Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2000 12:54 PM

Subject: Guess where I slept Sunday night?

It was a Monday at 1 AM in the morning. I'm surrounded by the moonlight, and it's the most beautiful thing. Not too many people are around, and I can't believe that I'm doing it.

I'm climbing up Mt Sinai. (What did you think?) The elevation of this mountain is 2285m. The climb starts off easy enough, with rocky paths gradually becoming steeper and steeper. Around 2/3rds of the way up, we reach rocky steps, which seem to be layed in no particular order. The climb at this point becomes very hard. We're about two hours into the climb, and the rest stops become more frequent. At this point, it becomes a matter of sheer will power as you can feel your legs becoming jelly.

I keep repeating to myself, that I must make my climb. I have lost my two friends from Qatar. Mike is up ahead somewhere, and Andy is trailing behind. About 20 minutes from the top, I run into Mike having a Coke at the second last rest stop. I stop in and it is over about 3:30AM. The sun rises at about 5AM so we decide to relax here along with about half a dozen others. We wait for Andy, and Mike starts asking climbers if they've seen a fat b*stard huffing and puffing down the hill. (These are his words, as they are both Rugby players from an Arab League, and they consistently take swipes at one another, with Andy receiving most of the abuse. If he played CFL, he would be a good candidate for defensive line).

We decide to make our final ascent, and climb the final steps to the top. When we finally reach the top, there is a sense of relief, but still the task of trying to find a vantage point for the sunrise (about 45 minutes away). There is not much room up top, and there are little nooks everywhere. There is a church at the top, and people are camped out all over. We bunk down on a lower level, and crack jokes as we are overtired and exhausted. I remind them that this is a very spiritual trip for many people (one week from Easter) and we should probably relax (yeah, yeah, I know I should relax) but seeing that I was the one cracking many of the jokes, I continued without heeding my own advice.

We manage 20 minutes of silence, but it starts to brighten, so we try to find a place to setup our cameras. We find a great place, that is just below the summit, and the view is awesome. The first crack of sun, brings a whirring of cameras and excitement. The view is undescribable, and I fear that my photos will not do it justice. It is almost surreal. I use up my entire roll of 36, and also the 10 or so remaining on my landscape disposable.

I start to take pictures of people in their various perches and get some really great people shots. Although, I'm not very religious, I get this sense of spirituality up there...it's amazing. (OK, crack your Gersh is so corny jokes now!!!)

I sit and watch for a couple of hours, and then we decide to get some more rest. This is at 6:20 AM, and the bus leaves at 10AM. We rest until about 7:30AM and realize that most have already started there descent with about half a dozen remaining from the 80 or so who were on the mountain.

We decide to begin our descent, down the much steeper Steps of Repentence. These were laid down by a monk as a form of penance, and it is very steep. The views are amazing, but we must remember to watch where we walk as the wrong step could send you over a cliff, and you can arrive at the bottom much sooner than you wish.

The descent takes about 1 hour and a half, and we reach St Katherines monastery where people have begun to line up. After resting, we enter this old Greek Orthodox building, and see the transplanted burning bush. Cool!

Take our mini-bus back to Dahab (two hours) and I pack up my gear, and leave for the 9 hour bus to Cairo...where I am now at Lorra's office utilizing some free e-mail time. I arrived at Lorra's place last night at about 11PM, but surprise, she's on a date. Seems that everytime I arrive in Cairo, she's never there to greet me.

I have a key to her apartment, and hang out with Marcy (next door) for a bit, and Lorra arrives about 15 minutes after I do. We order up some McDonalds (ahhh, Mickey D's delivers!!!) and then go to sleep.

I am about to embark on my trek to Saqarra pyramids today, and have to find a driver who will take me to all the various sites. If I have time, I will end my day at the Giza pyramids, or wait to do that tomorrow. I hear that the driver will cost roughly LE15 per hour ($6 CDN) to whisk me around from pyramid to pyramid. Pretty good rates eh?

Tonight, I'm going to the Rugby club to play some darts with a bunch of ex-pats. Wow, life as a tourist!!! Perhaps I'll find some regular beer there also.

Okay, that's it for now...I'm off to find a driver!!!

...

POSTCARDS

Shadi el G Mohammed