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| St Catherine Monastery as seen from Mt Sinai |
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| Arid and dry Sinai Mountain topography. |
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| Mountain in Sinai shaped like a "Human Face". |
Mount Sinai also known as
Mount Horeb,Mount Musa, Gebel Musa and Jabal Musa(Moses Mountain) by the
Bedouins is the mountain in
Saint Katherine City , the biblical mount as portrayed in the old Testament.
Islamic Culture suggests another name for
Mt Sinai, the name being
Koh-e-Toor or al-Toor(Mountain of toor). Sinai Mountain is
2285(7,497 feet) meters high in St Katherine city and the entire range of nearby mountains called the
"Sinai Peninsular mountains".Got the
"WAKE-UP CALL" at the room at 0100hrs on Tuesday morning and woke up groggily due to lack of sleep.I put on
3 warm chest clothing and 2 trousers to protect me from the chill breeze of the Sinai Mountains. Ambient temps were from
0 to 5*C and inspite of my classic
"Addidas Warm Jacket" i could still feel the chill wind as soon as we stepped out of our warm hotel lodge.Stephen and myself reported at the
"New Morgan hotel reception center" where
Mr Domingo.Pereira and
Mosiac tour conductor Nicola .Phillips were waiting, finally joined by
Egyptian tour guide Mr Mehud.The
5 of us boarded the
"Tour Bus" which took us to the foothills of Mt Sinai and i was surprised to find the place packed with t
rekkers, some of them pilgrims and some ordinary trekkers, all belonging to different nationalities, mostly of Caucasian descent.The traditional tribals of this area are the
"Jebeliya Bedouin" who have been living here since the construction of the
Monastry of St Katherine,the oldest residents of the Sinai much before the arrival of other Bedouin Tribes and the spread of Islam as a religion.Through the centuries they intermingled with other Arab tribes and became Muslims as in the present era. Mr Mehud introduced us to the local
"Mt Sinai Bedouin guide" who would guide us through the entire trek, a frail looking Arab who seemed
"High" on some intoxicant as he kept on muttering gibberish throughout our ascent and ironically, many a times, we had to guide him! There are
2 routes to ascend the peak of Mount Sinai from St Katherine Monastery, we took the longer and shallower route
"Siket El Bashait", the common route of pilgrims since camels can also trek this path upto the
"Steps". The second route called
"Siket Sayidna Musa" in bedouin is steeper and more direct up
3750 "steps of penitence" in the ravine behind the monastery.
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| Tour Manager Nicola,Tourists Domingo, Stephen & self on the steep pilgrim trek to Mt Sinai summit. |
Among us Domingo,Nicola and myself were veteran trekkers with room-mate Stephen being the
"Green trekker", absolutely unused to treks, besides being a bit overweight.Domingo was the
"live wire" among the 4 of us, very energetic and fast, a total outdoors-man and
tour operator Nicola surprised me by her stamina and prowess at trekking, a young lady whose physical prowess belied her petite feminine looks.
The proverb that women are the stronger sex was amply proved by Nicola.Phillips with the ease with which she completed the entire trek.Stephen was the plodder who really found it difficult and strenuous, slowing down our ascent pace while i was worried about my
"Knee Pain" relapsing due to the steep climb.The
Bedouin "Mountain Guide" was hilarious in his partly undecipherable language of
Arabic/Bedouin/English and most bothered about his
"Tips".This was one of the toughest treks of my entire trekking career for the simple reason that psychologically i was afraid of the
"Knee Pain" ruining my entire tour, besides, it was chill cold even with 3 overalls and a jacket.The entire trek was packed with tourist trekkers and on hindsight it seems a
"Mountain guide" was unnecessary as simply following the
"Trek Queue" would have landed a
pilgrim/trekker on the summit of Mt Sinai. I had carried my dad's
"Ever-ready Torch" for the trek , purchased from Mombasa(35 yrs old) which was lying dormant in our house for decades, torches being as outdated as the
"Typewriter" in 21st century Mumbai.The torch proved extremely useful during the ascent but as usual my
"absent-mindedness" got the better of me and i forgot to collect it at one of our
"Rest-Stops( Bedouin Dhaba style shops)" while ascending the mountain and that was the last of one of the
"Antique torches" of our house-hold.
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| "REST STOP HUT" while trekking to Mt Sinai. |
A consolation is that at least this torch would be put to good use by its finder in helping trekkers find their way through the dark.The climb to the peak consists of a series of
"Rock carved stairs" akin to a normal building staircase and Stephen took the help of a
"camel ride" to reach upto the summit of the steps.Aged pilgrims and others who find it difficult to trek upto the
"Sinai Mountain Steps" can take the assistance of
"Camel rides" with an attendant Bedouin camel guide, a costly ride to the top.Ultimately, trekking reflects a individuals fitness and mental toughness and age is no criteria for completing a trek unless it is extreme old age where the human body is in natural decline.I was surprised to note that my uncle and aunt who had done this
"Holy Land Tour" a few months before me with
"Mosiac holidays " had actually completed the entire
"Mt Sinai Trek" inspite of being in their 60's!Ultimately we climbed the stair which seemed endless and finally reached the peak of Mt Sinai at approx
0500 hrs, a long journey of 3 hours.There was a Orthodox chapel and a mosque at the summit. It was still pitch dark at the summit and it was already packed with trekkers and pilgrims awaiting for the first rays of the Sun to show itself through the
"Sinai mountain chain".The first rays of the sun showed itself and the entire mass of trekkers went trigger happy with their camera's including me and there are some memorable photographs for posterity.Climbing
"Mt Sinai" is a once in a life-time affair and although i have been a
"Tour-Name-dropper", the trek of Mt Sinai will always be etched in my living memory.The descent from the peak was easier as we were now traveling in early morning sunlight and it was just a simple downward journey towards the foothills ,following pilgrims and trekkers ahead of us with our
"Bedouin mountain guide" following our footsteps! After reaching the foot of the mountain near
St Katherine Monastery we boarded our
"Tour Bus" and went back to our hotel,showered and later reported for breakfast.
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| "ST CATHERINE MONASTERY" as seen from the road. |
After breakfast we boarded the bus and were taken for a tour of
St Catherine Monastery at the foothills of Mt Sinai
.This monastery is one of the oldest christian monastery's in continuous existence since its construction, details of which can be read on the encyclopedia search engines as it would be too complicated to blog its history.Toured the entire St Catherine Monastery in one hr, absolute short stay for a
"Monastery" that has historical records which akin to the
"Pharaohs museum" would require months of study for a history buff, let alone a theology student .We later boarded our
"Egypt Tour Bus" and made our journey towards Israel reaching the
"Egypt/Israel Taba Border Crossing" at approximately
1300 hrs.After bidding good-bye to our
"Egyptian tour guide" Mr Mehud we took our luggage from the
"Egyptian tour Bus" and entered the departure lounge of
"Egypt Customs" into the arrival lounge of
"Israel customs".After the necessary
"Immigration formalities" we were met by our
"Israeli tour guide" Mr Eliezer Gilboa, a elderly man in his 60's and a veteran ex-Israeli soldier as everyone in Israel is forced into compulsory military training and service.The difference of average living standards between Egypt and Israel was obvious just by observing the
"Taba Border" and entering into Israel, a country with
"First world living standards", absolutely clean and disciplined and courteous to tourists.Honestly, as a tourist i couldn't believe that this country was and is constantly in political turmoil with its Arab neighbors, something which is the root cause of
"International world Terrorism".After exchanging some dollars into the local
"Israeli Currency" at the
"Taba Border Exchange" we all boarded the
"Israeli Tour Bus" and made our long journey towards the Dead Sea resort , passing through the port of
Eliat and marveling the
"Greening" of the desert by Israeli agriculturists.There were numerous
"Date Palm fields" created in the midst of barren desert sand as well as "
Green House horticulture", Israel being the World exporter in
"greenhouse plantation technology".Finally we reached
"Kibbutz Kalia" our hotel residence in the
"Dead sea" resort, an excellent beautiful cottage accommodation hotel complex with natural landscaped greenery, akin to living in the midst of natural forests. Stephen and myself checked into
"Cottage Nos 4" a totally independent single storey cottage with excellent television and air-conditioning facilities.The
"Kibbutz" culture, an invention of Israel is a form of housing akin to our Mumbai's
"Co-operative housing societies" with a common
"Control center",only difference being the
"communal outlook", as these
"Kibbutz's" have an entirely
"Jewish population" with their own religious customs and way of living.Dinner was
"self-service" at the common
"mess-Room" in the main
"Community hall" and was more
"European" in taste with a form of
"Sushi" being served.I personally relished the food , especially the tinned raw salted fish, something new on the average menu.Israel uses
"Desalinated water" for its daily consumption which is also edible to tourists unlike in Egypt where tourists are advised to drink distilled bottled water, although the river Nile is a perennial fresh water source, something which puzzles my reasoning of
"Water Technology" and its usage.
After dinner, crashed to sleep in our cottage after brushing up the latest
"Stock exchange News", little realizing that my
"Stock Portfolio" was just experiencing the beginning of the World's greatest financial meltdown after the
"Great Depression of 1929".
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| ON THE PEAK OF Mt SINAI ( 2285 or 7,497 feet). Photo:- Co-Tourmate Mr Stephen.Lewis. |
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