Rome to Turkey: July 2010

The wake-up call was at 2 am. After about 4 hours of rest we were up and packing quickly with just the essentials we would need for the climb up Mt. Sinai. One house in our group (we were in different buildings, or huts) did not get a wake-up call but had fortunately set an alarm.

The prospect of ascending God's mountain in the footsteps of Moses was one I had been looking forward to since originally planning the trip. We met at our small bus and set out to the base of the mountain around 3 am. Our tour leader had arranged a guide for us who would lead us to the summit. We pulled into a small dirt parking lot that was packed with other buses, pilgrims, tourists, tour guides, and shopkeepers in makeshift tents selling every imaginable souvenir. It was an odd sight, but only half registered with me as it was still pitch black out and I wasn't fully awake.

Our guide was dressed in traditional Bedouin style, with the accent of hard-healed, flat-soled loafers and no socks. I thought his choice in shoes a bit strange for an experienced guide who must have led countless excursions up the mountain, but I assumed he knew what was best for himself regarding footwear. I actually admired the fact that he was going to do this climb in those shoes - I would have been slipping and stumbling everywhere.

I am sorry that I don't remember his name, but he had developed a nickname for our group, which unfortunately I can't recall either. But whatever it was, he kept calling it out every few minutes. He would run ahead of us then wait for stragglers, calling out the group name, then run ahead again. He kept this up for some time, until our group eventually became too separated and spaced apart to maintain any kind of order or control over. Some had decided to pay for camel rides up to the summit, some walked much faster than others, and some took their time with many rests.

There are two routes to take, one is a quick and steep climb called the "steps of penitence" up a narrow ravine. The other is a slow and winding road that eventually turns into a narrow trail. (1) Our group chose the later, though I was more enticed by the name of the first (how penitential could it be?) The slow route takes about 2.5 hours, all in pitch black darkness. There was one star out that I could remember, but other than that, you followed the grey shape of the person in front of you, as well as the bobbing signals from flashlights that wound their way up the side of the mountain. There was literally thousands of us. I don't think I am exaggerating. We were one long continuous line. There were people from every part of the globe, and every language and accent could be heard. It was actually quite silent though, and breathtaking, feeling alone yet with a great group of people all heading in the same direction and with the same intention.

The trail eventually starts to narrow and get rockier, at which point those on camel dismount. The climb becomes steeper and the trail a bit more difficult to recognize. This caused congestion, more so as it grew steeper and steeper near the top. By now you were basically climbing on rock. Many of the guides would scramble past us, leaping from boulders. Light was beginning to appear, though the sun was still behind the mountains. But this put some more urgency into many of us who began to climb faster in order to reach the summit before sunrise.

Upon reaching the top, I found that there was actually little room to stand, considering how many others were already there. Many had found ideal spots, perched on high rocky points and facing in the right direction. I made my way through the crowd to the back side of the peak, and found a small area to stand where I could lean against the rock and still see where the sun would be rising. It did not take long and was worth the climb. First came a yellow band of light, then the sun, which made the shadow sides of the mountains very black. Everyone was taking pictures. By the time it had cleared the tops of the mountains, you could see all around you more clearly to make out other mountain ranges, occasional dirt roads, and just how much rock and wilderness you were enclosed by. It gave a greater sense of the sheer scale of where you were, as mountains stretched on as far as you could see.

A small group of Eastern Orthodox were holding what seemed to be the Divine Liturgy in a sheltered part of the mountain. I stopped to listen for a while, then returned later when they had finished and were taking pictures with the two monks (or priests) who had dragged a large Patriarchal Cross up the mountain.

On the way back down, a number of our group met up and walked together. We chose the steep descent of the steps of penitence, though it was much less penitential going down that it would have been going up. I had a chance to speak to one of the Australians, who turned out to be a Lutheran pastor and was here with his wife. At some point I managed to lag behind most of the people I was with, and then lose them completely, probably because I was constantly stopping to take pictures, then getting stuck behind people who needed to climb down the mountain slowly. I also remember now that a few young women were dressed in low-heeled slingbacks, which I thought was an even braver choice of footwear than our guide had.

The descent winds its way down to the base of St. Catherine's Monastery, showing great views of one of the oldest monastic structure in the world * (2) Apparently I was the very last of our group to arrive in the parking lot, and had caused some worry which prompted one of them to head back toward the trail in search of me. Then we waited for half an hour in the morning heat for our shuttle bus to arrive. Our tour leader paid our guide and we were soon heading back to the hostel.

A quick stop, refresh, pack, and breakfast at the hostel and we were back on our bus again, this time heading for the Red Sea and a crossing into Jordan. A quick note about our previous nights accommodations first though: It was a group of huts clustered neatly together, each of which contained about five or six beds in a small and slightly musty room. The beds, if I recall correctly, were concrete slabs with a thin mattress or foam on top and a few blankets. We found only two small pillows in our room amongst the six of us, but managed to wrangle up more after some negotiations with staff. The showers were placed within each toilet stall, with loose and exposed electrical cords and wires protruding from the wall and no hot water. I didn't chance the showers, though a couple people manged it. Though I do look back on it now with a bit of fondness - it was nice site, nestled in the foothills, with a large outdoor pool, and an adjacent and decent looking hotel. But our rooms were definitely rustic accommodations, perhaps good for penance, but certainly a sign of the day that lay ahead of us, after our climb up the mountain.

Sunrise, Mt. Sinai

Mt. Sinai

Eastern Orthodox Religious

Descent, Mt. Sinai

St. Catherine's Monastery, Mt. Sinai

* The Monastery of St Anthony situated across the Red Sea in the desert south of Cairo, also holds claim to this title.

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Sinai

(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Sinai

Breakfast was early in the morning at the hotel with the group I would be traveling with over the next seven days. I had the chance to meet two more of them, a young couple from Australia, while sharing a table. My roommate from the previous night (British fellow around my age who worked in theatre, whom I accidentally jolted awake in the middle of the night by blindly knocking my plastic water bottle off a side table which then bounced around noisily on the floor) introduced us. Breakfast was buns with jam and butter, boiled eggs, and probably some sort of cheese. We finished quickly and were soon boarding a small shuttle bus that would be taking us to Mt. Sinai.

On the way out of Cairo we passed several highways crews, many of them were young children sweeping dust and debris from the roadside or at toll booths. On one of these occasions, there was a small young boy in the middle of the road with a ragged red flag waving drivers away from the left lane, as two more boys were sweeping just a few yards beyond him. We also passed crews of workmen with shovels digging off the highway in the sand, though it wasn't clear what the purpose of the work was.

The road to Sinai was very interesting. It started near the Suez Canal, which was on our right hand side as we headed south. I have a note in my journal that first we had to cross under the Canal, though I can't actually remember doing this. There were quite a number of boats nearer to the narrows of the Canal, then the waterway expanded into the Gulf of Suez. There were some resort places along the drive, but mostly it was rock, sand, and water for miles. After about four hours and several checkpoints, we reached the mountains and began to wind our way through on a narrow freshly paved road. The scenery was beautiful and eventually the light began to get low, creating patterns of shadow on the rocks and turning everything to a dark warm brown.

Throughout the drive, our group entertained itself with games; guessing which famous person you were, or name games with animals or countries. Julian, the British theatre fellow, took a poll (a booking actually) on how long it would take to get there. Most people put in one pound and their best guess. I cant remember who won, but it took longer than we expected, at six hours and twenty minutes.

We arrived at our hostel, after passing through another checkpoint and a metal detector. Somebody from our group suggested that the police must be the biggest employer in Egypt, as they are present at checkpoints, guard stations, hotels, and tourist sites. (Research later showed that the Military, Government, and Tourism all claimed to have this title in Egypt.)

After dropping off most of our baggage, we headed back through the same checkpoint with the purpose of making a quick trip out to St. Catherine's Monastery before dusk. St. Catherine's is not far from our hostel, and seemed to be essentially the only other structure, besides our hostel and its accompanying hotel, around for miles in the middle of the desert mountains. Mt. Sinai and St. Catherine's is actually located in St. Katherine city, with a population of approximately 4,000 though one would have never guessed this, as it appeared that we were alone in the wilderness of the peninsula. (1)

We were dropped at the bottom of the drive that led upwards with a short winding walk to the Monastery. It is owned by the Greek Orthodox, but the caretakers are a local Muslim group, who kindly let us in though it was getting late. We entered several buildings, and through low archways that had frescoes overhead. Rounding a corner we saw the Burning Bush (Book of Exodus, Old Testament), which was fairly large and grew somewhat sideways out of the top of a stone wall, about eight feet from the ground.

Tradition holds that this is the same bush from which God spoke to Moses before sending him to Egypt. It has been transplanted from its original site, which is now covered by a chapel, inside of which a star marks where the bush grew from the ground. (2) Unfortunately the chapel was locked for the night, so we were not able to visit it, or see the mosaic that was inside. My camera batteries were running low, so I had to be careful about which shots I was taking, choosing one of the bush and several of the frescoes near the doorways. It was a short but enjoyable visit for me personally, though I wondered what my fellow group members thought of its religious and historical significance.

Dinner was en masse at the restaurant that belonged to the hostel and hotel. It was one very large round room, surrounded by windows, that could seat several hundred people. I don't remember what we ate, but it was quick, then I was in bed by 9:30pm, as we had an early rise the next morning.

"You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. "

- St Augustine, "Confessions," Book 1, 1.