Quite Possibly The Most Stupid Thing I Could Have Ever Opted To Do In Egypt!!!

What could that possibly be, you might ask? Well, let me share that event with you. It's hiking up Mt. Sinai in the pre-dawn dark hours in order to reach the peak to catch the sun rising over many of the jagged mountain peaks of the area. Idyllic sounding? A somewhat mystical thing to do? NO! and NO! yet again!!! It was heinous.

Before I get into my rant, here's a little bit of background information about Mt. Sinai. Locally, it is known as Gebel Musa. Its peak reaches an elevation of 2285 m (~7541 ft.). Although disputed by some researchers and academicians, many people believe that Mt. Sinai is the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God.

I wanted to hike up Mt. Sinai, not as a religious pilgrimage, but rather to scale a renowned mountain to check out its draw and to watch the sunrise from such a place. And I thought I would avoid the crowds for who the hell would be nuts enough to hike up a mountainside in the dark guided only by a headlamp? Not to mention I really wanted to do some hiking. Well, it seems that several hundred people also had the same idea! So, again with the massive herds of people (this time in the dark from 2:00 a.m. to 5:30 a.m.) along with several herds of camels and their Bedouin handlers, I trekked up a path not designed to handle that kind of traffic. The camels came in very useful to many of the tourists who were fearful of hiking in the dark or were not physically able to make the ascent.

There are several problems with this, however. The first is that those of us who chose not to ride a camel up are then stuck trying to sidestep the piles of camel dung and pools of camel urine as well as being careful to not be directly behind a camel to avoid being the recipients of these gifts. (Oh, and to avoid the jets of gas as well!) The second problem is to avoid being run over by these camels. While some of the handlers shouted "Camel!!" to alert the trekkers, other handlers will only cluck, hiss, or smack their lips together to alert the trekkers (which we were obviously expected to hear over all the noise) that they and their caravan of camels were bearing down on us. Despite doing this, they really didn't much care whether or not those on foot were knocked on their keister or trampled on.

Luckily, having backpacked around a couple of countries with a 30 kg pack for about 2.5 months has put me in decent shape. Consequently, I was able to escape my group from the microbus and, not needing to take rest brakes, I was part of the few people who made it up to the peak first. This was a good thing since I got an excellent seat on one of the boulders to catch the sunrise. Many were not so fortunate. There were also a good number who completely missed the sunrise as I found hiking back down the mountain. Since I wanted more solitude and to avoid the slow shuffle back down, I fast-walked it down after quickly looking around at the peak. It was nice having the path mostly to myself and the peace I was able to enjoy in the parking area before everyone else showed up was pretty nice.

Trying to leave was a different matter. The driver threatened not to leave until everyone paid the "guide fee." Everyone of us on the microbus was extremely upset about having to pay extra money for a guide (who basically did nothing except stop for rest breaks and pocketing out money). All of us fought against it, some of us eventually paid and a few escaped. Those that escaped were the ones being hassled. Outrage and anger in all of the passengers mounted until the driver and the "guide", in pissy frustration, gave up so that we were able to finally take off.

I guess I could wax philosophical about this nightmare by correlating the crowded climb up the mountain to struggling through life to be rewarded with the sense of acheievement/accomplishment, light, fresh start, renewal, yada yada crap but right now I'm too tired and too grouchy. Maybe some other time.

http://acs2.aucegypt.edu/hekman/sinai.html
http://www.ehabweb.net/mount_sinai.html