pilgrimage

We left yesterday around eleven in the morning to begin our pilgrimage to Mount Sinai. Aunt Chrissy, Abbie and I climbed in a rather spacious van with our drivers, Adel and Isam. We stopped to see the Suez Canal, slept a little, and Adel helped me with my Arabic. After about six hours, we arrived at the St. Katherine Protectorate, a National Park in the southern region of the Sinai peninsula.

We stayed at the Plaza, the Catherine* Plaza that is. It reminded me of a place I once stayed in Monjas, Guatemala, El Hotel Lopez. The linens were scratchy, and let's just say we were a little concerned about the potential for bed bug bites and/or intruders entering through our balcony, which I easily scaled in tennis shoes. Fortunately, we only slept for about two hours because we had to wake up early enough to begin our ascent at 2:00 AM. Dinner was included and was served buffet-style. Some things were more delicious than others, the chicken, for example, was great. The bread, not so much. Egyptians must not be the most talented bakers, because they even messed up the little cakes. How can you mess up cake? I didn't think it was possible.

At any rate, after a couple of hours of laughter reminiscent of the slumber parties of our youths, we got a couple hours of sleep, hopped out of bed, packed our little bag, and headed to the mountain. Adel drove us and introduced us to Mahmoud, our Bedouin guide. Think back to your SAT skills, because I'm about to throw an analogy at you:

Bedouin : Mt. Sinai :: Sherpa : Mt. Everest

Got it? Okay, so Mahmoud was this tall, skinny fellow who apparently does this five times a week or so. He carried our bag for us and helped us navigate the roughly five mile ascent through some of the especially treacherous spots. Once we hit the trail, the first thing I noticed was the stars. We were in the middle of the desert, and I haven't seen stars like that since perhaps I was a child in Alaska. The scenery surrounding us made me feel like I was on Mars or something. I'd never seen anything quite like these rocky peaks, just visible in the light of the cresent moon. After a few minutes of a gradual incline, we passed St. Katherine's monastery and came upon a couple of Bedouins offering camel rides. "You want camel?" they would say, "it is good camel and far way." We declined and continued into a small area where there had to be at least fifty camels tethered to rocks, some sitting, some standing, all chewing cud (from where, I cannot imagine). It was rather eerie, all those camels in the moonlight.

Every mile or so there was a "coffee shop," which consisted of a shack on the side of the path that sold candy bars, water, soda, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, etc. The headlamps supplied by Uncle Bill proved incredibly helpful, especially once we got to the end of the switchback camel trail and began the last segment of the climb, a series of 750 steps to to summit. Mahmoud warned us that all along the steps there would be Bedouins offering their hands to help us up the steep path, but that this help was not free. "Lah shakran," we repeated over and over again, "no thank you." Oddly enough, I heard a surprising amount of Russian, and it was pleasant to my ears.

Once we reached the point at which there were only 100 more steps, Mahmoud sent us on without him. I imagine he anticipated the crowds on the summit and was content to wait for our return after sunrise. We reached the summit just after 5:00 AM, and watched as the majestic scenery appeared before our eyes in the twilight. I thought about Moses, all those thousands of years ago, meeting with God on that very mountain top. I thought about how he had to make the journey alone, how he demanded that God show him His glory, how God had him hide in a cleft and passed his hand over it, how Sinai had been the place of the burning bush, when God first spoke to Moses, calling this place holy ground. I couldn't believe I was there.

Just as I was thinking that the sun had already come up and that we were simply unable to see it due to cloud cover and/or pollution, I looked over Aunt Chrissy's shoulder and saw it, peeking up over the horizon. It was bright orange against the dim yellows and blues of the sky, and quickly brought light and heat to the gray mountains all around us, turning them into a red-orange color.

The sun climbed into the sky with alarming speed, and it got hot fast. Though it was easier physically, the descent seemed longer with the heat and pronation of our toes, but we finally made it. We summitted Mount Sinai - probably my first internationally known mountain.

*Please take notice of the spelling discrepancy. This can be attributed to the "E-factor" (E as in Egypt).