Days 20-21: Mt Sinai to Cairo, Egypt

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I think I can, I think I can, I think I can......

Day 20: Dahab
You may have thought that I had forgotten the third calamity but I hadn't....but I will tell you more about that one later....

It is amazing how a good nights rest can restore things. I felt great this morning and was feeling so much better than the night before. I still had the whole day left in Dahab as we were only going to be heading out after dinner for our next stop of Mt Sinai (so that we would be able to do the mountain climb in plenty of time to see the morning sunrise). I hate to say it - but by this stage I had finally gotten sick of walking up and down the same streets shopping. Yes! shocking I know - but I have actually been really good with my shopping (ie not buying very much). I have instead chosen to leave it to the experts like Mel, who has managed to come up with some pretty amazing deals throughout her entire stay her so far.

Instead I avoided the groups opting to go for the snorkeling session that morning choosing instead to relax in the restaurant by the beach, check my emails and wander around, one final time, through the shops together with Jac. We ended up (as always when it comes to Jac) in one of the local jewelery stores so that she could get her daily jewelery fix. The owners of the store were two brothers who were always keen to have a few girls wandering in and out of their store. Surprisingly as we sat down to the usual negotiations over our glass of mint tea, I found out a rather interesting fact - 25% of Egyptians were Coptic Christians (them included). We sat around swapping life stories, sipping tea and exchanging photos talking about what it is like to be a Christian living in a predominantly Muslim country and what their plans were for expanding their business - (very deep discussions indeed!!!). Throughout these discussions however, were the ever present negotiations that had to be undertaken over the jewelery that we had selected. It was at the conclusion of these negotiations, that we all celebrated with more tea and the offer of a nargileh pipe and a rather interesting 'cigarette' alternative!!! (Hmmm).

I am amazed at how quickly the day goes by when you are doing nothing. I had literally spent the whole day wandering around the two main streets of Dahab waiting the time out for when we would have to leave at 7pm and before I knew it, I was quickly packing up my lap top, guzzling down my burger and sprite and making a mad dash to the truck with my things. I ran around saying goodbye to my new friends, stopping in to say goodbye to the man who I had earlier bargained very hard with over a pair of sandals. I couldn't help but be dragged into another stall selling perfumes (by the friend of the man who sold me the sandals). Whilst I didn't buy any perfumes, I did drink some tea, wrote in his guest book and had my photo taken with him on his mobile phone before being set free to make my way to the truck.....it is at this point where calamity #3 struck....!!!

....calamaity #3!!
Although almost all of us have had 'the bug' at some point throughout the whole holiday, no-one had really been too sick up until now....

After saying my goodbyes to all my new shop front friends I headed towards the truck to wait it out. On my way there I bumped into my upgrade buddy Mel who was on the way back to our room because sadly Stephanie was violently ill, was severely dehydrated and had to receive medical attention.

We all rushed back to see how she was, aware that being sick in a foreign country was never going to be pleasant experience. As I write this - I know that she is fine, got through her bug and continued on an extended tour of Egypt after our tour finished. I wont recall all the gory details, suffice to try and give her a giggle when she tries to read this part of the story.... As we sat there watching her lying on the bed, pale & shivering - we all tried to make her laugh because she picked a doctor that looked like he had just graduated from medical school (her very own Middle Eastern Doogie Howser). Mel (our resident pharmacist and walking chemist) checkout his credentials (just to be sure!!!) and was comforted by the fact that he worked in a Medical Centre in Dahab and had done so for a few years already (Hmmm!).

The other humorous memory of that experience was her selection of medical apparatus - A very old & very rusty postcard holder (that was dug up by one of the guys who worked at the rest house) was used as her drip holder for the evening. Sadly we had to leave her in Dahab to recuperate (She was looked after by Mel & Kate who stayed on to help her) while the rest of continued our journey to Mt Sinai.

......and now for the climb of my life!!
We arrived in Mt Sinai around 11pm that night. Our itinerary was to walk up to the top of the mountain that night so that we would be able to see the sunrise over the mountain the next morning. Easy enough right. No problem!!

Mt Sinai is said to be the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God. It is also the home of the Monastery of St Catherine which was founded in the 6th century and is supposedly standing at the sight of the burning bush (sadly it was closed on the day we went).

There are two routes to get to the top (i) The Camel Path - which according to some research on my part is classified as a "gentle winding path that snakes it's way up to the summit....with camel by products that look like "sawdust" coating the length of the road" (Nice!!), which, according to our guide, should take the average traveller approx 2.5 hours to climb to the summit on foot. The second path (ii) The Steps of Penitence - is a steep path carved out of the rock by monks, with 3750 steps to reach the summit. And if the name of the path has not given the game away, this particular route is classified as the more challenging of the two (no kidding!!).

Thankfully our guide took us up the Camel Path (Like I would have done the other one!!!) and we set off as a group to walk to the summit at around midnight. I am not what you would call a very “fit” person. I am more akin to walking jelly than I am to any form of muscle definition - so let me tell you that I felt every inch of my lacking muscle ability & cardiovascular capability throughout every minute of that 2.5 hour climb up that bloody mountain.

Whoever wrote the guide describing the Camel Path as wide & gentle forgot to add incredibly long and incredibly steep (in some parts). I trudged up that mountain carrying my sleeping bag, 2 litre bottle of water & digital SLR camera (oh so heavy) and soon came to realise (rather unsurprisingly) that I always ended being the last one in the group to reach the next rest stop (Actually it was more like me and another girl). To make the journey more bearable, I started to make little bargains with myself "A few more steps and you can sit down for two minutes..." or "This is good training for Machu Picchu" or "Think about all the weight you are loosing by doing this!!" and my favourite "You've already reached the halfway point, it wont be much longer now!!" (Umm - it was more like 1/3 at that point)".

Every time I reached the next rest stop, I barely had enough time to sit and catch my breath before our guide would cry "That's it - it's time to move on", forcing me to scrape my oh so weary feet up of the floor and drag myself along the path of 'Camel by products' like the hunchback of Notre dam to get to the next rest stop.

I must point out that although we did the journey on foot (and at midnight with a headlamp strapped to my head for added effect) that did not stop the Camel touts from doing the rounds in the pitch black of night. Every now and again I would get the fright of my life as a man would jump up from the ground asking me if I wanted a camel. At one point on my way up the path I almost got run over by an angry Camel owner who was obviously irritated that no one had chosen to ride to the top and was not impressed by my refusal.

We reached the final rest stop known as Elijah's hollow after much pain & misery (on my part). This is where the two paths converge for the final push up the mountain - The remaining 750 steps to take you to the top. I made my way up, deliriously tired, highly irritable and somewhat elated at what I had thus far accomplished. Just before the summit, you are able to rent blankets and/or sleeping cushions to use for 10 Egyptian pounds. I picked up my cushion, none to happy that they were not going to take it up the remaining few steps for me and treated myself to a very expensive snickers bar for energy.

I was expecting to find a flat plain on top of the mountain, a patch of grass where we could all lie down next to each other and watch the sunrise. Instead it was a barren series of stone levels cut out into the mountain. We were each placed in different areas, spread out on different levels because of the limited availability of flat ground. Myself and another girl (Chanel) positioned ourselves next to a stone outlook point and tried to catch some sleep in the freezing cold while waiting for the sun to peak it’s head over the horizon.

As I lay there, I was astounded at how vivid the sky was. It was deathly quiet and immensely peaceful to lie there watching the stars twinkling above, with nothing to obstruct my view of the surrounding area. What little light there was gave me a glimpse of how far I had climbed up the mountain and how high I actually was. Lying there waiting for the sun to rise, feeling the dull ache of my feet and the carefully wiggling my big toe which I had badly stubbed earlier on in the climb - I started to truly appreciate the climb and what I had accomplished that night.

Day 21: Mt Sinai

….it’s just as hard to go down as it is to go up!!!
What a rather rude awakening!!! The sunrise was expected around 5:30am. I was expecting a rather peaceful awakening to my morning, one where I would get up have a stretch and look out over the summit to the horizon in front of me and have an uninterrupted view of the sunrise……..Hold that thought!!!

This is what really happened…. I got up to a series of flashes and loud voices as people converged on our sleeping area. We were the local tourist attraction as people crowded in on us taking photos of the two girls huddled in the corner inside their sleeping bags. Somewhat bemused at having been stepped on by an old lady eager to reposition herself on top of me, I eventually gave up and still inside my sleeping bag - stood up and together with Chanel took a bow to our fans with the cameras, jostled with the crowd to pick our things and regained our position to secure a good vantage point for our photos. My idyllic morning was ruined, the pain in feet returned and was not what you would call in the best of spirits as I waited for the sun to come up.

I didn’t want to ruin the moment - so I willed myself to smile and ignore all those around me so I could pretend I was the only one on the mountain. Not a very easy feat given that my little viewing area included a crowd of Eastern Europeans eager to sing their morning prayers at the top of their voices in the hopes that the wind would carry the sound across to nearly towns who may not have heard them.

Morning soon approached and only then could you fully appreciate the heights of how far we had come and how far we had to descend to get back down. The hordes of people who had eventually joined us on that peak swarmed to approx 100,000 and it soon became a battle ground to get back down. All around us groups of people were singing (it’s okay to do this later in the morning, when my ears are more prepared to acclimatise) in a variety of nationalities; Groups had formed and were listening to sermons given by various priests; musicians were playing with people huddled around them dancing and praying. A strong contingent of Brazilians made a colourful sight in their green & yellow t-shirts, waving flags, dancing and chanting all the way up & down the mountain.

Unfortunately we didn’t have a lot of time to soak up the morning at the peak and we quickly joined up to make our descent back down the mountain to get to the truck for our long journey to Egypt. Although the descent down the mountain was nowhere near as arduous as going up, it wasn’t a walk in the park either. There was still the fight to get to the bottom, jostling for some path space between the dozens of people also going down, whilst trying to side step the camel touts, camel dung and boulders lying along the path. On more than one occasion - I had to steady myself from tripping over a large rock or uneven pathway. My earlier stubbed toe got a further bashing as did my one remaining non-stubbed toe, slowing my progress down to a hobble. Once again - I found myself in the position of last on the truck (only by less than 5 minutes) and boarded to a series of claps from my fellow passengers and cries of “We almost left without you…”

I don’t recall the remaining 5-6 hour journey into Egypt, suffice to say that I spent most of it exhausted and asleep.

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