May 3-6: Sharm-el-Sheikh

The Sharm-el-Sheikh leg of the trip has provided the highlight of the trip thus far – hiking up Mount Sinai to see the sun rise over the mountainous terrain of the Sinai region. It was an unforgettable experience for so many reasons.

• Getting up at 11 pm to drive three hours to the foot of the mountain, and seeing the full moon illuminate the rocky hills of Sinai a spooky dark blue.
• Climbing the mountain with the help of a Bedouin guide. We’d been told by many sources – Darren, Vicky’s parents, Lonely Planet – that the hike would be easy, that even old ladies do the climb. Not going to fall for that one again. Towards the end we were stopping every two minutes due to leg cramps and fatigue, only barely avoiding being overtaken by some of the elderly Greek pilgrim nuns.
• The sight of hundreds of Russians ascending the mountain carrying boxes of breakfast from their hotels. Some of them had clearly come dressed inappropriately for a hike (or for the year 2007 for that matter). It gave the whole thing the feel of being in a real-life reenactment of the exodus, except with Japanese, Italians and Poles instead of Jews.

• First light on the mountaintop. There was a shooting star coming up over the sun. A bunch of geriatric Koreans sang “How Great Thou Art” in their native tongue. By some miracle we found a bit of rock with an unimpeded view of it all. It was quite moving to reflect on the significance of this place (Moses, etc) but not so serious that we couldn’t take dozens of photos, some quite silly.

An excursion to Mount Sinai usually comes with a visit to adjacent St Katherine’s Monastery, home of a beautiful 1000-year old Russian Orthodox church, and also the Burning Bush, which is quite big (I was expecting a small shrub) and unexpectedly tree-like. Not sure how they know that this is the Bush, but it doesn’t stop the taller Russians trying to grab bits of it. Ooh, those Russians.

A brief, further note on the Russians. They have quite unusual behaviour at buffets. Instead of taking one plate of food at a time, they prefer to collect their entire intended quantity at the start of the session and polish it off, usually within fifteen minutes. This gives some indication of their fervour for the all-you-can-eat arrangement; at one point Vicky was almost knocked to the ground by a middle-aged Soviet desperate to get to the oranges.

Sharm-el-Sheikh is also noted for its proximity to Ras Mohammed National Park, a renowned marine area and snorkeller’s haven, where we spent a very hot day in incredibly cold water, looking at fish and coral up close. Sadly no dolphins or octopi, but Vicky did manage to bump into a small jellyfish (“It felt like a squishy little cushion!”). It was interesting to observe the Muslim women go snorkelling fully-clothed. Embarrassingly Limmy was the only non-Muslim woman to request a buoyancy vest.