Sorry, it’s not the most exciting title, but it’ll have to do. We’ve hit that point where it’s like “breakfast with Bedouins, sitting on 2000+ year old ruins, vistas across all of Sinai, what else is new?” But I think that’s a good thing. Were settling into the early mornings, long walks in pretty decent heat, and long rests in the midday heat.
We are still suffering from sleep problems; the ground was particularly hard last night, if that’s possible, and it was very, very cold. Anna and I tried a new blanket arrangement that really just resulted in both of us being cold and unable to move. Lars said something about a new “burrito” blanket technique he’s developed, but it’s unclear whether it’s just several days in the desert heat talking.
Anyways, after a rough night of not-quite-sleep, we headed out around 7:30am and walked for about three hours through the desert. During that walk we made it back to the edge of Jebel El-Tih, the large central Sinai plateau we’ve been hiking for the past few days. The views were amazing. And then it was back into the main desert and a stop at a very nice cave to wait out the midday heat.
We’re getting into the groove of those rests, and all of us spent some time reading, some time napping, and some time chatting. It was a long rest, from about 11:00am to about 4:30pm, with another very tasty but entirely too generous lunch of Tih style food, again featuring super tasty bread cooked in the coals of the fire.
After lunch, we continued on south and east towards our eventual destinations of St. Catherine’s and Mount Sinai. They’re visible in the distance now, and it’s unclear how much of the remaining distance we’ll walk in the next two days before the trek moves back to Land Rovers for the final day or two.
In the two to three hours of hiking in the afternoon, we say a bunch more remains of (very) old houses and settlements, and several times Friej, our guide, pointed out stone chisels dating from God-only-knows-when. And we’re not taking about rocks that one could sort of see, with some imagination, tool forms in. These were very very clearly hand-shaped, some of them still with very sharp edges. As Luke said, it’s pretty amazing to be hiking in a desert like this and to periodically stop to pick up bronze age tools. Humbling, too.
Camp tonight is on another south-facing ledge of Jebel El-Tih, perhaps the most spectacular view yet. We’ve got a fantastic view of the valley to the south of the plateau, including some interesting land forms that Luke swears is the fossilized remains of a giant dragon duck. Sunset was gorgeous (as usual!) and now we’re waiting for the Bedouin guides to prepare dinner. And then I think it’s an early night for all of us. Hopefully a warm and sleep-filled night, even.
The Lenovo’s battery is getting towards its last legs. Note that we’re not actually reading blog comments, Facebook comments, email, or anything else since laptop battery time is limited and the Internet connection is very very slow. Once again, if this is the last post, don’t worry about it. Also, it seems like our outgoing text messages may not be making it out, so if you’re reading this and expecting texts from us, well, you may not get them.