ex·o·dus
: a mass departure : emigration
I don’t know what the longest you have ever traveled, or even what would be considered an exocus. I believe we [My Track Team] call it that because of the location of ours.
May 28th 2011
After staying 5 day in Cairo egypt we embark on our journey to israel via Mt Sinai. We left our little oasis i the midst of the busy city at around 6 PM and drove through the dessert reaching Mt Sinai at 1 Am on May 29th.
May 29th 2011
We start climbing the gigantic mountain walking with in a small group of other brave tourist. The mountains stand tall all around form mismatched peaks in all shapes and sizes. the path was mostly flat, just at a angle getting steaper as you get closer to the top. Before you can reach the top you are faced with 720 steps carved into the ancient stones. I reached the steps at about 5 AM or so, and the sun was starting to peak through the lower peaks, knowing i wanted to be at the very top for the real sunset, i start to sprint of the side of the stairs weaving in and out of people who did not want to move at my pace. After collapsing and forcing my legs to move more i made it to the very top and promptly called to the highest point i could on top of an ancient greek church. The few all around me was beautiful ancient mountains going back to the time of Moses. When the sun had completely come up our whole team regrouped and started the long journey down. Most of choose to take camels down the mountain, a decision i would regret. Camels are stupid animals. As we went down the steep rocks bouncing back and fourth in the oddly fashioned saddle we finally made it down the mountain in about halve of the time.
At the bottom of the hill our van driver was somewhere else, and we ended up having to wait, the first of many times on this journey. When he finally arrived they took us to a breakfast “Buffet” witch ended up just being bread and eggs and coffee. So finally at about 8 Am we start the drive unto Israel. About 4 hours later we arrived at the boarder of Israel and Egypt, there we left our trusty van and walked across the strickly regulated boarder. Eventually we made it all the way through with only minor incedents. Sadly as soon as we were all through we watched the buss we had to catch pull away. So in the heat of the day in the middle of the dessert we get to wait for an hour or so for the next bus. Luckly being a man i can change into a swimsuit pretty easly so me and Scott jumped into the red sea that was standing there tempting us.
When we finally got on the bus we made it closer to jerusalem, stopping somewhere along the way and nearly leaving behind halve our team. When we finaly made it into the modern jerusalem it was dark, i really honestly don’t know what time it was. I was in such a daze at this time, but it was dark. so we got of our bus and we ended up having to wait even more as we tried to figure out wear to go next. About and hour and a halve later we start moving on busses and getting lost on the way. Eventually getting so lost we just have to take taxi’s to our resting place on top of the mount of olives. We arived about 1 Am on May 30th 2011
31 hours of travel, exhausting.
I envy you. I can’t even imagine what it felt like on the mountain. Did you feel the weight of the history of the place? Did you wonder how many feet had covered the same ground you just did? Thank you for the pictures. It’s good to be able to see a tiny bit of what you saw. Amazing adventure!