Mount Sinai / Jebal Mousa

Chapel in the sky, atop Mt Sinai. Today I got back from hiking Mt Sinai, known to Egyptian Bedouin as Jebal Mousa or Mountain of Moses. I slept at the base in the guest house of a monastery there after hiking up during the afternoon, watching the sunset at the summit, then hiking down after dark. There are a few chapels like the one pictured in this area, and small hermitages for the monks of the region. Many claim that Moses received the Ten Commandments here.

The Monastery at Saint Katherine's, near the base of Mt Sinai, which is the oldest Christian monastery in the world. There is an American monk who lives there. A friend told me he likes peanut butter, so I brought him a jar of Jif.

You meet people on the trail. I saw Maya's red Galabia from a ways off, and we chatted for a few minutes as we passed, she walking down and I walking up. She is a self proclaimed spiritual "healer" from Switzerland who has come to live with the Bedouin in this area of Egypt this year. I guess she is in her late 40s or early 50s, sun kissed and healthy looking.

A Brew with a view. Cookin up some Turkish coffee after spending the night at the monastery.

The Descent.

Anthony and our guide Ouda on the trail to the summit. According to Muslim tradition, Moses walked barefoot. We wore hiking boots. We could have found the summit without a guide, but Ouda certainly needed the 85 Egyptian Pounds and he made sure the daylight portion of our hike was in the shade.

Mount Sinai is a holy place for Muslims, Jews, and Christians, as they all recongnize Moses as a prophet. Pilgrims and travellers alike form rock piles (if there is a better name for them please tell me, as I see them everywhere here, from holy sites to desert trail markers) along the trail to the summit.

This picture does not really capture the extreme terrain surrounding Mt Sinai, but it does show one of many tiny chapels the dot the landscape here.

I have travelled extensively with Anthony around the Middle East, and he climbed Mt Sinai with me on this trip. Good with a map (I usually drive) and always game for an adventure, we have enjoyed some good times from Morocco to Oman. At least once (and often more than once) on every trip to a different exotic locale, we lift our mugs high and toast "To the FAO program: It Does Not Suck!"

Bedouin guide on top of the world.

Fellow Arabic speakers will appreciate this: I found "Mabrouk 2000" stenciled on the side of this trash compactor.

Tunisia March 2010

Mary Leigh awoke before dawn, and shunned all primming and beautification techniques, in order to capture Tunis at sunrise. Just kidding, she seldom awakes before dawn and almost never shuns said techniques. This is a pic of sunset from Sidi Bou Said, on our last night in Tunisia.

Moonrise over a Mediterranean cafe near Mahdia. Credit Cooper with the photograph.

The American flag flies over the American cemetery in Carthage, one of several U.S. cemeteries in North Africa from Operation Torch. This operation dealt the German and Italians (as well as the Vichy French who resisted the invasion) their first defeat of WWII, and set the stage for the eventual liberation of Europe.

At first we were denied entry, as we arrived after closing time, but the director let us in and allowed us to tour the perfectly manicured grounds. It was late afternoon, and the 2841 crosses cast long shadows in the setting African sun.

When you are travelling in a foreign country, without a guide, sometimes the hardest thing to do is get out of town via the correct road. The secret is not caring that you cannot find the road you had planned to take. We couldn't find our highway direct to the ruins at Douga, so we compromised and took Road 3 (what's behind door # 3?). Though longer, we were rewarded by finding this Roman Aquaduct stretching down our road into the distance.

City on a hill. Roman ruins of Douga, about 2.5 hours SW of Tunis, on a beautiful spring day. Pictured center is the Temple of Jupiter.

Luke meets a new friend at a house/hotel where we stayed in the medina of a coastal town. The Medina Hotel was in the heart of Mahdia, down a short, narrow alley. We had 1 room, 4 beds, a naked light bulb, and a shared bath, but the location was good and the price was right. Our favorite persona there was an older Tunisian gentleman, who continued to wear a jacket, tie, and red Fez as they did in the 40s and 50s.

Fisherman returning mid-morning with the catch of the day in the central coast town of Mahdia. Note how calm and clear the Mediterranean Sea is here this day. Octopus is an abundant delicacy here.

This is a Tunisian cemetary on Cap Afrique, down the road from the medina where we stayed a few nights. A lighthouse is seen in the distance. Twenty feet to the right of the path is the crystal blue sea.

Enjoying some coffee and juice at an outdoor cafe on the Med.

Amazingly well preserved Roman coliseum of El Jem in central Tunisia.

We noticed that outside of Tunis, local butchers and restraunteurs would hang either a sheep skin, camel head, or in this case, cow's head with pacifier in mouth to indicate that fresh meat was availabe. I sincerely doubt that the binky "pacified" the cow's final moments at all.

Doorway in Kairouan.

Cooper does his best imitation at the Bardo Museum in Tunis, which has the best collection of Roman mosaics in the world.

After over a week of touring, ruins, sketchy food, long car rides, Tunisian bed bugs, and Hannibal's Revenge, the boys blow off some steam by racing 4 wheelers at a local park in Tunis.

White Desert Expedition, Egypt

The Dude Mahmud, Desert Guide and Late Sleeper, shown here cranky after being woken up.

In Mid March we took a 3 day trip into the White Desert of Egypt. At the edge of the White Desert is an oasis town named Bahariyya about 350 km SW of Cairo. Its a long, barren drive. Upon our arrival we checked in with the tourist police, got our permit, and convinced them that we did not require an armed escort. From there we met our guide, Mahmud, who would lead us 250 km into the White Desert. After a lunch of fried fish at his house, we started our trip. An hour into it we stopped at the first of several oases, and the boys had a swim at a spring fed pool known as the camel trough. After some tea we got back on the trail, and were soon following Mahmud through deep sand. Mahmud drove a Landcruiser, and I followed in my Tacoma. Between us we got stuck 5 times that first day, and I'll admit that my faith in Mahmud was shaken. We were exhausted after digging the trucks out and finally setting up camp under the setting Egyptian sun. Mahmud and his helper set up camp then set about cooking supper. Lentil soup, warm flat bread, salad, and chicken cooked over the fire, washed down with cold Sakarra. We stared at more stars than we had ever seen, then bedded down for the night bone tired.


Coop enjoying a roll in the dunes.

The Road.

Stuck again, day one.

Day Two Luke was up before the sun and climbing about in the rocks and dunes on the horizon, right about from where this shot was taken. I had to reel him in. Coop followed me out, and we played around a bit and assumed that the guide would be up and getting breakfast started. We were wrong. Turns out Mahmud is a late sleeper, which is odd among men who make their living guiding. At around 0800 I had to rouse him up, and we bantered back and forth: "Mahmud, dude wake up its 8:00", then he would grunt and curse me in Egyptian though I pretended not to understand. After some coffee and omelets we drove back over the steep dunes toward an area known as the Mushroom Desert, a part of the White Desert. We drove a ways, then stopped for a long lunch during the heat of the day at another oasis. This time we all swam, and it felt good to wash off the dust. Three hours later (Mahmud napped after lunch) we were back on the trail. The Mushroom Desert was like driving on another planet, each formation stranger than the last. Eventually we picked an enormous rock that cast a long shadow, and set up camp in the shadow. We felt none of the stress of that first day, only a dusty weariness and a sense of satisfaction for how far we'd come. That night Coop and I decided to forgo the tent and sleep under the stars.

Oasis time. The boys put on a cannonball show.

Mushroom Desert, Day Two.

One of the many incredible formations in the Mushroom Desert.

Sunset on day two.

Getting the fire going.

The boys doing some reading in the truck during a pit stop. Luke sports Taureg desert head gear, Moroccan style.

Sunset after a long day's drive from Cairo.

New Years 2010 in the Holy Land

My parents met us in Israel for the New Year's Holiday. The boys were thrilled to see Nana and Papa. We saw most of Israel: Tel Aviv, Galilee, Dead Sea, Jerusalem, the Golan Heights... Then Nana and Papa continued on to Jordan to explore Petra. We had a great time. This is the entire crew in a cave near the sheperds' fields of biblical times.

Family portrait from the heights of Masada. Built by Herod the Great around 35 BC, but made famous when 950 Jews rebelled against the Romans then chose suicide over Roman subjugation in 73 AD.

Just pick a direction. Been to most of these places. Couple more to go...

Good view of the Golan Heights, Syrian territory occupied by Israel since the 67 war. We picked up a bit of local produce. Best apples and dates we've ever tasted.

Stay on the path when hiking the Golan.

We drove from Tiberias in the Galilee region to Jerusalem via the Dead Sea road, then approached Jerusalem at sunset from the East. It was a great way to get our first glimpse of Jerusalem, and with good light. In the foreground, with the golden dome, is the dome of the rock, and the small grey dome at the left edge of the pic is the al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam. The Temple Mount is the entire walled area, where the first (Solomon's) and second Jewish temples were built.

Dipping our toes in the Sea of Galilee on New Year's Eve.

At the top of this pic is the contraversial separation wall that is being built by Israel. Illegal under international law, the Israelis claim it is necessary for security, while the Palestinians and others claim that is an attempt to annex more land interfere with peace negotiations.

Mary Leigh is entering the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the place of Jesus' birth, now located on the other side of the separation wall in the West Bank.

Here is Luke, uhh, meditating somewhere in Jerusalem. The dude abides...

This is an olive tree, age unknown but thousands - thousands!! - of years old, on the Mt of Olives which is a hill that overlooks the Temple Mount in Jerusalem from the east. Jesus is said to have walked through here on his way to the temple almost daily. He and the disciples often gathered here, and it was here that Jesus was arrested. Way to go, Judas.

We really enjoyed walking the narrow streets in the old city of Jerusalem. It is a special place.

Common scene of young IDF soldiers, male and female, on the street in the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem.