…When Dad and I walked it a few years ago we walked the camel path, the path or repentance is a set of stairs that were built into the mountain by a monk. It is supposed to be harder, but shorter, and it is hard to find. Dad and I couldn’t find it, and I don’t think I would have found it yesterday if I had been alone.
Our teacher, Todd, had been telling us how hard the hike would be, warning people against the path of repentance, and even the camel path if they thought they might have trouble. His warnings didn’t work, there were about 25-30 people who decided to go with him. I was one of those 25-30, I had already done the camel path and wanted to go up the other way but I was really nervous because Todd can set a pretty grueling pace. Well fortunately Todd wasn’t leading us up the trail, that honor fell to Osama, our Egyptian tour guide. Now I hadn’t had the best experience with Egyptian tour-guides in the past (in Alexandria we had a tour guide who consistently used the F-word when talking to me and my mom because he thought that was how Americans talked. Amazingly that was one of his better traits.) So I (perhaps unfairly) carried some bias against Osama into our experience with him. It wasn’t really helped by the fact that it was required for our group to have four members of the tour company with us, a driver and a guide (that is normal), a police officer (who was carrying an uzi machine gun under a suit coat), and a “company representative.” We also stopped for a bathroom stop and were encouraged to spend 20 minutes or so shopping and drinking coffee or tea at a place that charged seven dollars for a can of coke. And when we got to Sinai (and St. Catherine’s Monastery) we were somehow herded away from two different bathrooms, either because they were too small or we were in a hurry only to find ourselves at a bathroom that charged for entrance (the other two were free).
(heading up the path of repentance)
(Osama at the first of many breaks)
So you will have to forgive my skepticism when I wondered if Osama would even be able to find our way up the staircase that is the path of repentance to the top of Mt. Sinai. He did know the way but he was certainly not prepared physically to hike it. We actually began to time him, our typical pace would be to hike for nine minutes, and then rest for seven. Unfortunately there were a few people who were really having difficulty with this pace, so Todd went back to try to help them keep up (one ended up heading back down them mountain.) We stayed with Osama a little bit longer, then he told us that we could go on ahead without him, which was nice. With Osama our first fifteen hundred stairs took an hour, without him our next fifteen hundred steps took thirty minutes. We stopped at a place called Elijah’s hollow. It is the place where tradition says that Elijah hid and then heard God in a still small voice. Todd taught us there for a little while and then everyone took the last 750 stairs to the top. I remembered these stairs being difficult (they are the only way up there) and they were. The way of repentance wasn’t actually too difficult (although I am sure that some of that had to do with resting as much as we were walking). But these last steps were hard, definitely the hardest part of the hike.
(the chapel at the top of mt. Sinai)
The weather was great it was just a little chilly at the top (7500 feet), and we could see forever. After spending some time up there and reading some stuff from Exodus, we headed back down the mountain, hoping to make it down before dark.
(the sun setting over the mountians in Southen Sinai)
We did not make it down before dark. The group got pretty spread out on the way down, there were two people in particular who were having a difficult time descending. One of them fell and bruised a rib which slowed them down further than they would have been. And there were a few other people with knee or other problems that slowed them down. So we pretty much came down in four groups, the fast healthy group and then three groups with people who were ailing or healthy people who were helping those who were ailing (carrying bags, holding on to arms, giving support). I moved around between some of the ailing groups at first, trying to see where I could help (I felt fine). I ended up with the person who fell and bruised their rib. I carried a backpack, tried to keep watch in case of another fall (there were two people helping to support the arms), and when darkness came I tried to keep the path well lit for everyone with a flashlight. We were the first of the walking wounded to arrive at the bottom and we probably walked for an 30-45 min in pitch black darkness on the descent.
The amazing thing was the fact that as we were walking down in the dark, a Bedouin who kind of helped to guide us popped out of nowhere, having just come down the side of the mountain, not using any trail I could see in total darkness without any light, and showed us a few “short-cut” paths so that we could get down quicker. (He was a character in himself, I could write more about him, but I’ll just say that when we were getting ready to break up into groups and hike up the mountain there was a guy who was walking through our group begging for food. I was wondering who he was until Osama introduced him as the guy who would guide the people who were walking the camel path up the mountain. In case you were wondering that put our total up to five “guides”: a driver, a guide, a police officer dressed in a suit carrying an uzi, a company representative, and a Bedouin who hiked up the mountain smoking a cigarette and hiked down in the dark with no path and no light.)
After we reached the bottom we still waited for almost another hour for the final group to come down. The stars were beautiful there. I laid back and looked at them as we waited. I can’t think of any way to describe what the milky way looked like, it was amazing.
The bus ride back to Israel was awful. Everyone was tired, I was afraid because we were driving in Egypt after dark. And there was something wrong with floor in the back of the bus. The bus was the same design as the one we have here in Israel, but in Egypt the floor was hot to the touch, and I’m pretty sure it was leaking exhaust fumes. Unfortunately I was sitting in the back so the ride was hot and miserable.
When we finally reached the border we got through the Egyptian side pretty quickly, but the Israel side took a couple of hours. Nobody detained this time but they were training someone on the ex-ray machine and computer that was connected to the machine took a while. At first I was upset that it was taking so long, I was tired and hungry (it was about 11:00pm at this point and we hadn’t had any dinner), but when I finally went through and saw what was going on I actually didn’t mind. I had seen them take forever to scan bags, sending them through more than one time, and when they got to my bag they scanned it, then a lady looked through it, took out my books, then sent it through the machine again. I could see the people looking at the x-ray image on the computer, pointing out each thing and talking about it, and then when they were done they gave me my bag and sent me through. It was inconvenient, but at least what they were doing made sense. They were working very hard to keep their country safe. It was inconvenient, but I understood what they were doing and I respect it. They care and they were doing things the right way.
It was such a contrast to Egypt, where it seems like no one does anything the right way and you spend a lot of time wondering what it is that people care about.
We finally made it to the hotel at 11:30 pm. Our driver Joel (who is the best) set us up with an order of pizza and soda (not surprisingly the dining room was closed when we got to the hotel). And after that I collapsed into bed.
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