Day 22 - Sharm El Sheikh and Sinai - Holy Mountain

On Thursday 4 February we were in Sharm El Sheikh. Sharm is a haven for tourists who want to sunbathe all day and go out at night. It was nice and hot and we checked into the Sonesta hotel, which reminded me of the village from The Prisoner (as it was like a Mediterranean village but also because they tagged us with wristbands which we had to wear at all times).

Where am I? In the village.

That day we went into the desert outside the city and did some filming there.

I later saw the same texture on the faces of old women sunbathing

Deserty

The local cousin of one of our guides took us to a really nice mountainous region later in the afternoon, so we stayed there for the sunset - we've been filming a lot of sunsets lately.

They weren't very high but it was a good location

You won't see this in London

I'd been fighting a cold in the last few days which had been made worse by getting up at 5am and 3am in the previous two days, so while the others went out to Pacha Nightclub until 2am (filming the dance floor from the VIP area above) I went back to the hotel and fell asleep instantly. No night out but no cold the day after. It was quite strange suddenly being surrounded by British and Russian tourists after spending so much time around Egyptians in the last couple of weeks, but it was good for a change.

I'd like to take a moment here to write about breakfasts. The breakfast buffets at the hotels have ranged from adequate to good, but when I came downstairs at Sonesta I was spoilt for choice (and had a lot of time to choose as we weren't starting work until 12 that day). I went for assorted small  croissants and pastries, followed by three pancakes with chocolate sauce, followed by natural yoghurt with muesli mixed in and honey on top, followed by fruit salad. That night we did some filming at Naama Bay, where Pacha and the other clubs are.

Naama Bay, Sharm El Sheikh

On Saturday we drove to Ras Sinai, a collection of beach huts on the shore of the Red Sea where four countries touch: Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The place was full of poets and musicians from the US, UK, Israel, Egypt, Australia and other countries, including a man who looked like The Dude. We ate dinner around a campfire that night - I had falafel and rice. Predictably someone picked up a guitar and proceeded to butcher All the World is Green by Tom Waits, followed by The Cure's Lovecats and everyone was too polite to say anything. Luckily the next guy to play sang some really interesting songs in what could have been Arabic, Hebrew or Welsh which more than made up for it.


At 10pm we drove to Mount Sinai, where the Bible says Moses was given the ten commandments. We arrived at 1am and hired a guide called Hassan - A good idea if you're going to climb a mountain of biblical proportions in pitch darkness. We had a coffee and put on as many extra layers as possible, then set off on the longest, coldest uphill walk I've ever done in my life.

Holy Mountain

Three hours and about minus ten degrees later we were nearing the summit, and I was beginning to understand why Moses saw the burning bush and heard God talking to him. As groups of tourists and pilgrims from all over the world began arriving at the top, the moment we had come here for finally arrived at 5:30am.

Dawn breaks

Not the best time to find out you suffer from vertigo (trust me)

The dawn's colour scheme finally settled on gold, and as the light spread over us some Spanish pilgrims sang a hymn.

Golden light

He MUST have rode up on a camel

Four and a half hours after our arrival at the mountain, we began the long walk down, slowly being cooked by the sun in our warm clothes.

Mountain path

Camels with their dopey expressions

An Egypt football scarf combined with a cap makes a handy (and stylish) sun visor

Near the bottom of the mountain is the Coptic Christian Monastery of St Catherine, whose monks tend to a plant they say is the last descendent of the burning bush. It's closed on Sundays so we didn't go in.

The Monastery

After paying the guide we got back in the car and drove the six hours to Cairo, then sat in the notorious traffic for two hours before reaching the hotel around 9pm. I think I'd slept about two hours since waking up in Sharm El Sheikh on Saturday, so I had some food and went to bed straight away.

I'm writing this in Cairo at the end of our only full day off so far. I mainly caught up on work in my room today but we did go and see Avatar at the shopping centre next door (City Stars Cairo, 700 shops, biggest in the Middle East). From now until February 18th we'll mainly be interviewing people against a black cloth background so there won't be many photo opportunities there, although we are going to see those pyramid thingies so I'll probably do another post then... This is the fourth time we've checked into the Holiday Inn in Cairo, it feels like home now.