Cairo to Cape 2010 Blog
Blog 3 – Mt Sanai and Luxor
A bunch of us in the group decided to climb Mt. Sinai and enjoy the sunrise there. So we were picked up at our hotel around 11 p.m at night and drove off towards the St. Catherine's Monastery. I cannot tell you how many cars passed us driving without light in the middle of the night. Our driver wasn’t too worried, driving at a crazy speed himself, on the phone and half the time on the wrong side of the street. But once more we arrived in one piece.
At around 1:30 in the morning we commenced with the climb. If we were under the Illusion that we would be the only crazy people that had this idea, we were quickly brought back to reality. We must have passed hundreds of Russian tourists that had the same idea and hundreds of camels passed us on the way up. It was rush hour on Mt. Sinai at 2 a.m. in the morning.
 Mount Sinai |
 Keeping warming waiting for the sun to rise, Mt Sanai |
At around 3 a.m. we got to the last part of the climb, 750 steps to the summit! At 4 a.m. we reached the top, all of us out of breath. Our guide found this great spot for us from where we could enjoy the sunrise. Now the waiting began, it was freezing cold and despite sleeping bags, gloves and a hat, I was extremely cold and tired but could not sleep. The closer it got to sunrise, the more people discover our little corner of the mountain and the peace and quiet came to an end. Finally, around 5:30 a.m., the sun started rising but we were out of luck and the clouds prevented a great sunrise. But it was still a great adventure. The climb down seemed way longer than going up and at the end it was so hot and we were so tired that a visit to the monastery was not an option and we were all happy to be back in Dahab around noon for a nice afternoon sleep.
Finally on Nov. 16th, after 2 weeks of not driving, we were on the road again, heading from Dahab to Suez, about a 400 km drive. All the cars behaved, there were no breakdowns. Steve and Kim tried very hard to find us a nice place off the highway for our lunch break and we enjoyed our first lunch on the road.
 Sunrise, Mt Sanai |
 Lunch stop enroute |
We stopped around 4.30 p.m. that night and got ready for our first bush camp, camping in the middle of the desert, about 15 km away from the Suez. Unfortunately we camped right underneath Powerlines so there was the sound of electricity zooming by all night but still managed to get some sleep.
The next day we were in for another long day of driving, from Suez to Safaga, a little town on the Red Sea, about 30 km below Hurghada. We camped 2 nights at the Sun Beach camp, a nice little camp with access to a lovely beach, great for some snorkeling. It was a nice break after 2 long days of driving.
We are spending 4 full days here in Luxor, giving Steve, our mechanic, enough time to fix another car that has a few problems. There are plenty of things to do here in Luxor, visiting the Temples of Luxor and Karnak were on the agenda, as well as a visit to the famous Valley of the Kings, Hatchepsut Temple and Habu Temple (or Temple of Ramses III).
On our first full day in Luxor, some of us took of on foot from our camp, the Rezeiky Camp (very friendly staff), our destination being the Temple of Luxor. We got ourselves a guide and toured the Temple for a number of hours, along with plenty of other tourists. It is better to go early when the crowds are not as bad as later on in the day.
After the visit to the temple, some of us took of for a walk through downtown Luxor, visiting some of the markets, eating a lovely felafal for lunch. At night, all of us went for a sunset felucca ride on the Nile. Our felucca was a bit small for the lot of us, but somehow we managed, and even the no wind situation could not damper our great mood. Running out of wine glasses was also no problem, see Kate with the improvised wine glass made out of a half a water bottle.
 Kate improvising... |
 Hot air ballooning over Luxor |
Day 2 in Luxor was spent on the West Bank visiting the several tourist attractions. We got picked up at 6 a.m. and got to the first stop at the Valley of Kings around 7 a.m. The crowd of tourists at this early hour was already amazing! Our guide took us to 3 tombs. After the Valley of Kings, we stopped of at the Hapshatsut Temple, where the crowds of tourists seemed even crazier than at the Valley of the Kings. And it was hot! Finding shade was the goal of the day, along with drinking plenty of water. Our last stop was the Habu Temple, also called Temple of Ramses III and here there were hardly any crowds, a pleasant change from the two previous sights. Our guide seemed to favour this last temple, giving us a very passionate and detailed description of it. And the Temple was magnificent, very colourful and with deep wall carvings.
Blog entry by Barbara, photos from Barbara and Kim
Kim (photos courtesy of Kim and Barbara)
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