Rome to Turkey: Day Nine: Road to 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.