3500 steps to the top

Trip Start Jun 06, 2008
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Trip End Dec 11, 2008


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Flag of Egypt  ,
Sunday, June 15, 2008

From Luxor we took off headed straight for Mt Sinai. Mt Sinai is the apparent location that God handed down the 10 Commandments to Moses. It was also the location that we would hike to at Midnight so that we could spend the night and wake up for Sunrise. Before I mention anything about the hike up Mt Sinai I want you to know up until this point on our trip we had not ridden in the "truck"...do not call it a bus (everyone wanted to call the truck a bus, it just felt like a bus, even though it was a truck)! We had taken guided local transportation, the train or the Fellucca to get to our destinations. We were all pretty fired up to begin this part of the journey. We would get a taste for the truck on the first day because the drive was meant to take us almost10 hours or so to get to Mt Sinai. Something else you should know, when travelling through Egypt in a group, you have to travel in an armed guard caravan. It's supposed to be for our protection, but all I could think as we -along with 50 other cars or trucks or buses full of tourists- waited in line at the security stops was that you're like sitting ducks just waiting to be plucked off by some would be fanatic A shot of the canyon
A shot of the canyon
 . The other issue with travelling in a caravan is that you can't be late for the caravan or they will leave you and you will have to wait for the next scheduled time to go AND you can't stop to use the restroom whenever you want, you have to wait for scheduled stops! Enough about that!
Off we went on the truck...it's not a bus... with our scheduled caravan headed for Mt Sinai. The first two hours of the truck were fine, it was windy, but it wasn't that hot yet and it was fun to be headed for something new and on the truck all together laughing about how hilarious we looked (see the pictures). About 3 hours in, we were in the desert and we could see the temperature gauge rising and rising fast! We were at about mid 40s c by about 2pm and it was DUSTY! It was at about this point that our group was not so fired up anymore and wondering how we would stomach the next few weeks in the truck. Right about that point everyone assumed what would be our "positions" in the truck when the sun was up. Asleep. We did a lot of sleeping in the truck...it's not a bus. I wouldn't say it was sleeping so much as cold-hard passed-out. I think when it's that hot you just pass-out. You will see what I mean when you look at the pictures. At any rate, we arrived at Mt Sinai and started our hike at about midnight. There are two ways up the mountain to get to the last part of the hike, which is climbing 700 flights of stairs. One way up is the Camel path (yes there were camels that could take you up this way) which was a dirt trail and the other was 2900 sets of stairs A view of the sun waking up
A view of the sun waking up
 . As a group we opted for the camel path (only one person rode the camel), so that we could come down all 3500 stairs on the way back the next morning. It was a fairly brutal, but quick hike (I think it took us 2 hours to get to the top). There were all these little huts on the way up that you could stop at for tea or water or snacks, so we took a couple breaks before we made our final climb up the 700 stairs. It was a beautiful night for a hike and nice reprieve for our group to do something where we weren't in the sweltering heat. When we got to the top  we all rented little mats, rolled out our sleeping bags and went to bed watching the stars and thinking about how the heck Moses carried a stone tablet down 3500 flights of stairs! Thanks to the Korean Christian group singing kum-by-ya we were up well before the sunrise. When we got to the top, there was no one up there and when we woke up the mountain was covered with people. When the sun finally rose, there was singing, clapping and cheering. It was fairly moving. We made a quick descent down the 3500 flights of stairs to get to the bottom in time to make our first meal from the truck...it's not a bus. More on cooking from the truck later!
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