Day Eleven

May 25, 2007

Today we got wake-up calls at 1:30 am. We left for Mt. Sinai at 2:15 am. It was pitch black in the desert. We were going to climb up to the top of Mt. Sinai to see the sunrise over the top of the other mountains.
Present day Mt. Sinai, in the Sinai Peninsula (Egypt), is where Moses is thought to have climbed the mountain and seen the burning bush, and later received the Ten Commandments. It is a treacherous mountain, not like the one presented in the movie The Ten Commandments. Over the centuries, many worshipers of God have placed steps going up the steep mountain (I shouldn’t call them steps, as they are multi-shaped rocks, placed in a tolerable order); it was a dangerous hike.
The plan was to ride camels up the first 2/3 of the trip, which was a man-made trail that the camels could handle, and then go the last 800 steps (non-steps) up to the summit. We wanted to get there in time to see the sunrise over the mountains.
It was chaos getting to the camels. The Bedouin guides were arguing vociferously with one-another (in Arabic) over who was going to lead our group. Our Egyptian guide told us to follow him to the camels, and not to get grabbed by one of the other aggressive guides. As we were walking through this crowd of Bedouins, camels and tourists, the guides kept grabbing our hands and trying to separate us from the group. We did not lose anyone, but one of us was left alone on top of her camel, in the dark, for about a half-hour, until she finally demanded that her guide leave his other riders and get her back to the group, although we really didn’t have a group going up the mountain. Instead, we were separated into groups of three riders and camels, and one Bedouin guide for each group of three. My camel’s name was Whiskey and this was not comforting to me. I later found out that several of the 300 camels that go up the mountain are named Whiskey. Maybe that’s because you would have to be either drunk or a religious fanatic to do something so crazy. I was a religious fanatic wishing I were drunk for this experience.
Riding a camel up the side of a mountain in the dark was at once both the most exhilarating and painful experience I have had for a long time; exhilarating because the air was cold, the profile of the surrounding mountains was visible in the starlight, the Milky Way band of stars was as visible as I have ever seen it across the sky, my camel seemed to have had a preference for walking as close to the edge of the trail as possible (perhaps he wanted me to have a more exciting view), and the thought that you were possibly following in the fateful steps of Moses, it was an extraordinary feeling. It was painful because a camel saddle cannot be sat in without absolutely crushing one’s groin; it has two horns that you wedge between and no stirrups for your feet, to support your weight. Really all of your weight rests on your groin. I don’t know how camel riders have done it over the centuries. Perhaps the Arabic custom of one man being able to marry several women is because most of the other men were sterile from riding camels all of the time (ha).
The remaining 800 steps up the mountain were exhausting and treacherous, especially in the dark; we had to use our flashlights to guide our steps on the rocks.
The summit was wonderful, the sun came up right on time, the air immediately began to warm, and we stripped off our jackets and began the long climb down. Our group decided to forego the camel ride on the way back down, opting for a climb down the roughly 4,000 treacherous steps down the side of the mountain. I’ll say this; Moses must have been in shape!
My legs felt like rubber about 2/3 the way down. We had no choice, however, but to keep plugging, step after step. The views on this alternative path were breathtaking, making the painful walk more that worth it. Every now and then coming down we would have to stop walking, and looking at our feet, in an effort to behold the scenery. All in all, it was once again a terrific day, one that I will never forget.

Me and my camel, Whiskey
Waiting for the sunrise atop Mt Sinai
View from the top of Mt Sinai
Sunrise from atop Mt Sinai
The start of 4,000 steps down
We made it all the way down
Mt Sinai from the bottom
The beautiful Red Sea