Every day of the trip was fantastic EXCEPT for the Mt. Sinai day. I will attempt to convey my feelings on the day - but it worksk better in person. We got up at 1:30AM in order to be up Mt. Sinai for sunrise. I am more of a sunset kind of girl - but who would miss the adventure? We had camels to take us up the mountain and we were to walk back down. It was so early and so dark. We got to the base of the mountain and walked to where we would meet the camels. It was very exciting - to finally be riding a camel. Our guide assigned us each to a camel guide/driver kind of person. They dragged each of us by the hand to our camel. I saw my saddle and was skeptical. It was two wooden sticks - one in front and one in back. They had several blankets as a saddle cover. I barely squeezed between my two pieces of wood - then the camel stood up. I could not believe the pain. The stick was digging into my uterus - I told everyone that I was not going to be able to have children. I kept asking other people if their saddle hurt - they told me that it didn't. Some people didn't even have sticks. I was in serious pain and wanted to switch camels - the guide told me he would have to catch the other camel first. Really? He finally gave me a new one and it was better. But a piece of metal in the saddle was digging into my legs. There are no stirrups so my knees felt like they were going to fall off. I kept trying to ignore the pain and enjoy the moment. Not a chance. When we finally got to the end, I just wanted to get down. I fell on a rock and bruised my right side. I was so done. Had to climb 750 more steps to see the sunrise. It is not an easy hike - took a long time. Tons of tourists at the top and I so did not care about the sun. And we had a 2 hour hike down. What a day. If you ever go, I recommend that you sleep through that experience. Ride a camel at the pyramids and be done with that. It is too bad because the camels are so cute and innocent looking.
No comments:
Post a Comment