Just out of curiosity, how did the early “beachcomber” humans get from “Africa”to the Arabia Peninsula? Once there, how did they survive the journey?
Following the Nile makes a lot more sense. Just the small matter of food & water, you know.
Over the past several million years, the planet has had numerous, separate ice ages. Some of these, like the last one, were so extensive and had so much ice that world wide, sea levels dropped over 300 feet!
At those times, the straights at the exit of the Red Sea would have only been a few miles across, and the distant land could be easily seen from either side. I can image people, just like they are now, were very curious as to just what was on the other side. Logs float, and can be tied together to make rafts.
The rest, as they say, is prehistory!
See Jim’s up there:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3147073/posts?page=10#10
and Alas Babylon!’s
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3147073/posts?page=14#14
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3147073/posts?page=17#17
Walk up the eastern African coast to Suez, then down the Arabian coast. There have been points in history where the region probably had more rain than it has now, with good vegetation in what is currently desert.