A Desert Climb

10AM, Sharm Marriott

The last time I posted we’d just finished diving in Dahab and were looking forward to day two. We did dive day two…it was a rough start: the jeep broke down (how many Bedouins does it take to change a tire?) and we forgot our weight belts. But the dives were fantastic. It was Lynn’s navigation, compass, and night dives. The night dive was the best of the day – at depth during the day, you lose some really bright colors…but when you have a torch at night, you can see them as they should appear during the day. We saw fantastic reds, and blues and even purples. There were HUGE moray eels and a few really big unicorn fish. Excellent dive with great visibility – a great way to end our diving in the Red Sea.

That night we went out on the town – which really is quite mellow compared to our NYC and Seattle standards. A dive guide who’d just gotten off of a week long live aboard (dive boat) with 36 S Africans asked us to meet him and his friends for a drink…so we went to the bar and spent about 3 hours talking to two young Bedouin men about life in Egypt for them. It was fascinating. The first part is that they have different English accents than any other Egyptians – they sound British or even S African. In fact, we asked Shady (the dive guide) for ID to prove that he was Egyptian. They were dressed in normal street clothes – something that men would wear in the US – but they also wear the traditional Bedouin garb, which consists of long caftans and pants (Lynn asked what they wear under their kaftans and meant is it pants or shorts…but of course, the humor of that one translated and they gave us quite a bit of shit J) and colorful head wraps. Shady explained that he started working on the promenade selling handmade scarves and bracelets when he was 6…then grew up to go to Cairo University to study Business Administration. He decided that wasn’t the world for him, so now he dives for a living, although he’s taken the GMAT and hopes to get into MBA school sometime in the next couple of years. Not a bad job in the interim, I must say. It really was so interesting to spend time with them and ask them questions about a lifestyle that is so foreign, yet so familiar in some respects.

We left Dahab yesterday morning and hired a car to drive us to Mt Sinai. We drove through the desert for two hours and finally reached the mountain in the mid-morning. It was spectacular. Most people hike it at night to avoid the sun, then sleep on top of the mountain and watch the sunrise. I wasn’t too keen on that idea as I want to be rested to start my Kili climb on Friday, so we decided to hike during the day. We arrived at St Katherine’s monastery at the base of Sinai at 10AM. We toured the monastery, which still houses 22 Greek Orthodox monks, for about 45 minutes. We saw the burning bush – which is said to be from the same stock as THE burning bush. It’s the only plant of its type on the Sinai Peninsula and is always green, regardless of being deep in the desert. It was a humbling experience for me to see all of the many different types of people from all around the world brought together by their faith. Lynn actually reached up and pricked her finger on the bush…we’re trying to determine if that means she’s going to become immortal or is just a klutz. We still haven’t decided.

We entered the monastery museum and were immediately befriended by a crazy Greek monk. There is no photography in the museum, but he followed us around taking our pictures with our cameras. He seemed to want to show us everything as a personal tour and talk all about the places he’d been in the US. It would have been creepy…but come on, he’s a monk. So we laughed it off and said our goodbyes to the crazy Greek man.

Our driver had hired us a guide – a 28 year old Bedouin man, who looked about 50- to lead us up the mountain. It’s not an easy life that they lead – living in the desert, which I’m convinced is the harshest climate on earth, and making very little money to support huge families (the Bedouins that we’ve spoken to have mentioned families up to 30 children). It’s also Ramadan, which means no eating or drinking of any sort during the day…and we’d decided to climb 6000+ vertical feet in the heat of the day…in the desert.

The climb was spectacular. The landscape is so foreign to me: sharp, craggy, red mountains rising out of the yellow sand. Layers upon layer of mountains make up the horizon and disappear into the haze of the hot desert. I took a million pictures, but as with most truly amazing experiences, the feelings and exact view/lighting does not translate.

We hiked on the camel path for about 2 hours and reached the final 750 steps (said to be prescribed to be built as a punishment for…one of the saints I think? Gabe – you’ll have to fill me in on the exact biblical significance when I get back. J ) We reached the top and were literally the only three people as far as the eye could see. We’ve been very lucky on this trip to avoid the crowds at these typically touristy places. We sat in silence on the top of the mountain, off in our own worlds, listening to Salama (or guide) pray in the mosque behind us. I think Lynn and I both felt that we’d not only conquered a mountain, but we really were part of something bigger than ourselves that was allowing us the amazing good fortune to have that particular experience. Even for me, it’s hard not to get spiritual and philosophical about one of the most important places in almost all of the original organized religions. Needless to say, there were some silent prayers of thanks to The Big Guy from me.

We hiked down the 750 steps and decided to take the camel path (instead of the 3,000 steps of the alternate route) down. Our guide was literally falling asleep while walking. I kept trying to convince him to stop or take a drink of water, but he assured us he was ok. Lynn and I kept up a brisk clip in front of him as he was an accident waiting to happen and neither of us wanted to see it in progress. It was probably a very poor decision for him to not have eaten (certain professions can have a ‘free pass’ during Ramadan if they absolutely must have food/water during the daylight hours, and he was in one of the professions). When we reached the car, I told our driver, Ehab, about the experience and he said – ‘Don’t feel bad. We CHOOSE this.’ Yet another example of the amazing faith and strength many Muslim people exhibit. I’ve come to have the utmost respect this religion and the people that follow it, even though it previously has been incredibly foreign to me.

Ehab drove us back to Sharm (2.5 hours) and spoke to us about Islam and its tenets, his family, life in Dahab, and a multitude of other topics almost the entire way. Exhausted, Lynn and I ate an early dinner and fell into bed…to awake this morning to spend our last day in Sharm lying by the pool.

We’ll head to Cairo tomorrow (hopefully – business hours here are a complete cluster, so we’ve not been able to book tickets yet) and I leave at 3:30 AM on Thursday for Arusha. I’m excited for the next leg of my journey but will dearly miss my travel buddy. Couldn’t have worked out better for us I don’t think…we’re both so grateful for the amazing two weeks we’ve had together! We’re already planning our next adventure.

The next time I write I’ll be in Tanzania. There are some exciting things in the works for me there that I can’t wait to write about…I don’t want to jinx myself by writing about them yet, but I am again (as I often am on the trips that I take) humbled and thankful for the kindness of complete strangers.

Hope you all are doing well. Keep sending me updates – I love to hear about all of the fun I’m missing!

Cheers!
~G