It was time to leave Luxor, I would not miss the relentless buggers that constantly hound the tourists; many guide books warn of the conduct of some locals here. What I would miss was the historic sites that are strewn around the Luxor, Edfu, and Aswan area's. I was not sure exactly where I would go after Luxor, my first thoughts were to head to the Red Sea but I would make a decision when the time came.
I boarded a bus destined for Hurghada, it was supposed to be an air-con coach but it ended up to be just a standard junker. Although it was 9am the temperature was already over 30 degrees. The bus first stopped 20 minutes after leaving the city so the driver could eat, free for bringing customers in, and then the bus stopped again at the Upper Egypt Travel bus work yard where there were several scrap buses; it was getting hotter by the minute. We made it to Safaga on the sea where there was yet another police check point; we sat in our can (bus) just hunched over waiting for relief from the heat; 2 guys got taken off the bus and did not return, I guess their papers were not in order....we finally proceeded. The blue waters of the Red Sea were a welcome sight after traversing through an old mountain range.
We followed the coast up to Hurghada, there were many spots where rolls of barbed wire separated us from the highway and the garbage that had blown across the sand to collect up against it.
Once the bus stopped at the station it was apparent quickly that I would have a very short stay in Hurghada. When I got off of the bus I was bombarded by taxi drivers trying to convince me to go with them to a resort; these beach resorts had stretched for kilometer after kilometer. Most of my friends know what I think about tourist area's and within minutes I was back on the sweat bus for the 300 km ride to Suez. To the west were the mountains and to the east was the desert and the Gulf of Suez; as we went further north there were many oil rigs in the gulf.
The closer we got to Suez the less appealing the scenery got; there were so many oil storage tanks; pipelines ran parallel to the highway, oil drums strewn the sand as far as my eyes could see, and scrub bushes caught all types of plastic garbage........I did see two wind farms, so that was encouraging. Thousands of unfinished condominiums lined the highway south of Suez; this told a story of developer failure.
Suez City was very industrial, there were factories all over and thousands of boats were dry docked; many shanty shacks and 5 floor apartment buildings were packed together.
The Gulf was loaded with large ships waiting to enter, or were just leaving the Suez Canal.
After about 700 kms traveled and many hours on the road I found a dumpy white hotel for 62 pounds ($12) and settled in to my dirty little room. In the morning I walked around the city and eventually went over to the canal for photo's and watch some of the monster ships waiting to go through the canal to get to the Mediterranean; every 15 minutes a ship went past. The temperature was noticeably cooler than down in Luxour so that was a releif. The amount of garbage on the streets was incredible; I worried about new immigrants bringing bad habits to Canada. My stay in Suez was short because I was to take a bus to Taba on the east side of the Sinai Peninsula that afternoon.
Before the bus went through the Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel under the Suez Canal there was a security checkpoint,
after the tunnel there was desert on both sides of the bus. There has been so much war in this area; as early as the 70's Egypt was at war with Israel. As I watched the sand drift across the highway like snow does in Canada I noticed so many guard towers occupied by soldiers. Going through a mountain range we passed two large military camps, on a barren side road there was a sign that read "warning, no foreigners allowed on this road. We stopped for the bus driver to eat, there were many men smoking on the bus so I took the chance to stand outside in a smoke free environment.
The trip across the peninsula was most memorable; the desert has many faces, especially when there are mountains.
There were so many colours in the rocks that they were like mountain jewelry, I was taking so many photo's that I had to put the camera away.
As we rounded a tight corner there were 3 very old ladies tending to goats, sheep, and loaded donkeys, it was really a sight to behold; too bad I did not get a photo, there were several herds of camels though.
My journey to Taba changed once the bus pulled into Nuweba; I decided to get off the bus and make my way to Katherine so I could climb Mt Sinai. There were no English speakers to be found but I managed to barter with a taxi driver to take me to my destination for 150 pounds ($27). Katherine was very touristy and accommodation is a little more pricey but there were still some reasonably priced rooms. I had an excellent day for scenery and felt fortunate that I took the route from Suez rather than the typical tourist trip from Sharm el-Shiekh.
Next morning I headed out from the hotel on the 2km walk to the bottom of Mt Sinai (also known as Mt Horeb) which has an elevation of 2,285 metres (7,500 ft). It was very cool, as it often is in the desert, hard to believe that some days can get to 50 degrees when it is only about 10. This mountain, it is thought by Christians, Muslims, and Jews, is where Moses was given the Ten Commandments : some archaeologists and historians dispute this. I first passed the St Katherine's Monastery which has been a place of pilgrimage since the 4th century.
I walked up the mountain using the camel trail which ended up to have a human traffic jam at the halfway point since crowds were coming down the mountain after watching the sunrise. Near the top mount is the Greek Orthodox Chapel; I heard a loud scream, which came from a Russian tourist who was overcome by emotion after witnessing the historic site.
There are many over the top believers that come to Mt Sinai from afar.
The view from the top of the mountain was excellent; I made such good progress that I had plenty of time to sit, watch people, write in my journal, and take it all in.
On the way down I took the 3,750 steps of repentance rather than the same camel trail. When I got to a group of people who I thought were going too slow down the steep steps I started to jump rocks instead. Not a great idea on a steep grade and I ended up injuring my ankle when it could not handle the stress of landing from too high an elevation. Running on adrenaline I made it down and back to the hotel by 10 am so I thought I would walk into a valley to rest, and write in my journal. I sat high on a boulder looking down at unsuspecting locals ; I thought it was amazing to be hanging out in a place where the main mode of transport is camel or donkey. By mid-afternoon the temperature was over 40 degrees and it was time to rest up.
At 6am the next morning I would be sitting in a bus with my blue, swollen ankle and blisters heading to Cairo; this Egypt experience was not over.
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