Climbing the Mt. Sinai

On the second day of my stay (March 12, 2008), when I got back to my hotel, there was a Bedouin, Hamdy, from St. Katherine in the lobby. I sat down with the other guys and he started talking about the Gabl al Mousa (Mt. Sinai or Mt. of Moses) and St. Katherine monastery. He offered to accompany me to the camp and arrange for me to climb the mountain. I was excited about the opportunity, but was not sure about my schedule for the next day. I told him that I would get back to him the next day morning. Next day morning when I woke up, I had nothing more interesting on hand and was excited about the opportunity to travel down south along the coast of the red sea to St. Katherine, the tourist city.

I found the Bedouin waiting in the reception and I confirmed to him that I would be joining him to St. Katherine and made the payment for the bus tickets. The bus would leave Cairo at 11:00 am and it was already 9:30. Ticket was arranged for me by 10:30 am and I had to rush to Torgoman square, about 6 kms away, to catch the bus in 30 minutes during the peak hour. I rushed and paid 20 pounds to the driver instead of 5 pounds and found the Bedouin, Hamdy, waiting for me in the bus station. The bus station was no less than an airport. It was very well built and the security was as good as an airport. It was a pleasant surprise to see such facilities and arrangements for bus passengers. The bus left station at 11:00 am and reached St. Katherine by around 8:00 pm. About 30 kilometers from St. Katherine, the weather began to change and it was getting colder and colder. When I got down the bus at St. Katherine it was spine chilling cold and we had to walk a distance to reach the camp.

When I reached the camp, luckily there was campfire and Hamdy took me to the tent and I sat by the fire. When I asked Hamdy what are the next plans, he said, you will have to start climbing the mountain by 2:00 am to be able to reach on the top by dawn and see the sunrise. Because of the cold, I had given up on climbing. I was wearing four garments, and yet it was very cold. I had roasted chicken and rice for dinner and went to sleep. I met a Swiss national, Oberson Daniel, who had traveled to Egypt on a bike.

When I got to the room to sleep, there was no fire and it was like a huge deep freezer and Daniel advised me to ask for a second blanket so that I can cover myself with two blankets. But I didn’t and jumped into the bed with one blanket. And it was as good as sleeping in water. Past 1:30 am Hamdy began knocking on the door. He said the guide is waiting. I told Hamdy that I didn’t think I was going and I wanted to sleep and think about climbing in the morning. Hamdy came back again after five minutes and started knocking and said that the guide is already here and he is waiting for me. I told him that it was too cold and that I would not be able to climb, but I jumped out of the bed and he got me an extra jacket. He also handed me a torch light. When I set off from the camp, I was wearing five garments on my body, two T-shirts, a shirt, a blazer, and the jacket that Hamdy gave me. And I took my towel to wrap it around my head and Hamdy gave me an additional cloth to wrap around my head.

We started walking out of the camp slowly. I had never seen so many stars in my life as I saw in St. Katherine. Pitch dark sky and millions of stars. The mountains stood like giants poking their nose into the skies, it was an amazing sight. We slowly moved away from the settlements, lights, the road, and started upwards on the mountain. I was shocked to know that the guide had not got his own torch and we were going to climb in absolute darkness had I not brought the torch that Hamdy gave me.

After climbing for an hour or something I started feeling thirsty and I started bugging the guide with “water, water, water” every few steps. I would pause and would get angry on him for not getting water, he would say there are 6 cafeterias on the top and we would reach there soon. After climbing, I started to feel hot and I unbuttoned my jacket and kept walking. My legs began to ache and my heart began to beat fast. My throat was going dry, my pulse was beating fast. Of all the things in the world, what I wanted at that moment was just water, I just wanted a few drops of water to wet my throat and I was getting angry on the guide for not getting it. I suddenly saw a light in distance. Excitedly I asked the guide about it, he told me that it was the house of a Bedouin. I felt happy that I can find some water in there. We kept walking and when we reached there, the guide told that we cannot wake the Bedouin as it was late in the night and he asked if I wanted to drink from the tank from which the camels drink. I just moved ahead without even thinking about drinking from there.

After walking for 15-20 more minutes, I again saw a group of lights flashing high up on the mountain. Guide told me that it was another group of tourists climbing the mountain ahead of us and that if we walked faster we may be able to catch them and get a sip or two of water from there. I forgot all my pain in the legs and the dry throat and kept walking briskly to reach the group. But they were walking at a faster pace and it was difficult to reach them, but the hope of being able to catch them kept me going and I was moving inch by inch closer to the top of the mountain.

Finally, after a long ordeal and tiring journey we reached a middle point where there was a cafeteria and I was going to get “water” the precious drink that I had been dying to have a sip of for the last 3-4 hours. I bought a bottle of water and drank half of it during the 10 minute break in the cafeteria and we restarted our journey.

After getting out, it was cold again and I started to feel the water inside me freeze. I was feeling tight in my chest and was having difficulty breathing. The water that I was dying to have was going to kill me now. I realized that water wasn’t the right drink in this cold weather and at this high altitude. After walking for about another half hour I spotted another cafeteria and I rushed in to have a tea. After the tea, we set out for the final climb on the mountain. Taking even a single step was a heavy burden. The legs would not move, but what fun if I couldn’t climb the last 5% of the mountain after having climbed the 95%. And I kept pushing myself up, up, and upwards. My hands in my pockets, my head wrapped with a towel and a cloth and five garments on my body, yet I felt I was standing in chilled water. I could hardly take a picture or two due to the cold. My fingers turned blue and would freeze if I took my hands out of the pockets. I could take a few pictures, but couldn’t gather courage to take video with the handycam that I had carried with me. I took some shots of the sunrise and we started our return journey.

I had hardly come down a few steps, I got a call from India. It was my uncle calling and my mom was on conference. I could hardly speak and was scared as to why my mom had to come on the conference call, what did she have to tell me. When I left for Egypt, dad wasn’t feeling well and I wanted to call back to find out whey they called. But there wasn’t any credit left in my mobile and no recharge coupons available on the mountain.

The journey back was 3 hours and those 3 hours were the most anxious moments that I ever spent in my life. I was so helpless, I couldn’t call India back nor did I get any call back from them. The next possibility to call back was only after three hours and every minute was like an hour for me. I told myself that no matter what I am going to beat the time and cover the distance in as short time as I can. I started moving faster and faster and I forgot all the pain in my legs. I made the guide carry the remaining water from the bottle that we had bought on the top because I didn’t want to slow down due to want of water.

After a painfully anxious three hours when I reached the camp, I looked around but couldn’t find any shops that had the recharge coupons. I told the guy in-charge of the camp that whatever the price maybe I want to make a call to India or at least recharge my mobile. He said he could help me recharge the mobile by transferring credit from his. He asked for my number and did it. I called India and spoke to my mom. Everything was fine, she was just checking on me. I was relieved. I ordered a breakfast and relaxed for an hour.

I offered the Friday prayers at a mosque in St. Katherine and boarded the bus at 1:00 pm. I reached Cairo by about 9:30 pm. On way back, almost 100 km from Cairo the bus broke down and we rushed into a microbus which dropped us at El Marg. The co-passenger was helpful enough to guide me to the metro station and we boarded a metro together. I was in the metro for the first time. He was getting down at Ramses, the Mubarak station, and I was to get down at Tahrir, Sadat station. It was quite an interesting journey way back and very helpful, as I learnt about the metro and that I could take a metro from the first station till the last station for just 1 Egyptian pound.