Dianne Weinberger

It was 5-30 am on a cold February morning in Cairo when myself, Helen and Lorraine, were preparing ourselves for our trip into the Sinai Desert. By 7am our 4-wheel drive pulled up with driver, Egyptologist and camping equipment - well most of it - Our large suitcases were thrown up on top and we wondered what we were letting ourselves in for. Gouda from Master travel would be accompanying us on the trip, so on to Master Travel’s Cairo Office for the rest of the supplies and Gouda.

Helen volunteered to cook Chinese that night. We soon discovered that they didn’t have a frypan or saucepan. So on to buy them There we were - five people buying one saucepan and one frypan!

At last we were on our way through the Cairo traffic. Our first stop was Suez where we were to pick up our Nubian driver. We also needed to go to the market to buy fresh vegetables for our meal that night. Looking around the market I thought it would be our last meal. Finally we collected our Nubian driver. By early evening we had visited Joseph’s Well and Pharaoh’s Bath which are sulphur hot springs. By 5.30 pm the wind had blown up and we could sense that our guide was not very motivated about putting up our tents. We turned off the road and drove to a Bedouin village called Abu Zenima. Galal suggested we ask if they had a house to rent. After a lot of negotiation we were finally allotted an unfurnished abode, with kitchen, one bedroom and bathroom. I use the word bathroom "lightly".

As we started to unload, the Bedouins were laying out magnificent woven raffia rugs with the most exquisite designs. Helen promptly set about preparing dinner. Galal assisted in the cooking preperations, a chore he was obviously not accustomed to.

Finally dinner was ready. We were all very impressed. We sat on the floor, this cosmopolitan group of people, and gave thanks in our various ways. After dinner we went into the hills to do a meditation. It was a few days before full moon and the sky was magical.

The next morning we got up to make a cup of coffee to find a couple of Bedouins sitting on the floor in the kitchen helping themselves to cups of tea. After a walk around the village we found a crowd of Bedouin women with their beautiful hand beaded scarves. What fun they had dressing us up in their beautiful veils. We set off early, through the El-Garf Valley to "Serabit El Khadim".We had one of the local Bedouins to help guide us through the Sinai Desert.

By 10 am we had reached Serabit-El-Khadim, the beautiful mountain and temple of the Goddess Hathor, Lady of Turquoise. This was a difficult region to get to so we had the mountain to ourselves. We started the long climb up. As we climbed higher the views became more and more spectacular and breathtaking, contrasting desert and mountains. It was quite overwhelming and emotional. I started to feel something in the pit of my stomach as the emotions started to rise the higher I climbed. It soon became apparent I was going through a form of cleansing; we all felt it. Finally at the top we reached the temple of Hathor. We went into what was left of her temple, our Egyptologist giving us the history of the temple. We did a meditation and as we did a strange cold wind blew up and even though it was a cold wind we didn’t feel cold, it then slowly died down. After the meditation we sprinkled crystals as offerings. We then started the long walk down the other side of the mountain. I never felt so alive as I did then. When we reached our car a few Bedouin people had gathered with their beautiful wares. We spent a few minutes buying trinkets and admiring their splendid workmanship. Time was running out again so we had to start making our way through the desert again onto Mt. Sinai for our climb that night.

A few hours later the 4 wheel drive was stuck in the sand. As things seemed to be under control we three girls stayed in the car while the driver, Egyptologist, Gouda, and the guides tried to dig us out. Finally to a round of cheers we were out of the sand and on our way. The drive was magnificent, watching the desert displaying her beauty at every turn. The drive through the Coloured Canyon was pure magic. By 5.00 pm we realised that something was wrong with the brakes and we needed to pull in for repairs.

I will never know how they found a garage out there! Two hours later after repairs we were on our way. We were getting very hungry but we didn’t have time to stop to cook.

By 4.00 am we were 10 minutes from the top. Sunrise was 6.10 am. The coffee shop was a hole in the wall; we bought a coffee and for 5 Egyptian pounds you could hire a blanket, which we did as we were so cold. We had a two and half hour wait. Helen could not stop shivering, so we huddled together. We were wondering what state the blankets were in. Thank God we were only lit by one small candle and one lamp and couldn’t see them. Here we were wrapped up in our blankets with scarves wrapped around our heads - we looked like a couple of lepers and we got a fit of the giggles. Soon it was 5-45 am and we finished the last leg of our climb. Our guide showed us to a flat rock which overhung the mountain. As we climbed out it added a new meaning to the expression ‘Top of the World’. The sky was a band of orange and red just before the sun rose.
Just then something caught my eye. I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. UFOs everywhere; I watched in total amazement. I felt like a child who was attending her first circus. It was pure magic. The colours that surrounded them were colours I had never seen before.