Saini, Dahab
We took an East Delta bus from Heliopolis at 8:00 AM. The bus is very similar to Acadian Lines here in NS except it has loud Arabic music and movies. The trip took 8 ½ hours to get to Dahab which is on the Eastern side of the Sinai Peninsula and on the Red Sea. On the way we were stopped about 5 times for the police to check our passports. They have posts probably every 70 -100 Kms. We left Cairo and drove to Suez where we went under the canal through the Suez Tunnel. Then we went South toward Sharm El Sheikh the very touristy resort on the tip of the Sinai Peninsula where we turned and drove up to Dahab the less fancy and cheaper resort town where many people go to dive. When we arrived at the bus stop the ‘taxis’ (small half tons with a carpet on the floor of the truck bed) were swarming trying to take us to our accommodations. We stayed at the Auski Camp. For Friday to Tuesday morning (4 nights) it cost us about $12 each total. The place wasn’t bad except the shower, which was nice and hot, but it was ‘SALT WATER’.
The next morning I joined a group going to St Catherine’s Monastery and then on to climb Mt Sinai. The Monastery was built by Constantine’s Mother, Helena to honor St Catherine an early Christian martyr who was killed there. The ‘Burning Bush” (or a descendant of) as in Moses and the 10 commandments grows in the courtyard of the monastery. Our group started to walk up the mountain path at 2:30 PM in order to catch the sunset on top of the mountain. It is a grueling trek, with loose gravel, very uneven ground and thin air. We were lucky not to be crowded as we walked up but some camels and drivers came up with us waiting to pick up any people who couldn’t make it on their own. There were also camels coming down and I soon learned camels just keep coming, they don’t swerve to avoid, they just go straight on with their big feet, which look like a foot in a bag of jelly. So make way for camels. The path is up the side of a mountain, bare of vegetation, except for a few plants in cracks where they have found a bit of moisture. Along the way there are Bedouin ‘canteens’ where you can stop and get a drink or rest. The mountain is 2285 m high and the path snakes up for 7 kms. It has beautiful scenery, bare stark mountains in all directions, banded with different colored geological formations. The path is dry and scattered with dust, rocks and camel poop and winds back and forth. Just when you think you can’t go any farther there are the last 750 stone steps to the summit cut in rock by a monk many years ago. It is a grueling last portion and very steep. The top has a small church and Bedouins selling, geodes, crystals, food, drink and blankets for the people who come up at night to see the sunrise. The hurried trip back down was probably just as difficult as the way up. By now it was dark, I luckily had the small flashlight Susan Mallette had given me before I left and it illuminated the path ahead of us. (Thanks Susan). Now we were going down a sometimes fairly steep path in the dark and I had on sandals and there was so much loose gravel. I and a Dutch lady linked arms and held each other up, we both sprained our ankles (enough to hurt just a bit next day) and would have fallen several times without our supporter. It was long trip down and I smelled like a camel for didn’t care on the way down what I stepped in.
Next day in Dahab we rented some snorkeling gear and found a spot in the sun. The beach where we went out was a bit rocky with coral growing very close to shore, The Red Sea doesn’t have tide extremes, so the sea urchins live close to shore and are easy to step on. I avoided the urchins but when I went to snorkel the jelly fish got me. There were little ones all around with stings just like ours at home. That wasn’t fun so I lay on the beach and read most of the day and waited for the back of my legs to recover from mountain climbing. Next day no snorkeling because there was a high wind and lots of waves. I spent the day browsing the board walk looking at the shops and getting so tired of aggressive street vendors who all have the same script. Considered going on a day trip to Jordan but it wasn’t worth it, only 3 hours in Petra for $200. As we lay on the beach we could see the mountains of Saudi Arabia across the Gulf. Tuesday caught the East Delta bus, and made it back to Cairo in 9 hours.
Pictures up on web album
http://picasaweb.google.com/colmac27
Saini, Dahab
We took an East Delta bus from Heliopolis at 8:00 AM. The bus is very similar to Acadian Lines here in NS except it has loud Arabic music and movies. The trip took 8 ½ hours to get to Dahab which is on the Eastern side of the Sinai Peninsula and on the Red Sea. On the way we were stopped about 5 times for the police to check our passports. They have posts probably every 70 -100 Kms. We left Cairo and drove to Suez where we went under the canal through the Suez Tunnel. Then we went South toward Sharm El Sheikh the very touristy resort on the tip of the Sinai Peninsula where we turned and drove up to Dahab the less fancy and cheaper resort town where many people go to dive. When we arrived at the bus stop the ‘taxis’ (small half tons with a carpet on the floor of the truck bed) were swarming trying to take us to our accommodations. We stayed at the Auski Camp. For Friday to Tuesday morning (4 nights) it cost us about $12 each total. The place wasn’t bad except the shower, which was nice and hot, but it was ‘SALT WATER’.
The next morning I joined a group going to St Catherine’s Monastery and then on to climb Mt Sinai. The Monastery was built by Constantine’s Mother, Helena to honor St Catherine an early Christian martyr who was killed there. The ‘Burning Bush” (or a descendant of) as in Moses and the 10 commandments grows in the courtyard of the monastery. Our group started to walk up the mountain path at 2:30 PM in order to catch the sunset on top of the mountain. It is a grueling trek, with loose gravel, very uneven ground and thin air. We were lucky not to be crowded as we walked up but some camels and drivers came up with us waiting to pick up any people who couldn’t make it on their own. There were also camels coming down and I soon learned camels just keep coming, they don’t swerve to avoid, they just go straight on with their big feet, which look like a foot in a bag of jelly. So make way for camels. The path is up the side of a mountain, bare of vegetation, except for a few plants in cracks where they have found a bit of moisture. Along the way there are Bedouin ‘canteens’ where you can stop and get a drink or rest. The mountain is 2285 m high and the path snakes up for 7 kms. It has beautiful scenery, bare stark mountains in all directions, banded with different colored geological formations. The path is dry and scattered with dust, rocks and camel poop and winds back and forth. Just when you think you can’t go any farther there are the last 750 stone steps to the summit cut in rock by a monk many years ago. It is a grueling last portion and very steep. The top has a small church and Bedouins selling, geodes, crystals, food, drink and blankets for the people who come up at night to see the sunrise. The hurried trip back down was probably just as difficult as the way up. By now it was dark, I luckily had the small flashlight Susan Mallette had given me before I left and it illuminated the path ahead of us. (Thanks Susan). Now we were going down a sometimes fairly steep path in the dark and I had on sandals and there was so much loose gravel. I and a Dutch lady linked arms and held each other up, we both sprained our ankles (enough to hurt just a bit next day) and would have fallen several times without our supporter. It was long trip down and I smelled like a camel for didn’t care on the way down what I stepped in.
Next day in Dahab we rented some snorkeling gear and found a spot in the sun. The beach where we went out was a bit rocky with coral growing very close to shore, The Red Sea doesn’t have tide extremes, so the sea urchins live close to shore and are easy to step on. I avoided the urchins but when I went to snorkel the jelly fish got me. There were little ones all around with stings just like ours at home. That wasn’t fun so I lay on the beach and read most of the day and waited for the back of my legs to recover from mountain climbing. Next day no snorkeling because there was a high wind and lots of waves. I spent the day browsing the board walk looking at the shops and getting so tired of aggressive street vendors who all have the same script. Considered going on a day trip to Jordan but it wasn’t worth it, only 3 hours in Petra for $200. As we lay on the beach we could see the mountains of Saudi Arabia across the Gulf. Tuesday caught the East Delta bus, and made it back to Cairo in 9 hours.
Pictures up on web album
http://picasaweb.google.com/colmac27
