The ascent of Mount Sinai 24^th December 2002

So, in the early hours of this morning I arrived home from a week’s trip to Southern Israel with a day trip to Egypt last Saturday. Far from being the non-event which I feared it might be and despite the anxiety I felt before it ( See “The Apex“) the week was better than I could have hoped for. It was by no means plain sailing and not all of it was particularly fun, but all in all it was a great experience.

My intention for going was to mark my reaching the age of fifty by climbing Mount Sinai, something which I had been edging towards doing for some years. This seemed the appropriate time to do it. So I booked a week’s package holiday in Eilat which fitted in just right between the end of term and Christmas. Then I was going to book one of the excursions to the mountain when I got there. It wasn’t possible to book ahead of time unless I had been going with a group.

Getting the excursion booked was a very hit-and-miss thing to do but the bottom line was that, last Saturday, I climbed the mountain. From the plain enjoyment point of view that was good, from the spiritual point of view it was profound, not just the climb itself but the whole week, and I’m still unpacking it all. Time will tell whether what happened was ephemeral or whether it will stick but at the moment I’m basking in it.

There were two major factors which made the climb especially significant for me. The first was the strong feeling, which had started some time before the trip itself, that this was the right thing to do and that it was going to happen despite anxieties or practical difficulties because God was going to make it happen. I’ve rarely, if ever, been so aware of being guided and being able to rely on God in this way as I have been over the past week. That has definitely left its mark even if it’s just by leaving me gobsmacked that this could happen to me, of all people. The second is that I had been aware that I was making the trip alone, which was more by necessity than choice. Thinking of the friends I have, they all would either not have been able to come, not wanted to come or I wouldn’t have felt comfortable with them – or all three. Thinking about it, the people I know aren’t really on the same wavelength as me spiritually, even the few I get on with well. The last thing I expected was that I would find a companion when I got there who, although has a very different spiritual background, I could feel immediately comfortable with in that context. But that’s exactly what happened.

D had also come to Eilat for the primary purpose of climbing Sinai and, as with myself, couldn’t give a concrete reason why, just it seemed like a good thing to do and we wanted to do it. Although D saw Sinai more in terms of a centre of Earth-power and ley-lines and things like that, rather than primarily as the place where God revealed his glory to Moses and where he spoke to Elijah in the “still small voice”, we had both come to climb the mountain for spiritual reasons.

Nobody else from the others on the package were interested in Sinai and, in fact, being winter not many people were climbing at all. This meant that the only trip on offer from the rep was a night climb to see the sun rise on the mountain. I didn’t really want to do that partly because I wanted to see the scenery on the way up rather than climb in the dark and also because it gets to sub-zero temperatures up there at night. Not only that but this tour started from Taba, across the Egyptian border, so I would have to make my way there from Eilat on my own. So I tried to get the rep to find out more about a daytime one and gave him some of my contacts. He found nothing but I found another operator who said they could arrange a daytime trip on Saturday. I phoned D and the bottom line is that she cancelled her booking for the night trip and we both booked for the daytime one. That both pleased me and bothered me because it meant that if anything went wrong I felt responsible.

So far so good but what happened next is best described by the Hebrew word “balagan”, a catalogue of blunders, fortunately not mine. First of all, a day later, the tour operator phoned me up saying that the trip had been cancelled – despite it having been confirmed – because the 2 others had backed out. By this time it would have been hard to get back to our original rep as he had gone off duty for the day. So I was left thinking that not only was it likely that I wouldn’t get to climb at all but that I had fouled up D’s trip as well. That the event to mark my fiftieth would be a confirmation of my inability to get anything right rather than the significant thing I thought it should be. So much for it being something which God was going to make sure happened – or so I thought. However it occurred to me that it would still be possible to go if we paid what the 2 who dropped out would have paid. It would make the trip expensive but it would mean that it would happen and it was still better than doing it overnight. After a few phone calls to D and to the tour company that was fixed up. I felt ripped off but the important thing was that I would be able to climb and I hadn’t ruined D’s chance to climb as well.

Balagan number 2. Friday morning I went to the tour company to finalise the details and also to triple check the itinerary because at that stage I didn’t trust them as far as I could throw them. Just as well I did because it turned out that what had been arranged was just a visit to St. Katherine’s, at the base of the mountain, not a climb up to the top. Fortunately that was changed but it left me feeling very angry with the incompetence of the tour company. I still might write to their manager describing what happened – but at least all was go for the climb. Later on, another guy, A, booked to join us so there was less excess to pay. Also, since I didn’t trust them now, it was quite a relief that there was someone else to share the responsibility if anything went wrong and to help put it right.

A bumpy ride but we were on our way. Left the hotel at 6am and were taken to the border where we were introduced to the Egyptian guide. He took us to St. Kat and showed us round the monastery. It was surprisingly cold there, to the extent that I was shivering even though I had many layers of clothing on. A changed his mind about doing the climb because of the cold, which meant that it would just be D and myself and the local guide going up.

So far, so good, then balagan 3. A wanted to go round the museum whereas D and myself didn’t so we arranged to meet the guide and A afterwards. Unfortunately, probably due to a misunderstanding, we lost each other and didn’t meet up until about an hour later. I think we were both feeling that we’d lost the chance to climb even having got that far. I was even worried that we might be stranded at St. Kat, which is over 100 miles from the Israeli border, with no way to get back. But we started out, later than we wanted to, but at least we were on our way.

The rest was smooth. The climb was not as difficult as I expected and, in fact, was a lot less strenuous than some of the walks I’ve done in the Welsh mountains. The scenery is beautiful and the climb is made easier by the existence of small tea shops at various points on the track. We had a Bedouin guide, M, who knew everyone on the mountain, including the tea shop keepers. We had a nice glass of peppermint tea half way up which was very nice indeed.

We got to the top at about 4pm and stayed there for about 20 mins. It was very cold so although I’d have liked to stay longer and do a bit of prayer and meditation, I couldn’t have done that. Also the light wouldn’t hold out too long and I didn’t want to do the descent in the dark. As it was, even though we came down in about half the time it took to go up, one and a half hours instead of three, it was still pitched black and very cold by the time we got back to St. Kat and to the warm jeep.

So, basically, I’m very glad I did it. Despite all the hassle arranging the trip we did it in daytime and, everything I’ve heard about the nighttime climbs makes me think that going at night would have been no fun at all. If D and myself hadn’t been in Eilat at the same time and met up then neither of us could have done the daytime trip and we both knew that. There were other things as well. Such as when there was uncertainty about the booking and I knew I had to confirm by 7pm and I didn’t know where D was, we met by coincidence in town at just the right time. The chances of that happening in somewhere the size of Eilat were very small indeed. ok, coincidences are possible but, for me, I have no doubt that the whole thing was arranged by God, balagans and all. They all had their constructive purpose and, as I said, there are many other ways in which the whole experience has affected me that I’m not yet aware of the how’s.

Whether I’ll ever see D again I don’t know, or even whether it would be a good thing. I don’t know how much of the rapport was context dependent. Probably a lot of it. We’ve arranged to swap photographs of the trip when they are developed anyway.