2am wake-up calls aren’t something you want very often, but in this case, it was met with eager anticipation. Sean, Jamie, and I were about to set off to climb Mt. Sinai. We followed a guide from our camp along a road for a while, and then finally started off on a trail upwards. Hiking in the middle of the night meant two things: one, it was pitch black, so we had flashlights; and two, it stayed cool throughout the hike, because being in the middle of the desert, we sure didn’t want to climb the mountain in the middle of the day.
Maybe the best part about the whole hike was that we were alone on the trail. The monastery I mentioned yesterday is the starting point for just about everyone else. There are two trails up the mountain that originate at St. Katherine’s Monastery, and all the people on tours start their hike there. Initially, we didn’t fully understand how important it was to take a back route, but when we were almost at the top, it made perfect sense. Our back trail met up with the main trails very close to the top – maybe another 20 minutes to go. As the trails met, what we saw down the mountain blew my mind. We were watching a snake-like line of lights slowly moving up the mountain. For the last little bit of the hike, we got to know what that would have been like. It was basically a single-file line up the trail to the top. When we saw this, we were incredibly thankful that we were able to take the back route with our guide. And even when maybe we should have stayed on the trail towards the top, we followed our guide off the path to get by a lot of the crowd.
There were already plenty of people on top when we arrived, but luckily we were able to find a great spot to be able to watch the sunrise. Oh yeah, other than avoiding the heat, most people climb Mt. Sinai in the middle of the night to watch the magnificent sunrise. It was beautiful! From the top, you can see for miles and miles, and there are simply mountains all around. It would have been the perfect place for some quiet reflection …
But, because there were so many people climbing the mountain, it was nuts at the top. A huge crowd, everyone taking pictures, and some groups much louder than they needed to be. And on the way up, there are Bedouin merchants selling everything from coffee and tea to Snickers bars to blankets and mattresses. It was crazy! But I guess it makes sense, with how popular the mountain has become.
Aside from the crazy crowds, it was very cool to be up there to watch the sunrise. It’s such a historic mountain (though I’m not sure anyone can prove that the mountain we climbed is actually Mt. Sinai – there’s so many other peaks in the area that are almost the same height, and the look of the landscape doesn’t change much as far as I could see). And even if it wasn’t, it was a great hike, offering breathtaking views (and pictures) from the top. So all in all, it was definitely a good stop.
We hiked back down to our camp, had some breakfast, and then went back to the monastery. This was supposed to be a really cool place, though we felt like it was a bit overrated. After packing up, we took a taxi for another couple hours to Dahab, a backpackers’ beach town right on the Gulf of Aqaba of the Red Sea. The drive through the desert was very hot, but it was cool to just be out in the middle of nowhere. At one point, our Muslim driver stopped the car to go pray under a bridge with a couple other drivers, and we used the time to take some pictures and video of being in the middle of a desert. It’s a pretty cool feeling. But leaving the desert for the beach was not exactly a disappointment.
The Red Sea is beautiful. Our hotel was right along the water, though it was rocky shores in front of it. (We had to find other hotels to find a beach and a pool.) We could see the mountains of Saudi Arabia on the other side of the Gulf, and it didn’t look too far away. And the town of Dahab was great. It’s full of hotels, restaurants, and dive shops, and things were relatively cheap. After having lunch at our hotel restaurant, which was right on the water, we meandered along the coastline exploring the area. The restaurant is completely open-air, and the roof is set up with cushions in little sitting areas, perfect for relaxation. So we sat up there for a while, as Sean and I shared another sheesha, and then found a quick dinner for local food (kushari this time, not shawarma). To cap off the night, I had a pleasant stroll through town, in search of some ice cream, but also just looking at the shops as I went by. The pestering shop owners didn’t even bother me a bit – after conquering the Khan-al-Khalili market in Cairo, this was nothing. And since I had been up for about 20 hours now, my body was ready to lie down and sleep.
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