[Egipto] Eastern Sahara

Last weekend took me 400 Km west from Cairo, deep into the Eastern Sahara, completely away from civilization (besides of course the wonderful meals prepared by my fellow companion Baqr)

[Egipto] trip to the Sinai peninsula

After being amazed by the drawings made by David Roberts in early XIX century, i decided to follow it's footsteps onto Mount St. Catherine, far east of Cairo, right next to Israel/Jordan /Saudi Arabia international borders.

We arranjed a party of four people to venture inside a rented mini-bus (for 800 EGP, or something like 70 euros, for the whole weekend, including the driver)...being driven and not going on our own proved to be wise, since there was something like 10 police outposts on the way, and i believe "being a pain in the ass" could easily be their moto. The mini-bus extremely experienced driver knew all the "tricks of the trade" (like for instance bringing several copies of today's newspaper, for exchange of a smile and an afirmative nod from the policemen...it seems updated newspapers are on the short side this far in the middle of nowhere).


while crossing the Sinai Peninsula into its eastern coast...





And finally, after 7 hours of a somewhat rough ride through rocky sights, comes a heavenly paradise: Basata! on the far coast you can see a bit of Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia... one could easily forget the tension in the region by gazing into the calm horizon...


Here's one of the many coastal military outposts, scattered throughout the peninsula. Somehow this scenario reminded me of southern Portugal coast, where military outposts have been strategically deployed to prevent arab reincursings coming from the Maghreb some centuries ago.


the night fell in Basata...it was time to go into our 5 hour-long foot ascent into Mount St. Catherine's summit...




Climbing the mount in the night with the objective to watch it's trademark sunrise was a daunting experience...the freezing temperatures could only be balanced by the imense lighting provided by the clear sky and full moon. This provided an extreme and unforgettable experience.

here i am, after sleeping for 15 minutes before the sunrise...i look like a bum...but then again i was completely exausted...and there still was a long way to go until the ground level.




So this was the place where Moses got the tablets of law (ten comandments) from God...heh, and i've been there.