Wadi Firan and Jebel Musa
Trip Start
Feb 08, 2010
1
10
25
Trip End
Mar 04, 2010
Jebel Musa, Egypt
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Then setting off I sat up front with Sulamein and Oneness which was an interesting and different perspective, and so we travelled till we came to the oasis town of Wadi Firan.
We had intended to visit some nuns there but their convent was closed for a few days, so we carried on instead to a Bedouin homestead, so lush and green, where organic veg was grown using the good spring waters.
The Bedouin ladies welcomed us, first letting our children hold one of their baby lambs, then inviting us into their home for tea, spring water and to look at their gardens from which Liz got some fresh salad leaves, basil and mint for our lunch later.
Oneness said he was taking us to a local supermarket, actually just a small and basic store, from which I bought guava juice and bread sticks.
We then found some rocks in the desert for our picnic spot.
Carrying on we came to the foot of Jebel Musa, or as it is more famously known Mount Sinai, where Moses recieved the Ten Commandments from his Lordship in the sky.
We set ourselves up at the Fox Camp where our cheapest option was to have mattresses laid out in the gardens for 10 Egyptian pounds each.
We had planned to climb the mountain for sunrise but I was so weary from the Serabit el Khadim climb that I decided to stay back and look after all the children, while the others went up. Mount Sinai was supposed to be an even higher climb than Mount Serabit.
The Fox Camp was busy that night with two coach loads of South-East Asians. For most of the evening we sat in a big Bedouin tent singing with guitar playing youngsters from Thailand, so sweet they were, and Ellie absolutely wowed them with her guitar and singing renditions of 'Life After You' and a song she'd written called 'Let It Show'. I sang 'Hurdy Gurdy Man' and 'Wish You Were Here', and a Spanish lady sang a few Spanish songs.
Oneness, who had become such a good friend and was so playful with the children, put his arm around me as we sat listening to the music and I relaxed into him. That was fine; then he took my hand, playfully stroking it and touching my fingers. It felt nice I let it carry on.
But maybe now boundaries had been crossed. For when I went down to lie on my mattress Oneness came too wanting to hug and even kiss me. He was so lovely, but I evaded his kisses. He's so sweet, but he loves us all, and I'm quite sure he adores Ellie. The affection was nice though.
The night time was the worst one ever for mosquito's.
The mountain guide never turned up to wake Liz and the men, so Oneness had to find a last minute solution, taking them to the dark side of the mountain where the camel trail goes up, to find a man there to take them. Guides had become necessary since a Russian man was found dead on the mountain.
The lit up side with its thousands of steps was crammed tight with a thronging mass of people from all quarters of the globe. Liz and the guys way was dark, which was just as well for Ian who had terrible diarrhea which kept exploding, and they only converged on the last few hundred steps.
They said afterwards it was not so much a religious experience as a mass tourism one with all peoples poised in the freezing cold on top waiting to photograph the rising sun.
