Mt. Sinai/Dahab, Part 2

So... at long last, here is another post about our trip to Sinai. Seems like a while ago now...

Climbing Mt. Sinai is something of a pilgrimage for many people. A weird tradition has developed over the years: people hit the trail in the middle of the night so they can be at the top of the mountain in time to watch the sunrise. If that's what everyone else did, we weren't going to be left out. Milli and I were excited about the chance to follow in Moses' footsteps; maybe doing it at night would make it easier to imagine what it was like for him. It would be peaceful, quiet, and probably a little dangerous. We asked at St. Catherine's Monastery guesthouse how to find the trail in the dark. "If you get up at 2am, it shouldn't be a problem. Just follow the 700 other people."

So much for peace and quiet.

After trying to sleep for four hours, we got up, had some coffee, and hit the trail. It wasn't hard to find. The trail at the beginning was peppered with boulders, which as Milli said, turned out to be dozens of camels awaiting riders. "Camella?" each Bedouin would ask as we passed, the red dot of their lit cigarette dancing in the blackness. We frequently had to get out of the way as camels trudged by. Luckily, they were quiet docile and never stopped on or spit at anyone that we saw. It was hard not to laugh at the uniqueness of what we were doing: following a biblical trail in the middle of the night, surrounded by hordes of people and more than a few camels.

The mini mag-lite we had brought was dying prematurely, so we relied mostly on the lightbeams cast by nearby hikers. And our youthful good balance. A surprising number of middle-aged, or simply old, people were making the hike with us; the couples clung to each others' arms in the hope that one of them wouldn't trip.

Every half hour or so we would come upon a bright light shining the darkness: a refreshment house, offering tea, Coke and Snickers.

We passed by most of them without stopping, pausing only at one of the final houses for a brief respite before the final assault on the summit. The last bit of elevation climb is only accessible via hundreds of uneven stone “stairs,” which are about as much actual stairs as those at Cirith Ungol, the secret way into Mordor.

We reached the summit at around 5am, as the pitch dark was beginning to wane. We grabbed a spot with visibility to the east and slowly watched the dawn...

... along with a few friends...

... one of whom actually videotaped the whole thing!

It was much easier on the way down. A bit hard on the knees at times though. Some guys thought it was a great idea to race down, practically knocking over the people scrambling from rock to rock. Toward the end, the monastery appeared beneath us, beckoning us home.