Mt Sinai
Saturday, July 26th, 2008Exodus 19:20 The LORD descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain.
Mt Sinai is pretty important in terms of christian (and Jewish and Muslim) history, its where Moses received the 10 commandments so why not go check it out if you happen to be in the area. However I have watched a few things that convince me that the real Mt Sinai is actually in Saudi Arabia, however, I thought on the off chance it might be in Egypt and for a cool experience I should go climb it. Because of the heat and so you get to watch the sunrise trips to the mountain leave Dahab at 11pm, so you arrive to start the 3 hour climb by 2am. After the 2 hour drive there in a van really the last thing you feel like doing is going for a hike. I was so tired when we arrived I was slightly regretting the decision to come. Brian had come with me and there were also another 2 couples, one with a 10 year old kid in our group. Have the 10year old kid meant I couldn’t be soft and let him go faster than me! I mean he’s 10! So I toughened up and we began our climb.
Its actually not that hard just a big winding path up the mountain with lots of rest stops on the way selling overpriced water and chocolate bars. The Bedouin tribes live in the area who have some arrangement with the government so you must take a guide up with you. They all live in the area and look after camels which the whole way up they try to get you on, lots of people take a camel up to the top, but most walk it. Me and Brian lost our group and guide pretty quickly as they were a bit slow, which given the fact that is was 3am with your young child is not surprising. It was the night before the full moon so we didn’t need torches as the moon was so bright.
(one of the rest stops on the way up with the full moon coming out from behind a cliff)
When we started we were pretty much the only people walking which was amazingly quite and peaceful but after awhile the hordes of pilgrims and groups caught up with us and soon we were part of this mass making our way to the top of a mountain in the middle of the night. It was kind of funny when you thought about it.
About half way up a guy runs past me and Brian asking people along the way if anyone is a doctor, and then around the corner we come across a guy getting CPR on the ground. He is part of a Brazilian tour group we have been following up the mountain. They are all standing there watching, we wait to see what happens. He dies in front of us. The group are saying prayers in unison in Portuguese, it is quite possibly the weirdest, most surreal, awful thing I have ever seen. Standing under the moonlight on the side of mountain with Brazilians sounding like they are chanting, people are surprisingly calm and we begin to feel a bit voyeuristic, there’s nothing we can do so continue walking, a bit shaken and freaked out. The next day at the bottom of the hill there’s an ambulance but we don’t see or hear anything else about it, the Brazilians weren’t at the summit.
The last stretch to the summit is a killer, about 700 uneven rocky steps straight up. A slow and steady pace gets me there where I find Brian and we join the growing groups of people scattered around this church built on the top. Its dark and hard to see whats going on and cold, something I haven’t felt for awhile! We huddle in a doorway and hire a blanket from a kid for $2. We huddle together with this blanket, at 5am, on top of a mountain. Its weird. But I actually sleep well for a few hours until people start waking up and we watch the sunrise.
We hang around till most people have left and take in the view then head back down via a different path which is all steps. We take it pretty quickly and by the end my legs are jelly, its hot again and we are dirty, hungry and ridiculously exhausted. I can hardly think straight and we finally meet up with the rest of the group in a quick tour around St Kathrine’s Monastery that is at the bottom of the mountain. There is a Russian group on some sort of pilgrimage clearly paying a bit more attention to the significant churches and things inside the complex. But I am too tired to care, finally we are back in the minivan and back in Dahab. My hotel is kicking me out because they are full of french tour groups, luckily there’s a place across the road which I drag myself to and finally get some sleep for the afternoon.
An amazing experience and glad I did it, but so exhausting!
admin