This is what it looked like from the top no matter which way you looked. Amazing, huh?
And finally, another picture of me, at the top.
This past weekend, my husband, son and I got to experience something wonderful. If you live in Egypt or plan to visit, one thing that is a must is to be able to climb Mt. Sinai. We have lived in Egypt for 8 years now and have always planned on doing this, but for some reason we put it off till now. I will tell you it was not an easy experience, and along the way I had my doubts I would make it all the way to the top, but I can be pretty determined at times. So, I just kept pushing and pushing till finally, I was at the top. They say, it usually takes people 2-4 hours to reach the top, and it took me 3. Then we spent 30-45 minutes at the top before we began our descent, whick took 2 hours. So all in all it took us about 6 hours. Boy were we exhausted and ready to go to bed.
There are two ways to get up the mountain. One of them is a "camel path" that you can walk or ride a camel up, and we chose to walk. It is a 3-mile long path, with plenty of twists and turns and some obstacles (such as big stones) in your way. Then there is the wind and the cold. The wind, at times, was horrendous, and the farther up you got, the colder it got. The other way to get up the mountain is by steps. We did not take this way, so I do not know much about it, but I do know there are 3,750 steps. Like I said, I don't know much about this way, so I don't know if it would be easier or harder. Maybe, (and that's a big maybe) if we ever decide to go back we will try the stairs and be able to compare the two paths. In all probability though, if we ever decide to go back, we will probably ride the camels. ;o)
For right now I'm just going to post a few pictures of our wonderful experience, and I will save some of the other exciting information about the whole experience for future posts.
Congratulations for making it to the top, Jackie (& I'm sure that you burned more than a few calories during your climb !) - the photos are wonderful, although it does look quite cold at the top !
ReplyDeleteLynda, it was extremely cold. Even when we got back to our room and went to bed it took forever to get my body warm again, but it was all worth it.
ReplyDeleteWow! I like climbing. How far is Mt Sinai from Cairo? I wanna go. Is there a fee to climb? I mean maybe if I ride the camel, I know I have to pay but what about just walking do i have to pay? Please tell me the details because I really want to go. Thanks
ReplyDeleteJoy,
ReplyDeleteI am not really sure how much it costs because it was part of a package deal, and our cost was kept really low because a friend of ours was the guide, but she only does the trip once a year. I will try to find out some info. on it and let you know. Are you currently in Cairo? And if so, how long will you be here?