Moon Beach Day #4

Lez whom runs Moon Beach has organized a desert trip, it is a special one because it is their first one and it is for an article the lovely Corina is going to write up and if all goes well it will become a regular thing for the guests at Moon Beach.
I'm the token guest along with Lez, Corina, Anna, Donna the photographer and Lelas the yoga teacher, so I'm also the token boy. I decide to grin and bare this burden worrying only that the estrogen levels in the car may make me go all fruity but I'm assured quietly that this is not the most femme bunch of girls in the jeep so I don't worry too much.
The drive to the desert is again awe inspiring. The landscape is completely different this side of the Sinai compared to the Dahab side. The terrain here changes constantly, all the mountain ranges seem to be made of different stone. Some are black volcanic, some red sandstone laid down millions of years ago by the sea, others a mixture of both, the rock faces are like tree rings and you can see back in time all the different ages. This giving the whole terrain an amazing technicolour rainbow of history and in the open plains great dunes where the wind has collected huge mounds of the finest sand.
Rabiva (our guide) drives up to a peak and with out warning turns down a shear drop and we zoom down the side the jeep sliding around in the sand, I have to admit I was the one that gave the girlest noise of fright as we tore down the slope. After a couple more roller coaster spins and a few worrying moments with sand flying into the air at points where I swore we could not get the jeep through we arrived at a little Bedouin settlement for lunch.
Inside a little building, all sitting on the ground lunch is prepared by the local women, the bread is made on the fire beside us and the usual fair of delicious tomato's, cucumbers, tuna and hummus is laid out and we tuck in with our fresh bread. I do have to say though, it took all my focus to get past the swarming flys but you have no choice and you just have to go with it.
After lunch it was onto Serabit el-Khadem (if you want more info http://www.geographia.com/egypt/sinai/serabit.htm). The steps up to these old turquoise mines almost 8000 years old start where the road seems to just run out. On the way up the mountain there is ancient graffiti on the stones where travels of old carved hieroglyphics into the stone and pictures of the old boats they used. Across the top of this mountain range the landscape is black from old volcanic activity and you really get the feeling your on another planet. A quick look at these ancient mine, hand worked first nearly 8000 years ago.
A look around the old Hathor temple, the energy from this old place really has a peculiar effect on me, I became very quiet in myself and introspective. All I could do was sit and stare at the ruins. After a while we start our decent down the other side of the mountain range where there are no steps so we have to climb down some pretty shear rock faces. The landscape keeps changing colour. Black manganese litters the landscape but on the rock faces there are bands of blues, greens and reds from all the different minerals in the rock. We have to go around deep canyons and little Wadi's till we wind down through the mountains to the camp where we will be staying for the night.