Climbing Mount Sinai: a hike of a lifetime (Egypt) – part 1

1:20 a.m.: as the door of our private tour bus opened up, I felt a strong wind blowing in my face. Sand gravel blew quickly toward me and I had to look down to protect my eyes.

I saw pieces of newspapers flying on the side, hoping to myself the wind would slowly move away.

I had arrived in the Egyptian National Park, the Saint Catherine Protectorate. As my trekking shoes touched the sandy floor for the first time, I noticed the bedouin men sitting on the side smiling at me.

For a minute, I felt out of place.

 

Smiling faces in the middle of a desert……..Had they never seen a woman before? Would I be the only woman there climbing?

I was just a few blocks from the famous monastery of Saint Catherine. What was I doing there in the middle of the night, I asked myself? Had I lost my mind?

It may sound logical to the thousands of pilgrims or seekers of beautiful sunrises who climb Mount Sinai each year, but completely silly to others.

So why would someone go to all that trouble?

While many people know about Mount Sinai and have heard about the climb, others may not know that it is mainly done at night and would be quickly discouraged at the idea…

 

Luckily, I had a flashlight!

But let’s go back in time. Deciding on Egypt for a vacation was an easy task, probably one of the easiest. Then, came the town: Sharm-el-Sheikh… the excursions seemed to be the trickiest assignment.

Would there be enough things to do in the Sinai apart from snorkeling?

I started reading and talking to friends who had been there. The destination seemed amazing, so I booked our hotel.

 

But finding information about climbing was not an easy task and what I read was not always reassuring. Was it safe? Should I reconsider?

After I finding out, it would take about 3 hours to get to the top and 2 hours to go back down, would I be fit for it? Would my husband be as excited as me to climb Mount Sinai?

Then, started long sleepless nights, but why? Soon I could be on top of Mount Sinai where so many can only dream of it!

 

I started looking at alternatives, like going to the monastery of Saint Catherine during the day and then going to the town of Dahab nearby. However, the more I thought about it and the less the alternatives were appealing to me or seemed as exciting as climbing Mount Sinai.

What path should we take at night, the camel path or the other path? This question was bouncing into my head back and forth …

Then, fears disappeared, I had to prepare for the climb. But how to prepare for Mount Sinai? Luckily we had enough mountains here in Switzerland to get ready for it. So during three months, 3 days a week, I walked at least 2-4 hours each time.

Finally came the day of the hike.

 

6:15 a.m.: incapable of sleeping, I decided to get up and to go take photos of the sunrise on the beach.

I was motivated to get up. And why not? I could take a nap later on to be fit for the evening. The morning sunrise in Sharm was so fabulous, making me more impatient than ever for our sunrise over Mount Sinai.

I forgot about sleeping in the afternoon, too excited about the event coming up.

The most important thing to me was packing properly. When you know the sun sets down at 7 p.m. in Sharm and you leave at 10:30 p.m. for a hike, it is better to get ready during day time. I was not sure how motivated I would be at night time. It took about one hour to get our bags ready.

 

I absolutely wanted pasta for dinner, something I thought would help me stay awake and would not make me sick. However that night there was no pasta so I ate salad, meat and rice, which was also fine.

On the way to the hotel room, I picked up our breakfast boxes, which I had ordered the same morning. We changed from evening clothes to hiking pants and checked one more time our equipment. I tripled checked for passports, camera batteries and disks.

10:20 p.m: the call announcing our immediate departure arrived. There was no turning back now. Five minutes later we were greeted in front of the hotel by the driver of our minibus, our guide and someone from American Express, the agency we had chosen for our excursions in Egypt.

 

We drove out of the hotel exactly on schedule at 10:30 p.m. for an arrival in Saint Catherine at 1:20 a.m.

The drive in the car through the desert was enjoyable. The driver was cautious. The roads to the park looked new and not stony as I would have expected them to be. Our guide had advised us to sleep but I was unable to do so, too interested to live every minute of this incredible journey.

Driving at night to a strange place in Egypt is something I will never forget. We stopped so many times during our way there; each time we switched roads, there was a police checkpoint. Driver and guide had to hand over papers. Then, a gate would open for us. It felt like being in a country at war, seeing many men (maybe ten maximum) with guns waiting to control papers. One time it lasted longer than expected and the bus had to pull on the side. I was worried we would have to go back home, maybe a paper was missing. Who knows? But luckily each time, we continued.

 

Five minutes before our arrival in the Saint Catherine Protectorate, our guide turned on the light in the bus and told us to wake up. As I had never closed my eyes, it was easy. He gave us two small bottles of water and tall and heavy flash lights. He told us to take our stuff quickly and he explained he would meet us the next morning in front of the monastery.

Now our bedouin would take over. When our guide told us not to worry that he knew him well and entrust his life to him, I felt better.

So we waved at our guide and left for the unknown. Before entering the way leading to the monastery, we had to go through metal detectors.

It was 1:30 a.m. when we passed the control area. Everything was going according to plan.

 

Our bedouin was young, maybe 15 years old, but strong like an adult. He spoke understandable English. He explained he did this twice a week when he was not in school. I must tell you I did not have much conversation with him as I was always behind!

The way from the parking lot to the monastery seemed far. Before reaching it, I was already tired of it! I think at this time, tiredness was getting to me. I was also adjusting to the change of altitude going from 167 feet (51 m) in Sharm-el-Sheikh to 5249 feet (1600 m) in Saint Catherine.

Before passing Saint Catherine, I felt lonely and lost………

Would I be able to finish this hike?

Everything was going much too quickly. Really, I was already ready to turn back. But when I saw a group of 20 young pilgrims, with just lights and breakfast boxes in their hands, I thought “If they can do it, I can.”

 

I can’t tell you how many stops we had as after a while I stopped counting them. I know the first one seemed like an eternity after we started. The more we got to the top, the more we stopped more frequently.

The places we stopped at were cafés which sold international drinks and snacks. You could go inside and outside to rest and sit on blankets.

My bag was heavy, I thought to myself many times. However, I managed to carry it to the top of the mountain.

The first hour was difficult. We were walking quickly but I tried to go at my pace. We were on the camel path and each time a camel would pass by, the man holding it would ask do you want a camel, by saying “Camel”.

 

You have to be careful with camels as there are so quiet, they could be behind you without you knowing. And it is better no to use flashlights directly in their eyes. Camels don’t like lights.

The couple of times I looked down toward Saint Catherine monastery , I was amazed at the hundreds of people coming up. You could see all of the lights moving. It was an amazing sight from the top as the path was curving. And the stars. Woah!!! You could see every little star so clearly.

At 2:30 a.m.: when I asked our bedouin if we still had a long way to go, he said yes. At that time, we were 1/3 done.

I started feeling better about the whole thing at half point at around 3 a.m. Psychologically it was important to me, to be halfway done. Plus I felt more energetic, taking time to eat nuts and dried raisins more often.

Our bedouin always said we are approaching the beginning of the steps.

For the bedouin who does it often, it is almost always there! You are never fast enough. Go at your pace.

We started the steps at 3:45 a.m. The camel path stops a little while before the steps. So whoever takes the camel ride up will have to continue alone at that point.

 

There is one last café before the 750 steps. Then, the way is quite narrow and there is really no more room for stopping. As the way is wide enough for one, you tend to go quicker. People start being impatient to get to the top.

Luckily, I had good shoes on.

Our bedouin helped me. I was happy as we were going at a really fast pace. I was exhausted and breathless. He brought us to the last café before the top of the mountain and advised us to rest and to rent two blankets. We also took the time to drink two hot chocolate drinks.

At 4:35 a.m: “we should go now, to find a good spot”, said our guide. “It is not far, only 2 to 3 minutes”. But I must tell you after such a long night, it seemed like an eternity.

When we reached the top at 7497 feet (2285 m), we were one of the first ones there. I felt so relieved and happy to have made it.

 

Our guide, who had preferred staying at the café for the next 2 hours was right, we needed the blanket. At the top, with the wind blowing right at us, it got really cold. A third blanket would not have been too much.

Thanks to him, who had led us quickly and safely to the top, we had been there early. We found a good spot, sitting on the floor just next to the side, facing the mountains for sunrise. Quickly, the place started

filling up. It was pitch dark for a while a part from the moon and stars.

One hour went by rapidly. I don’t know why I should I have been tired, but I was not battling at all against sleep.

By 5:30 a.m. that’s when people started getting anxious, staring at the mountain peaks, at the sky, standing up camera in one hand, ready to click to take their photo of Mount Sinai sunrise…waiting, waiting and hoping for the incredible moment after such an effort.

Soon would come the magical moment.

 

At 6:15 a.m. as I was getting quite excited, I slowly understood that the nice pure sunrise would not happen that day. People were in disbelief everywhere around.

It had gone from pitch dark, to deep blue sky, to gray to pinkish tones over the mountain peaks. Quickly the color of the sky darkened and it was all covered again. The sun tried to peak through behind some dirty clouds, which had slowly came the last hour!

This does not happen very often but the temperatures had been extremely high that previous day in the Sinai, Red Sea and ever on the Nile in Luxor and it had become stormy, bringing clouds our way. That afternoon in Sharm at the swimming pool, we had 97 Fahrenheit (36 degrees Celsius) with clouds. I remember I had wondered if it would affect our sunrise over Mount Sinai! and it did.

A blogger next to us got his mini computer and tripod out of his bag, turned on his camera and speakerphone. He started reporting live while battling against the powerful wind: “I am on Mount Sinai to watch the sunrise, but sun is behind some clouds, where is the sun?” He laughed.

One could see that people were waiting hoping for a miracle, but everyone had to turn back to start climbing back down. Every group’s bedouin was waiting at the first café.

 

My husband tried to lift my spirit up by saying we had not come for the sunrise. I could not hide my disappointment until I started climbing down and saw how beautiful it was.

Sun finally came through and illuminated the deserted Egyptian mountains.

I was now really looking forward to the hike down. The challenge of the hike had made it more memorable than expected. What an experience of a lifetime!

 

Stay tuned to find out more on the monastery of Saint Catherine on Nov. 26th & a special on Egypt (Moses, climbing down Mt Sinai and preparing for Mt Sinai) on December 9th.

• Egypt
• hiking
• monastery
• Moses Mountain
• Mount Sinai
• night hike
• sacred mountain
• Saint Catherine Protectorate