Day 7 - June 27, 2008

Did we mention short? For Elizabeth it was 45 minutes of sleep. Three hours was about average. At 1am our wake up call was a hotel employee knock on the door (we mentioned this was ghetto right?). This is such an adventure really! A sense of adventure is one thing that can’t be left home on this trip. Otherwise, who in their right mind would do what we’ve been doing? On the bus at 1:30am we were and off to Mt. Sinai we went. This is a temple of the ancient world where Moses received the Ten Commandments. It was a special place. Someone said it was about 3.5 miles to the top. Most of us rode camels two-thirds the way to the seven hundred stairs at the last leg of the journey. It went like this. You stand in a single file line. A man calls over a camel ‘driver’ in his Bedouin garb and he leads you through the dark to a sort of camel parking lot. There rows of sitting camels are illuminated by the light of the moon. He helps, in some cases lifts, you up into the saddle that is usually ½ a meter long. There you sit for the next hour or so as he walks up by you calling the camel to hurry faster and teaching you some camel facts. Camels can go six days without drinking water, eat black beans for breakfast, and have a life span of thirty-five. Well, if you don’t make them climb Mt. Sinai it’s actually a little longer. The bible prophets all would have ridden camels. Nephi and Lehi would of as well. What a thought! Our cohorts who walked up had a great time meeting people from Indonesia and other countries along the way. As we were traveling up Emily had the thought “I woke up at 1 am today, I am riding a camel underneath the stars on the way to the summit of Mount Sinai”…wow! At the top there sits an old Monastery.

We sat on big rocks east of this and watched the sunrise and took pictures.

Coming down when we could actually see where we’d been climbing, we were grateful we’d done it in the dark. It was a bigger hike than we thought. Several of our group were sick (we mentioned the food right?) but they made it up and back anyway.

A quick breakfast (in the sticks Egyptian breakfast means some just ate bread out of fear) and we were on our way. We slept in the bus to the Egypt/Israel border. Never has a border experience so long and frustrating for our tour leader than this one! We were there for over three hours. They were just dinking around with us really. We met our new bus driver who will be with us the rest of the trip in Israel. His name is Eddie. He has driven President Hinckley and his wife around here. He also has been driving the BYU Jerusalem Center people around for years...twenty to be precise.

With no lunch, die hard members of the group went snorkeling in the Red Sea at 4pm. Remember we woke up at 1? Wow!!! It was worth it. Eilat Israel claims some of the best snorkeling in the world. The color of the Red Sea and the quality of the fish and coral beat Hawaii. It was also fun to gaze through the suns rays down to the bottom and think that there was once a time this was made dry!

Those who were not feeling well or chose not to snorkel were taken to the hotel. We instantly knew we were in for a treat! Some went to the beach while others went to the pool. It was so refreshing.

Dinner was not ‘in the sticks’ tonight! We are at a fancy hotel for the reason of the great buffet it affords. We ate like royalty and especially devoured the authentic American chicken nuggets and the fresh fruits. Absence makes the heart grow fonder!

It was an amazing, yet tiring, day!