Climbing Mt Sinai

January 8 (Thursday)
The wake up call came at 2:00am for the climb to Mt. Sinai (also known as Mt. Horeb or in Egypt as Jebel Musa)! Only 24 of the 43 people on the trip decided to try and make the hike so the rest got to sleep in. We had to be up at the lobby of the hotel ready to go at 2:30am. It was pitch black and it was freezing! We were both bundled up in several layers of clothing including our long johns. A short ten minute ride to the base of Mt. Sinai and we were ready to go. We weren't the only crazy ones as there were several other groups in the parking lot.

There are two ways to climb Mt. Sinai. One is to take a camel three-fourths of the way up the 7,500 ft mountain and then climb the last 750 "steps." The other is to walk all the way from the base to the top. Eighteen people out of our group opted for the camels while six of us decided to walk: Daryl and I, Liz and Bill (an older couple from GA), as well as Carter and Josh (single guys in the early 20's). Our entire group was assigned a Bedouin guide Hassan to help keep tabs on us and get us up the mountain. We had to walk a little ways to the place where the camel riding folks could get their camels and guides, and those of us who were walking had to wait while Hassan helped them out. The Bedouin tribe that has settled at Mt Sinai and is reponsible for all the guide and camel operations are known as the Jebeliya.

Then it was time to set out on the long hike. Our goal was the 6:30am sunrise on the mountaintop. Walking up was no easy feat. You went up steep switchbacks which got shorter and steeper as you headed up as the air got thinner because of the increasing elevation. Along the route there are three "cafeterias" for you to stop at and take a rest and get something to eat or drink. We made it a little ways past the first cafeteria before I (Debbie) realized I wasn't going to be able to keep going. We were walking at such a fast pace and I was having trouble keeping up and difficulty breathing. Fortunately all along the way, some Bedouins had parked themselves with camels for rent and we were able to get one for me very shortly. My camel guide was Abdul and the camel was named Haran. The camel was actually a pretty decent ride and it helped me to be able to take my focus off my feet on the ground and look around, especially gazing at the sky which was so clear and filled with the most stars I have ever seen in my lifetime. One by one the other members of our walking group also gave out and rented camels. Only Daryl was able to keep going, walking the entire way - Go Daryl! After a while he even caught up with my camel and walked just behind and we were able to chat a bit.

When we reached the main cafeteria just before the steps, we caught up with all our other friends who had ridden camels and had to wait for 30 minutes or so, in order to time our arrival just right on the stairs. Our walking friend Bill decided to just stay here and wait for his wife.

Finally we were able to go out and start walking up the last part of our journey, the supposed "750 steps." Now their definition of steps and our mental image of steps were very far apart. It's not the US, so there is no handrail! And these steps were actually carved into the rock by a monk doing penance (God only knows what he was trying to atone for!). Some are close together while others are far apart; some are hardly deep enough for you to get your whole foot on. And they wind around the craggy cliffs of the mountain. There were a couple of points where I wanted to give up, but Daryl kept urging me on with the utmost confidence that I would be able to reach the top. Finally we made it to the very top in time to see the sunrise!

This is one of the chapels at the top of the mountain. Someone rang the bells when the sun broke through the horizon.

Lots of people made it to the top that morning - probably about 150 or more sitting around and enjoying the view.

From the top, a zoomed in picture of St. Catherine's monastery at the base of the mountain.

Here are some pictures taken as we are beginning to head down. Down was definitely easier but it just took a while because you had to walk the whole way down. We were instructed not to take a camel on the way down as they tend to slip and that's when most accidents happen. Good thing we couldn't see how far the journey was when we first started as it would have been too intimidating. Here are the famous "steps."

The camel camp at the bottom in daylight.

It was about 9:30am when we finished our trek. After finishing up we learned that 3-4 people die a week in their attempt to climb Mt. Sinai, either from heart attacks or from camel accidents. I fell once on the way down and ended up with a small scrape on my elbow, which was nothing compared to the other injuries we had in our group. One girl fell and broke her foot; she had surgery three days later for a plate and six screws.Another guy fell and hurt his hand and bruised a rib.

We met the rest of the group at the base of the mountain to tour St. Catherine's Monastery. They were so serious about security that for many years the only entrance was to be pulled up in a basket over the wall. Within the walls of the monastery is the well where Moses was said to met his wife Zipporah and also the "burning bush." The monks claim that this bush is a growth of a clipping of the original bush from back in the 10th century.

Afterwards we headed back to the hotel for a late breakfast and a quick shower. We headed out for Jordan short one of our group members who had somehow overnight lost her passport and money; she had to be transported back to the American Embassy in Cairo and eventually went home to the US from there.

All in all it was an amazing, incredible adventure that we are so glad that we were able to take part in. Everyone was especially proud of Daryl for being the only person in our group to climb the entire mountain from bottom to top and back down again. Our trek up the mountain certainly gave us a lot of insight into Moses and his leadership of the Israelites. Both Daryl and I agreed that if we'd just come down from that mountain to find the Israelites dancing around a golden calf that we would have thrown the stone tablets at them and told God - do whatever you want to them. Thank goodness Moses and God both had more patience and grace!

Traveling To Sinai

January 7 (Wednesday)
We had an earlier wake up call so we could get our luggage out for the bellboys to pickup. Then off to breakfast and a meeting before making sure our luggage got put on the bus. Today was a big travel day as we were leaving Cairo and headed for Mt. Sinai on the south end of the Sinai Peninsula (which is all still part of Egypt these days).

But before we left Cairo, we did two things. First we swung by Giza again so that the two couples
who arrived late could get to see them. And second, we went for a short sailboat ride on the Nile River. It was very overcast (smog) as well as cold and windy but again one of those things that was so neat to think that you were actually sailing on the Nile! We were floating around in downtown near a lot of the big major hotels - Hyatt and the Four Seasons.

After leaving the boat ride, we headed out of town. On our way we got to observe a bunch of neighborhoods like the one below. That was one of the biggest things to shock us about Cairo - the abject poverty. This is just a small sample of the housing conditions. Rebar is left hanging out of buildings so that another floor can be added on top at a later time. And trash gets piled up behind buildings in alleys or in some cases, out in the little canals running in the middle of the street.

As we left Cairo and headed towards the Sinai peninsula we went through a big military zone in Suez where we had to go through a checkpoint. At this point our police escort left us and headed back to town. The reason for the checkpoint is that people visiting Egypt can get two types of visas, one good for all of Egypt or one for the Sinai only. Egypt is interesting because it's a country on two continents - Cairo and what we most commonly associate with Egypt on the continent of Africa and the Sinai Peninsula is considered part of the continent of Asia.

We then crossed the Red Sea through the Gulf of Suez through the Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel, which runs underground for two miles. We were to have gone further north and made the crossing by overland bridge, but Egypt had closed that bridge out of concern for potential problems because of Gaza. Before going into the tunnel we could see some of the Suez Canal, which runs north and south for 100 miles connecting the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. It was operated by the British and French for almost a 100 years before Egypt's President Nasser nationalized it in 1956, helping raise big $ to pay for the Answan Dam on the Nile. Most everything else we saw was dry and dusty like this shot out the window of the bus.

As we traveled south through the Sinai Peninsula, we stopped at several places along the path of the Israelites' exodus from Egypt. The first stop was at Marah and was supposedly one of the first stops of the Israelites according to Exodus 15. After crossing the Red Sea they had traveled for three days without finding water. When they stopped at Marah, the water was salty so God told Moses to put a branch in the water and then it was "sweet" to drink. There are two wells there now - 1 wet and 1 dry. And in the background you can see the Gulf of Suez today.

Along the side, some Bedouin families had set up huts to sell handmade jewelry.

The government of Egypt has offered many times to help the Bedouins resettle from their nomadic life in the desert into small towns and cities so that their children can be educated. While some have accepted the offer, most refuse preferring their own traditions instead. We can see how it would be hard after living in such an open place for these people to move into a crowded city or town. However, in some cases the men will move into the cities to work and support their families back home. We saw no Bedouin men in this group - only women and children.

After a while we stopped off at what seemed like the only rest stop around and ate the box lunches our guide had arranged for us. There was so much food in all the boxes we couldn't possibly eat it all so as a group we collected all the extras and saved them to take later to some of the Bedouin children. A few more checkpoints, and then a long time of nothing but desert again.

Our second Biblical stop was Elim, listed also in Exodus 15 as the place of 12 springs. We parked and went to walk down there but there was a Bedouin family that had made camp and so we turned back - their dogs sure didn't like us much!

Another checkpoint got us into the St. Catherine area, which became much more hilly and elevated, about 3,000 ft above sea level. Our third stop was at Rephidim mentioned in Exodus 17 as another place where the Israelites needed water and here Moses was commanded to strike the rock for water. Also the Amalekites attacked the Israelites while they were here. Moses climbed up to the top of a hill and held his staff in the air - as long as his arms stayed up they won, but if they started to come down, the Israelites started losing. There are some monastery ruins here at the top where Moses was said to have stood - today the monstery has moved across the road.

One last checkpoint got us into St. Catherine National Park for the hotel and Mt. Sinai. Here an armed guard entered the bus and checked everyone's passports and visas. Our hotel for one night was St. Catherine's Morgenland Village and we arrived in time for a brief meeting and dinner (this picture is actually from the next morning).

And then it was off to bed - we were all snuggled in by 8pm because the wake up call for the morning climb on Mt. Sinai was coming super early!