Climb Every Mountain - alternatively "Sunrise, Sunset" (Egypt)

Our 45 minute flight from Luxor to the Sinai resort community of Sharm El Sheik was actually 10 minutes early, and the transfer van to our destination of Dahab was on time – it was like clockwork.

• Fast forward 10 minutes:  Highway checkpoint. Van after van stop, driver exit and interact with no less than 7 officials.  Documents are registered by hand in hard bound books, drivers return and vans continue en route.  Our driver is nowhere to be seen.

• 25 minutes later: Our driver returns and we turn back (driving against traffic on the wrong side of the highway).  Driver suggests all is fine – 5 more minutes and we’ll be off.

• 15 minutes later: We transfer to another van driven by original driver’s brother for return attempt at checkpoint – success.  But 1 km past checkpoint we stop, park on the highway shoulder and shut engine and lights.

• 10 minutes later: Original van (somehow having passed through the checkpoint this time) parks alongside and we transfer back again to resume transport.

Quite a system - seems secure, efficient and foolproof, in no way arbitrary, random or haphazard.  While many international businesses are focused on assisting developing nations with automated processes, there may be more money in securing the Egyptian ledger and carbon paper concession.

Surrounded by stretches of smooth sandy seashore, the Sinai sprawls with spans of steep stone spires and skree (the best of my eight alliterative tongue twister attempts).   Dahab is a bit of a backpacker haven (in contrast to the luxury resorts of “Sharm”); about half way up the east side of the peninsula.  The beach promenade is stuffed with restaurants, shops, bars and dive shacks (diving and snorkeling are the big draw here – after chilling).  Oddly, all the normal Egyptian conservative trappings (characteristic of a Muslim nation) have been discarded in favour of conventional tourism, as evidenced by the patios full of scantily clad foreigners chugging back beer and cocktails (possibly a spillover from Israeli rule after gaining the area in the 1973 Yom Kippur War – ceded back to Egypt in the early ‘80s).

Even the dogs chill in Dahab

The area’s other big attraction is the hike up nearby Mt. Sinai (famed as the location where Moses saw the Burning Bush and received the Ten Commandments).  There are two trek options:  a day hike timed to reach the peak at sunset; or the idiotic choice we made – commencing the climb at 1 am intending to summit at sunrise.  What an ill conceived plan – no sleep, walking uphill in the dark desert, ending with 750 steep steps, all accompanied with 1500 other “pilgrims”.  Who can tell the difference between sunrise and sunset anyway – it’s just a matter of the background being East vs. West (you guys will never know from the photo).  By the way, the hike must be guided in a group - ours comprised a half dozen Chinese tourists and a Korean girl.  It kind of reminded me of a Winter Olympic speed skating final – and you’ll be glad to know we did our country proud leaving them in our “proverbial” dust.

Can you tell!

Who's idea was this?

The "alleged" Burning Bush

The flamboyant description of the country in the Egyptair in-flight magazine opines that: “she is beautiful, stunning, charming, amazing [and] fully aware of her beauty…”, but seemingly unaware of a remaining plague.  Save for one day of wicked wind off the Gulf of Aqaba, we had no respite from the onslaught of common house flies.  In Egypt, these insipid insects don’t just congregating near the most proximate pile of dung or refuse, they’re everywhere, come in droves and there is no escape.

After two days of recovery (from the climb), it was time to attempt the land border crossing from Egypt to Israel (there can’t be any remnant plagues there?).


Note: Additional Egypt photos at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thegoobers_pics/sets/72157625681693959/