” Now I had heard of it from time to time from my mom’s best friend who played it with her retired friends, but to be fair, she never did a good job of explaining it to me.
Before I knew it, the addiction took hold; I was playing as often as I could, taking lessons, and stocking up on sunscreen to play hours and hours on weekends. It started as a small group sharing a multipurpose court, before moving onto more space on clay courts (a nightmare for dust and wind and bounces), before finding a permanent home on pickleball courts in Cairo.
The new “ancient” gods of pickleball have come to Egypt.
My first Christmas back to my hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska, USA, after teaching at the American University in Cairo, was a bit quiet with most of my friends having moved away. I wandered into an indoor rec play with Pickleball Lincoln. Rec play can sometimes be a bit intimidating, even as an extrovert. A cute, nice guy asked if I wanted to join in, I gladly introduced myself, and away we went! A few days before Christmas, I’d made a handful of new friends who I continue to come back and play with in the summers and winters. Needless to say, “the girl that shows up from Egypt every so often” gets remembered.
There is something about traveling, living, and working abroad that does amazing things for developing a person, whether that is personality, perseverance, or just gaining life’s experiences. As I played my first tournament, I was smacking the ball, watching plays, and thinking strategy, when I suddenly realized I’d become a competitive person! As a nerdy kid in school with glasses and an unkempt ponytail, the most competitive I got was being on a team for competitive reading! Sure, I’d ran cross country in high school, but the motivation was to chase the cute boys, and I never really cared about reaching my personal best. If I did it for two years, I got out of doing a PE-credit, so that was the payoff. I would NEVER call myself competitive, but suddenly a switch had been flipped in my mind and I wanted to be good. No, not good, GREAT! The motivation and feeling surprised me, and how much I mentally reacted to wanting to compete more and more in pickleball. Now the question was, where could I do that?
Between Cairo and Lincoln, I took my Gearbox paddle wherever I went on the off chance we could get some pickleball in on the side. I hauled it all over Upper Egypt in an attempt to get the perfect pose with the paddle in the ancient temples of Abydos. Between the back and forth to see family in the US, I wanted to challenge myself to play harder and better games, so I road tripped to Wyoming for the Pickleball Brawl, complete with the John Wayne-themed pickleball motif and took my first workshop with professional player Kyle Yates.
I played a few more summer tournaments locally in Nebraska, with a memorable (for better or worse) “Pillage the Village” played in the village of Manley, Nebraska, for them to fundraise money to resurface the courts for pickleball play. It was an August weekend with 100F and humidity rising throughout the day. My mixed partner’s poor leg visibly cramped, contorting muscles in a spasm that made you want to do calf raises in sympathy. He required more than a few swigs of pickle juice and spoonfuls of mustard to keep his legs from cramping before finally ending the men’s doubles games with a close score. Sometimes it’s not the final score, but the bragging rights of the conditions.
After three summers of tournaments, I wanted to take my skills on the road and test my mettle against others. In December 2024, I boarded the plane with my friends and doubles partners Frank and Catherine for an adventure in Tanzania! Frank is an Egyptian player who does sports marketing for a large padel (yes, padel is another sport) tournament company and Catherine is a South African teaching elementary school in Cairo. We had been prepping with drills and rec play against some of our tougher friends, readying ourselves for whatever we would find in Tanzania.
We crossed the equator and landed in Dar Es Salam’s summer with humidity and heat we hadn’t felt in a long time. At the East African Racquet Club, groups from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Egypt convened to play some amazingly competitive games! Catherine and I made top 16 in a tournament where we weren’t divided by rankings, so we played tennis champs to padel players! Frank and I barely survived the singles and didn’t make the brackets, but we made new friends, encouraging them to come visit us in Egypt! Again, Frank and I tried hard for our mixed doubles games, but didn’t bracket, yet as always there is a smile, a high-five and a hug waiting for each other at the end of the day. Our consolation prize was visiting the island of Zanzibar, eating some of the best African BBQ, Indian fusion food, and enjoying each other’s company.
Gwyneth, Frank, and Catherine sweating through the first day of the Tanzania Pickleball Open in Dar Es Salam December 2024.
Gwyneth and Catherine between women’s doubles matches in Tanzania
This January 2025 I didn’t have to venture as far to participate in the first Egypt Open in El Gouna. This city on the Red Sea is a gorgeous resort town for rest, relaxation, water sports, and racquet sports! ZZSports and PEAK Leagues in Europe came together to bring pros and amateurs alike to play the biggest pickleball tournament in Egypt, with people we met at the Tanzania Open joining us!
I ended up getting 2nd in Women’s Intermediate the first day. (Alas, we are always begging for more ladies’ singles players. It’s a challenge and a workout, and makes you a better doubles player!)
Catherine and I played 5 women’s doubles games in the round robin before being the number one seed in our division! We played friends from Cairo, as well as new friends from Spain and Britain. We played an 11-year old girl and her older partner for the bronze match against unrelenting wind, but we prevailed in the 3rd game in a best of 3!!!
Played our hearts out and got 3rd in Women’s Intermediate at the first Egypt Open in El Gouna, January 2025.
All this to say, sports tourism is a rising phenomenon and why not? Combine your passion, play hard, and then relax at the beach or sightsee with a quick flight. I’m currently working with a few pros and pickleball coaches to organize some pickleball-centric trips to Egypt and Morocco, with plans to extend into Africa and the Gulf. If you and/or your group are interested to travel for recreational pickleball or tournaments, contact me at contact@wanderingwyneth.com. Enjoy the bragging rights of playing abroad!