Mt Sinai

Wake up call was at 1am this morning. A door knocker with heavy fists (perhaps the fists of God) cane around and bashed on our door. Wearily, we got ourselves geared up for the trek up Mt Sinai.

Mt Sinai is synonymous with Moses and the 10 commandments - the laws that God gave to the Israelites. The summit is 2285 metres from sea level. The buffet style living was not conducive to this kind of hiking!

There are 2 routes available for the pilgrimage up/down the mountain:

- the longer and shallower camel path (approximately 2.5 hours on foot, 4kms uphill and walkers & camels share the path; or

- the 3,750 Steps of Repentance in the ravine behind the monastery, laid by one monk as a form of repentence

The last part to the summit, which everybody has to do, is a steep incline consisting of 300 steps.

We took the camel path up and the Steps of Repentance down. Our trek began at 2.30am. The only light available was the halogen beams from our torches, and the bright stars that shone down on us (Orion's belt has never been so bright). Half of the group opted for camels, and the others (including yours truly) toughed it out on foot on the camel path. Every so often, a camel would pop out of nowhere, and every so often there would be a camel/human traffic jam or a camel/human/camel sandwich. It was quite a surreal experience. The path was not smooth at all - littered with uneven rocks, pebbles and camel poop. The hike to the summit is made that much harder with the hundreds of tourists/pilgrims that share the path; all rushing up to see the sunrise at 5.40am. Amazingly, there were quite a lot of older people (with walking sticks and all) doing the hike. I have to say, the hike was not easy, so I was super impressed with their will power and perseverance.

Mt Sinai is Bedouin country (original habitants). Bedouins are out in full force during the trek - leading the camels, leading the walking groups, loitering on various points on the climb selling camel services. Our Bedouon was a young boy. He does the entire trek 4 times a week!

We took the Steps of Repentance down the mountain. I think the legs started shaking at about step 500. At least we escaped the crowd and camels on the return journey.

Surprise surprise, a buffet breakfast awaited upon our return. After a quick shower, we headed to St Katherine's Monastery - the oldest working Christian monastery in the world. The monastery is dedicated to St Katherine, the legendary martyr of Alexandria who was tortured on a spike wheel and beheaded for her Christianity. Her body was supposedly transported by angels away and onto the the slopes of Gebel Katatina, which is 600kms from Mt Sinai. The body was found 300 years later by monks from the monastery.

St Katherine's Monastery is also the place where you will find the burning bush from which God spoke to Moses. The bush that exits today (see last picture) is a descendant of the original burning bush.

We are now waiting on the hydrofoil bound for Jordan. The immigration/visa process was a slight nightmare and not very clean. Hopefully there will be no sea sickness.