International Women’s Month Summit to Sea in the Sinai Expedition with 360 Expeditions
Ever since I read the story of Scottish twins Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Smith Gibson who discovered the Codex Sinaiticus in the library of St Catherine’s Monastery, I’ve been intrigued by this most secretive of places. So it was a special thrill to start our journey here - and particularly appropriate for our team … St Catherine was a Greco-Egyptian noblewoman who was - according to legend - a scholar and philosopher who stood up for her beliefs, inspiring those around her to do the same. We took the scenic route to the summit of Mt Sinai, including the 750 ‘steps of penitence’, reaching the top in time to watch the sun set and descended in the dark.
Next day we met our camels and Bedouin team near St Catherine’s. The first rain in four years fell hard and our first night under the stars saw us in our sleeping bags lined up in a row like fat sausages under a rock overhang enlarged with a tarp and stacked brushwood. It was cosy and (mostly!) dry. During the night dramatic lightning and thunder flashed and roared unleashing icy hail that covered my sleeping bag like snow! The irony made me laugh - It seems I take the snow with me wherever I go….!
The Bedouin lead us along ancient trading and pilgrimage routes that criss-cross the Sinai connecting Cairo, Jerusalem and Mecca. We followed the camels down from the rocky plateau into sand-filled valleys between curvaceous red sandstone sculpted by wind and water. It started to look like the desert we had imagined. As we moved through the most spectacular desert scenery, we began to fall into the routine of our Bedouin companions. The campfire was lit just before first light and we would start moving early. After a couple of hours we’d stop for a break and have tea. After a couple of hours more we’d stop somewhere with shade for a long lunch to sit out the heat of the day, before a last trek to reach a sheltered spot to camp. We always stopped in time to set up camp and for the camel drivers to sort out the camels for the night before it got dark.
What has struck everyone about the trek is how different the scenery has been from one day to the next. We started among snow-capped mountains and have already crossed rocky plains, sandstone jebels, sand-filled valleys and a palm-forested oasis. Today was different again, the stand-out section being a canyon with chalk-white cliffs and sand as soft as flour. Another surprise has been the camels - it was wonderfully unexpected to find that travelling with camels, being surrounded by their characters and falling into the routine centred around them was as magical as the landscape. Riding them, however, was not an easy option - it’s hard work! Total core work out and pressure points in all sorts of unusual places….!
Woken this morning by a group of camels wandering through the ravine we were camped in. They were female camels with young so it caused a bit of havoc with our mostly male caravan. Our seventh day gave different landscape again. Our route to the sea is blocked by a dramatic mountain range of bald rock - but we were led to a hidden gorge, in places as narrow as a few metres wide, which cuts through the mountains. It felt miraculous that it should exist.
We camped in the miraculous wadi to celebrate our last night under the stars with music and dancing (badly on our part!) Lit by a nearly-full moon, surrounded by slumbering camels, it was a perfect evening in the desert.
We lingered over our last breakfast around the campfire, no one wanting it all to end - but that didn’t diminish the excitement when we eventually caught our first glimpse of the sea! We said goodbye to the camels and Bedouin, who had looked after us so generously, who turned back to the desert while the rest of us continued to the sea. A leisurely afternoon enjoying the reef just offshore ended with a boat taxi to nearby Dahab. As we celebrated the sight of flush toilets and freshly made beds, it was also strange to be indoors again and not to see the sky. I woke up early the next morning and sat outside my Dahab hotel room to watch the sun rise - I didn’t know it but others from the team were doing the same. It’s hard to let go of the desert!
A huge THANK YOU to my fellow team - your stories, laughter and shared conversation made the journey such a joy. But extra special thanks to Hermione Tailyour who so generously shared her passion for the Sinai to gift us the perfect desert adventure. You are all amazing and I miss you (camels included!) X
