In December 2002, to mark my 50th birthday, I decided to climb Mount Sinai. Here is how it started:
Right! this is my plan – 6th April 2002
So, to mark the occasion of having been on this planet for half a century I’m going to climb Mt. Sinai.
That’s the plan anyway. I can’t do it on the actual day because of the small matter of having to be at work around then, but I intend to have a go in January. The weather will be a bit better then anyway. I’m not good at heat and the Sinai desert gets very hot at any other time. Whether it will happen, or whether I’ll enjoy it if it does I have no idea. Up until a few years ago any travel, even to France, gave me somatised anxiety which was no fun at all. I seem to have improved recently so, hopefully, I’ll be able to go somewhere remote like that without thinking about air-ambulances all the time.
It’s a place I’ve been thinking about going to for some time. Both because of the history and because it looks like a very scenic part of the world. And modern travel makes it quite straight forward. I’ll base myself in the Israeli resort of Eilat and then go on one of the organised two day excursions to Sinai from there. Not quite in the spirit of Moses but probably as adventurous as I’m capable of.
It’s also a place which one famous suicidal depressive (Elijah) went to when everything got too much for him. The guy who went in for hearing “still small voices” and who, when he prayed that he would die, was visited by angels who helped him through the darkest time.
Somehow it all seems too fitting. I’m going to give it my best shot although at this stage of the game it’s just an idea. I’ve no idea how the details will work out at all. It’s a start.