Derek & The Ten Commandments

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December 28th 2010

Published: March 6th 2011

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Delek Delek

Livin' On The Edge

Rene and Sags look out towards the mountains from the top of Mt. Sinai.

"10 pounds!?!?" exclaimed Sags.
1.5 litres of water cost about three pounds everywhere else in Egypt, you see. But here at the roadside shop in the middle of nowhere, it was ten pounds. I mean, where else are you going to go?
It was obvious that there is an arrangement between Travel Talk and this shop for the coach to stop here, as our tour guide Yasser (or Yes Sir as he prefers to be known) shows us a model in the store of the Suez Canal.
The Suez Canal was strategically important - and perhaps still is - as it provided a shipping route between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea - and passage to the Indian Ocean. It was so important in fact, that the British made sure they kept control of it as part of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936.

Back on board the bus to Dahab with our overpriced water, we were then told of the exhausting schedule we had ahead of us - as if we weren't exhausted enough already.
Those of us climbing Mt. Sinai would not be getting any sleep tonight - we would be climbing a fricking mountain instead, in the

Ooh, There It Is!

We see the first specks of the sun...

freezing cold. The idea is to watch the sunrise from the top, see.
Then almost immediately after getting back the next day, we would be going snorkelling in Dahab's Blue Hole. Only then would we finally get the chance to sleep.
One of the girls in the group remarked that this is the most "unrelaxing holiday I've ever had". It was hard to disagree - but then again we were doing and seeing a lot of cool shit.

Our hotel resort was the tackily named "Happy Life Village" and was similar in layout to the Cataract Pyramids Resort in Cairo. Even the crustiness of the rooms was similar - once you eventually managed to find it. Making sense of the paltry signage and non-signed buildings was like navigating a maze.
Our rooms smelt weird too - and it wasn't a nice weird either.
The location wasn't fantastic - it was the resort right at the end of a long, dusty, unlit road right below a range of cliffs that blocked the sun around 4pm, losing you about an hour's worth of daylight to hang by the pool.
I managed to get a couple of hours kip before we went

Chapel & Tower, St. Catherine's Monastery

We paid the monastery a visit at the bottom of Mt. Sinai after our gruelling hike.

out for dinner in town which is about 15 minutes away by taxi".

Dahab is the epitome of a tourist town. There is scant history - it was formerly a Bedouin fishing village and according to the Bible, was a station for Israelites during the Exodus from Egypt.
And that's about it.
Walking along the beachfront promenade is restaurant, after restaurant, after restaurant. All with hawkers offering you 25% off this, and 10% off that. It was like Brick Lane by the water.
A lot of the restaurants looked pretty decent - a seafood place randomly named "Al Capone" had the biggest raw shrimps I think I have ever seen. "The Kitchen" had several cuisines on offer in one place, but the group ended up splitting in two with half going to "Same Same" and the rest of us going to "Ali Baba".
At Ali Baba, I ended sitting with Australians Steph, Nat and Dan as well as another Australian Matt. "Yes Sir" was on our table as well.
I ordered what I was thought was a mango milkshake, but what came out was effectively a mango sorbet sundae with a spoon. I put it down to cultural differences.

Orange Fish

Looking down into the Blue Hole - a testament to how clear the water is. Photo: Hannah Wallner.

It didn't help quench my thirst though, which was frustrating (although it did when it finally melted towards the end of the meal). The restaurant's speciality however, the Ali Baba prawns, was magnificent.
Having already had my mango sundae I didn't really feel the need to have dessert.
We then enjoyed some shisha in the restaurant although our strawberry shisha wasn't very tasty at all. That was because the pipe was broken. Oh. It still wasn't that great.
Davies's table had a much nicer and stronger apple one.

Back at Happy Life Village, we had roughly half an hour to pack what we needed before heading by minivan to Mt. Sinai.
Waiting for the minivans in the lobby, it was clear that just about everyone was ready to fall asleep already. We still had a mountain to climb, literally.
The minivan ride was about an hour and annoyingly, the driver decided to keep his window open the whole way. As I found out on the felucca, it isn't particularly comfortable sleeping with a cold wind in your face.

Arriving at the carpark at the base of the mountain, it was freezing. Literally. The temperature was around zero degrees.

Mt. Sinai

The mountain that Moses climbed to receive The Ten Commandments from God. This was the task that also awaited us (but not The Ten Commandments bit obviously).

I had come prepared however - I had brought my gloves; Russian-style, warm, pilot-beanie thing; thermal socks; and sour-smelling, sweated-through, long-sleeved thermal.
"Just looking at you makes me cold", remarked Emma, one of the Kiwi girls in the group, while looking at my shivering wreck of a body.
Local hawkers were trying to flog off gloves, beanies and other items of warm clothing, which was eagerly snapped up by some of our group. Sags had obviously underestimated how cold it would be when he asked me back at the hotel; "shorts or jeans?"
And then the hike began.

Although it was freezing at the start, you eventually warm up as you walk. Soon I was starting to shed my layers of clothing. I was pretty much keeping my own pace which was generally faster than the main pack, but not fast enough to keep up with the frontrunners of our group. I don't know where they got the energy from.
The group regularly got split up and our guide would stop us to let others catch up. We would then shout out numbers to see how many we had. We established that we had about 18 in our group

Before The Ascent

Freezing our arses off while waiting to commence the hilke up Mt. Sinai.

and concern was shown when we often only counted to 15. We had lost Jo, Claire and Dave basically - so Rene ran back to try and find them. In the meantime, we soldiered on.

There were loads of camels at the start of the hike, their herders constantly asking everyone that walked past if they wanted a ride. We frequently had to pull aside to let them through.
On one such occasion we suddenly recognised the passengers atop three of the camels that walked past - Jo, Claire and Dave!
I didn't blame them - this hike was exhausting. I felt sorry for Dave in particular, who already had a cold on board the felucca which had now developed into a chest infection after all the cold nights and lack of sleep.

As we made the journey up this cold, dry mountain of historical importance, the crunch of gravel was the only sound to break the silence of the night. And as the moonlight shined down upon us, what we were doing suddenly felt significant. We were like pilgrims, following in Moses's footsteps - he of biblical fame - re-enacting the hardship of his journey to receive

Moses's Cave

Just to the left of the bell is the cave where Moses waited for The Ten Commandments.

The Ten Commandments from God himself. It was an eerie, yet empowering feeling, as if we were doing our duty and sharing his efforts. I'm no Christian, but it was a pretty cool feeling.
Then again, I hadn't slept properly for some time now, so I was also at the point of exhaustion.

We reached a hut very close to the top, and I popped inside to get some temporary warmth. There are huts like this all the way up the mountain at frequent intervals, all selling things like coffee and snacks. Even pot noodles, which Nat thought was pretty tempting.
Inside, Jo, Claire and Dave were resting. Claire was still awake, but the other two were passed out. Mmmmm...passing out. That sounds good right now. The heat in the hut was making my eyelids heavy. I was so close to the top though - I needed to keep going. Almost there.

The last 750 steps were killer. My knees were starting to shake and I was starting to lose balance. If I was to fall, I would have no idea how far and onto what, as it was so dark. I wish I had a torch.
A

Castle Structure

At the top of Mt. Sinai where we watched the sun rise.

fellow tour group of Asians and Hispanics kept on shouting "QUANTAA!! QUANTAA!!". Please shut up.
But we eventually made it! And we were one of the first groups up the top as well.
We were on a castle-like structure and the guide shows us the best place to see the sunset, where we set up camp.
Even up here, there are locals selling shit - at the top of a fricking mountain. Is there no limit to where an Egyptian hawker will turn up? I bet you'll find one when you get to Mars, selling spacesuits and oxygen. And trinkets.
The hawker up here was very useful though - he was hiring out mattresses for 10EGP. It was another two hours before sunrise and it was freezing - didn't fancy dirtying my sleeping bag and lying comfortably on the dusty floor, so this was a brilliant idea. Best 10EGP I spent all trip.
Jo, Claire and Dave then joined us atop the mountain, to cheers from the team. We had all made it.
With every group of friends, there is always that one moment when the group bonds - and for us, getting to the top of that mountain was

Waiting For Sunrise

Hannah, Davies and Steph are wrapped up cold while waiting for the sunrise.

probably it. We had supported each other and suffered with each other, building up a camaraderie as we climbed up the mountain. Although we each had to walk up to the top ourselves, we felt like we had done it as a team.
QUANTAA!! had finally all made it up the mountain too, sparking applause and hymn singing.
The heat I built up during the climb quickly disappeared and I eventually put back on all my layers before settling into my sleeping bag. Before long, it was too cold to leave my head poking out so I fully enclosed myself inside it, only leaving a small gap for air.
I was exhausted - so exhausted that I actually fell asleep completely, despite the cold. I was loving that mattress. Even QUANTAA!!'s annoying hymns couldn't wake me up.

Before I knew it, those two hours before the sunrise had flown by and Nat yells out the call to make sure everyone was up. We had spent five hours slogging up a hill on no sleep, in the middle of the night, in the freezing cold for this after all.
As I emerged from my cocoon I find myself completely surrounded

Sunrise On Mt. Sinai

Just about worth the slog up there.

by people, not all of them are from the group. All sorts of people who had arrived after us were here - elderly, children and even preachers. The preachers started to preach as the darkness slowly turned to light. I guess it's no surprise to have so many religious pilgrims in what is essentially a sacred place.
Anyway, I had the prime spot right on the edge of the ledge that looked out at the sun rising over mountain range. It was a spectacular sunrise. Photo click-click!
When everyone else had left we started walking onto the edge of the rocks around us taking some awesome photos.
Then it was time to descend.

The first 750 steps down took ages. It was pretty much single file all the way down and there were literally hundreds of people ahead of us. Lots of very slow, tired people. I eventually got impatient and started taking shortcuts across the loose rocks on the side of the steps, bypassing loads of people. I could see where I was going this time, you see. Turns out I wouldn't have been too badly injured at all if I had fallen over last night.
Going back

Single File

All the way down from the top of Mt. Sinai - meaning very slow progress.

down, landmarks which had seemed so big the night before were actually a lot smaller. All of the huts were a lot smaller than they seemed last night, when illuminated in full daylight. I guess everything looks bigger when you can't see the background behind it, to put the relative size of objects into perspective. Like life in general, when you think about it...
I always love racing down hills and I always find that it takes less effort, is faster, and more fun to leap from rock-to-rock all the way down like a gazelle triple-jumping all the way down. Some of the skips and jumps required some pretty quick feet and judgements in places - I was ripping down the mountain.
Davies had the same idea and we were soon at the bottom.
I really needed to pee, but when I found out that all the huts along the way were charging 5EGP to use the toliet, I flatly refused. It's not the money, it's the principle.
I finally get to use the toilet at the bottom of the mountain - for free. Why do you think I ran so fast?

Slowly but surely, we all eventually gather

Inside St. Catherine's Monastery

One of the oldest functioning monasteries in the world.

at bottom of the mountain. While waiting, there is a preaching and praying session going on by a group of Africans who were up on the mountain with us this morning.
About 3/4 of our group head straight to the van back to the hotel - the rest of us hang around to check out St. Catherine's Monastery - possibly the oldest functioning monastery in the world.
Known to have been a monastery since 381AD, the whole site is built behind a citadel-like wall and has never been sacked or destroyed. Purely as a sight, it is nothing much - it is revered more for it's sacredness and age rather than it's aesthetics. An Orthodox church, the church contains many incredibly old and well-preserved paintings and frescoes known as "icons". It is also the site of the "burning bush", a bush that Moses witnessed on fire, but which survived the flames. Apparently God came out of the fire and told Moses to get the Israelites out of Canaan. The bush itself is cut off from the public and was causing a bit of a fuss with the tourists. Apparently it's the real thing but I guess the only way to

The Blue Hole

Famous dive spot in Dahab where we went snorkelling.

find out would be to set it on fire. Sacrilege!
We didn't linger long - we were all desperate for sleep. At the back of our van were some rugs laid out on the floor which was perfect for a sleep. I quickly claimed it and stretched myself out fully. It was a bumpy ride though - I had to grab things several times to stop myself careening into the back door.

I must've fully passed out at some point as we were back at the hotel in no-time. Also in no-time, we were on our way back out to the Blue Hole for some snorkelling.
Our taxi driver was crazy. While talking or texting on one, or all three of his mobile phones at the same time, he drove us over gravel and sand, making very sharp turns on the sand, zigzagging across the beach like a lunatic as he tried to to follow the tracks left behind by other vehicles in an attempt not to sink into the sand. Meanwhile, we were getting tossed around like a salad, almost falling out the back of this crusty, bare-essentials jeep from the 1950s. We prayed we wouldn't turn over,

Steph

I thought this was a pretty cool pic. Photo: Hannah Wallner.

more in hope than expectation.
Hannah starts singing this song about putting your flippers in the air. We all look at her, "like what?"
Thankfully we arrived safely at the Blue Hole.

The most obvious thing about the Blue Hole was how clear the water was. Having thought I had seen the clearest water of my life in Crete, I think we may have a new contender. There is a reef that runs right up to the shore, but about twenty metres out into the sea, the reef dramatically falls away, seemingly into an abyss.
There is loads of coral on the reef and the fish are the prettiest and most colourful I have ever seen outside of an aquarium. Along with the pristine clarity of the water, this would definitely be the best snorkelling I have ever done.
Over the actual 130m-deep hole itself you can see a long way down, along with divers descending into it. I spotted a small shark down there somewhere too, although it was pretty small so I wasn't exactly shitting myself even though there had been shark attacks at nearby Sharm-el-Sheikh. Or Shark-el-Sheikh. Or Sharm-el-Shark.
Unfortunately I didn't spot Nemo, nor any

Beachfront Cafe

Nice place to chill following an afternoon's snorkelling.

turtles. Just lots of dark-blue fish with golden tails, bright yellow ones, zebra striped ones and a whole host of other very colourful fish.

We had some space reserved for us among some very comfortable ground-level cushions in a cafe by the beach where we enjoyed a lazy lunch. Those cushions were dangerous - in our well and truly exhausted state, it was so easy to fall asl....zzzzzz.
But no worries, we had our crazy taxi driver to jolt us back awake on the ride home! I recall that he was this close to running over a kid on the street.
And if that didn't re-wake you up, we then tested the water slides by the pool back at the hotel - and the water was freezing as the sun had gone down behind those damn mountains next to "Happy Life Village".

Unsurprisingly, it was a quiet night that night. Claire, Sags, Hannah, Nat, myself and Irene, another Australian girl, just chilled out in one of the hotel cafes, enjoying some beers. We also had some shisha, where we got non-smoker Claire to choose one. She ended up choosing a mint one that was so harsh that irritated

Black Fish

Against the coral in the Blue Hole. Photo: Hannah Wallner.

your lungs as soon as you breathed it in. I don't know if it was because it was low-grade shisha or what, but no-one could smoke it without breaking into a fit of coughs. The peach one we had afterwards was a bit easier to handle.

We have yet another early start tomorrow. Tomorrow, we go to Jordan on a quest to find the holy grail.

M'as Salaama,
Derek

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