Mount Sinai 13 Aug 2023
Overnight adventure to see the sunrise.
We were collected from the hotel at 8.40pm and travelled a few hours before being told at 23.15 we had a police escort until the national park. At 1:00 the next morning we had a crazy stop where we were in the middle of the desert, escorted into a building with a load of relics, copies of paintings at St Catherine's monastery and crosses made from the burning bush at about $20.
Second toilet stop of the journey and it was now £10 Egyptian (25p) to use the pretty grim facilities.
Pitch black and we were told to sleep on the coach until we arrived, which was about 2.30am. Once through the security checkpoint, which was a thorough bag search and a walk through the detector, we met our Befouin guides Ashraf and Tahir. The trek up the mountain started off on shallow upward inclines, with regular stops to drink and catch our breath. The stops were at bedouin shelters where they were selling drinks, with all the cans on the shelves upside down to stop the sand getting on the lid.
At each corner we turned, in the pitch black, there was a surprisingly hard to see Bedouin with a camel, offering rides and shouting out "camel".
It was a sandy, dusty walk and really hot, sweating anywhere the rucksack was leaning on my back and shoulders.
The last part of the climb was steep uneven steps and it was hard to concentrate on anything but the next rocky step. At one stop someone in our group asked how many more and was told, only 200 left! We wished she hadn't asked as we were weary.
We reached the last resting point before the top at about 5.40am with sunrise expected at 6.10am. The bedouin shop owner was shouting "tea, coffee, chai, hot chocolate" and on the end i succumbed to a coffee.
After a rest, drink and explanation of when to be back, we headed to the top of the mountain where there is a church, mosque and the cans Moses stayed in for 40 days and nights before receiving the 10 Commandments from God.
It was busy with people but we found a spot to watch the sunrise.
The family of 5 factor played into the experience as Toby had wandered off with his big camera and no one else knew where he was, so I went back to the resting place to see if he was there. He wasn't, but it was a less crowded place to watch the glorious sunrise and Ashraf, the Bedouin guide was keen to capture it on my phone camera so he took charge and got some great shots.
At 6.30am we all made our way down the mountain, which was much quicker than the way up, mainly as we could see clearly!
We had a tour of St Catherine's monastery but it was very hasty so we mainly saw the burning bush and the Chapel before walking the last 1.5km to the coach for the return journey, getting to our hotel in time for lunch, with some happy memories of our adventure.
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