Where I enjoyed the sound of silence
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Was out of Cairo for sometime.. thought I’d make use of that vacation, and try to reconnect with myself.. did I manage doing that?! I don’t know.. I just had these endless thoughts, which ended with nothing!!
One of the main things I had the intention to do was writing about that hike I had.. but I don’t know why I wasn’t capable of doing that.. as much as I feel I need to write about every single thing, as much as I feel I’ll be missing a lot and I’ll be spoiling it instead of sharing the experience.
But will I surrender for that?! Umm.. I guess no, I should try, and I’ll lose nothing by giving it a try.
We were a group of 12, distributed on three cars. I was in the company of three interesting people. One of them was a good DJ throughout the whole way, he had a collection of very nice songs, and we had chit chats about different things. To be honest, I was just a listener, I barely shared in the talking.. something that I hate about myself!
We arrived at Katherine’s town at about 11 P.M. Had our dinner and went to sleep at about 2 A.M. Wished I didn’t sleep to enjoy looking at the sky filled with a large number of twinkling stars. But I was very tired, and we were going to wake up early the next morning.
Next morning, we waked up at about 7 A.M. had our breakfast, prepared our day sack, met our guide, Sayed, and we started the walk at about 9 A.M. We walked in a line one after the other.. the new hikers at the front just behind the guide, to follow his steps, and the experienced hikers at the end.
The first place we started with was an uphill called Abu Geefa.. it’s approximately about a 70 floor building. I must admit that was very tiring.. and what came to my mind was the whole three days will be like that!!
Actually I was wrong.. Abu Geefa is considered a tough uphill.. things afterwards were better.. we resumed our walk till we reached a place called Zwateen, where we had some rest and we had lunch. We had tuna, cheese, green salad, olives, 7alawa, 7omos, and te7eena. I don’t know what was wrong with me, but I wasn’t able to eat a lot, a tuna sandwich was more than enough for me.
Resuming our walk through Wady Gebal, we saw some plants and fruit trees. We saw 3awarwar, 7abak, Gysoon, almond trees, grapes, and apples. We reached a place called Farsh el Romman at about 6 P.M. That was our final destination for the first day. Camels carrying our bags reached the place nearly at the same time.
We started preparing our sleeping bags before it gets dark. Later, we had a nice dinner which was prepared by the Bedouins. It was followed by a nice chit chat through which we were falling asleep one after the other. Despite the fact that I was very exhausted.. but I didn’t feel like sleeping.. went into my sleeping bag, and kept watching the stars, the shooting stars, and the moon. It was a gorgeous sky!
Thanks to M’s alarm, we waked up next morning at 6 A.M. prepared our bags, had breakfast and started our second day. M. told us that the second day is gonna be a little bit tough than the first one. That was true.. but the scenery was a lot better.
The way from Farsh el Romman to el Galt el Azraq is more than amazing.. I can’t find words to describe how beautiful it was. El Galt is a place where melted ice accumulates and forms a pool.. Azraq in our normal Arabic means blue.. but when Bedouins named it el Galt el Azraq, they meant by Azraq black.. the water there is veryyyyy cold.. it’s depth is about 7 meters.. most of the group jumped into the water.. actually I didn’t have the courage to jump in this cold water.
We had some rest there.. had lunch and resumed our walk to Zwateen again.. and that was the toughest part for me.. a very tough uphill that we walked.. my muscles started aching and I almost lost my breath..
Finally I reached the top from where we were supposed to climb Abbas Basha Mountain the next highest mountain in Egypt after Saint Katherine.. but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to go with them.. so I waited down had some chit chatting with Sayed (our guide), and some hot tea, which was necessary since it was getting cold. They came down after sunset by about 20 mins.. then we resumed our way to Zwateen for about 30 minutes on the light of our torches.
We had dinner.. and had some discussions with Sayed and his cousins.. and as usual we felt asleep one after the other..
Next morning, thanks to the same alarm, we waked up at 6 A.M. we had a pre breakfast :) That was grapes and apples from trees all around us, they were very tasty. We collected our stuff.. had breakfast, some group photos, and we went down Abu Geefa heading to Katherine’s town.
Being a girl, we (me and other girls) were allowed to visit a Bedouin house and meet the ladies there. We went into Sayed’s house.. met his wife and two of his sisters and neighbors. It was a very nice one floor house.. well furnished, and it looked like one of the cities houses from inside. A normal kitchen with a cooker, a washing machine, a normal bedroom.
Later, we had lunch, and started our way back to Cairo. The moment we went out of Katherine’s town, we felt humidity in the air, and the hot weather.. getting closer to Cairo.. pollution welcomed us.. and we started missing the sound of silence, peace of mind, the beautiful mountains scenery, and the sparkling sky!
It was such an amazing experience.. with very unique people.. a major thing that I learnt out of the hike, it was PERSISTENCE. Plus two things that I learnt about myself, I have a lot of negative energy inside which I should get rid of, and replace it with positive energy instead. The second thing was I’m a very quiet person ( I knew that long time ago, but I thought I changed, but seems that I’m still myself!)
A final thing which is being proved day after the other, “The small world theory”. It was nice meeting you Sa7eb el Ashgar (you could check his post about the same trip), and Moushira. And of course the rest of the hikers who made it a unique trip.
P.S. excuse my wrong spelling in some of the names, and excuse my boring post.
One of the main things I had the intention to do was writing about that hike I had.. but I don’t know why I wasn’t capable of doing that.. as much as I feel I need to write about every single thing, as much as I feel I’ll be missing a lot and I’ll be spoiling it instead of sharing the experience.
But will I surrender for that?! Umm.. I guess no, I should try, and I’ll lose nothing by giving it a try.
We were a group of 12, distributed on three cars. I was in the company of three interesting people. One of them was a good DJ throughout the whole way, he had a collection of very nice songs, and we had chit chats about different things. To be honest, I was just a listener, I barely shared in the talking.. something that I hate about myself!
We arrived at Katherine’s town at about 11 P.M. Had our dinner and went to sleep at about 2 A.M. Wished I didn’t sleep to enjoy looking at the sky filled with a large number of twinkling stars. But I was very tired, and we were going to wake up early the next morning.
Next morning, we waked up at about 7 A.M. had our breakfast, prepared our day sack, met our guide, Sayed, and we started the walk at about 9 A.M. We walked in a line one after the other.. the new hikers at the front just behind the guide, to follow his steps, and the experienced hikers at the end.
The first place we started with was an uphill called Abu Geefa.. it’s approximately about a 70 floor building. I must admit that was very tiring.. and what came to my mind was the whole three days will be like that!!
Actually I was wrong.. Abu Geefa is considered a tough uphill.. things afterwards were better.. we resumed our walk till we reached a place called Zwateen, where we had some rest and we had lunch. We had tuna, cheese, green salad, olives, 7alawa, 7omos, and te7eena. I don’t know what was wrong with me, but I wasn’t able to eat a lot, a tuna sandwich was more than enough for me.
Resuming our walk through Wady Gebal, we saw some plants and fruit trees. We saw 3awarwar, 7abak, Gysoon, almond trees, grapes, and apples. We reached a place called Farsh el Romman at about 6 P.M. That was our final destination for the first day. Camels carrying our bags reached the place nearly at the same time.
We started preparing our sleeping bags before it gets dark. Later, we had a nice dinner which was prepared by the Bedouins. It was followed by a nice chit chat through which we were falling asleep one after the other. Despite the fact that I was very exhausted.. but I didn’t feel like sleeping.. went into my sleeping bag, and kept watching the stars, the shooting stars, and the moon. It was a gorgeous sky!
Thanks to M’s alarm, we waked up next morning at 6 A.M. prepared our bags, had breakfast and started our second day. M. told us that the second day is gonna be a little bit tough than the first one. That was true.. but the scenery was a lot better.
The way from Farsh el Romman to el Galt el Azraq is more than amazing.. I can’t find words to describe how beautiful it was. El Galt is a place where melted ice accumulates and forms a pool.. Azraq in our normal Arabic means blue.. but when Bedouins named it el Galt el Azraq, they meant by Azraq black.. the water there is veryyyyy cold.. it’s depth is about 7 meters.. most of the group jumped into the water.. actually I didn’t have the courage to jump in this cold water.
We had some rest there.. had lunch and resumed our walk to Zwateen again.. and that was the toughest part for me.. a very tough uphill that we walked.. my muscles started aching and I almost lost my breath..
Finally I reached the top from where we were supposed to climb Abbas Basha Mountain the next highest mountain in Egypt after Saint Katherine.. but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to go with them.. so I waited down had some chit chatting with Sayed (our guide), and some hot tea, which was necessary since it was getting cold. They came down after sunset by about 20 mins.. then we resumed our way to Zwateen for about 30 minutes on the light of our torches.
We had dinner.. and had some discussions with Sayed and his cousins.. and as usual we felt asleep one after the other..
Next morning, thanks to the same alarm, we waked up at 6 A.M. we had a pre breakfast :) That was grapes and apples from trees all around us, they were very tasty. We collected our stuff.. had breakfast, some group photos, and we went down Abu Geefa heading to Katherine’s town.
Being a girl, we (me and other girls) were allowed to visit a Bedouin house and meet the ladies there. We went into Sayed’s house.. met his wife and two of his sisters and neighbors. It was a very nice one floor house.. well furnished, and it looked like one of the cities houses from inside. A normal kitchen with a cooker, a washing machine, a normal bedroom.
Later, we had lunch, and started our way back to Cairo. The moment we went out of Katherine’s town, we felt humidity in the air, and the hot weather.. getting closer to Cairo.. pollution welcomed us.. and we started missing the sound of silence, peace of mind, the beautiful mountains scenery, and the sparkling sky!
It was such an amazing experience.. with very unique people.. a major thing that I learnt out of the hike, it was PERSISTENCE. Plus two things that I learnt about myself, I have a lot of negative energy inside which I should get rid of, and replace it with positive energy instead. The second thing was I’m a very quiet person ( I knew that long time ago, but I thought I changed, but seems that I’m still myself!)
A final thing which is being proved day after the other, “The small world theory”. It was nice meeting you Sa7eb el Ashgar (you could check his post about the same trip), and Moushira. And of course the rest of the hikers who made it a unique trip.
P.S. excuse my wrong spelling in some of the names, and excuse my boring post.
posted by MoonLightShadow at 5:10 AM, | 
5 Comments:
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Wrong spelling in some of the names my be excused but this post is far from boring. Any one who loves mountains will eenjoy this as I have enjoyed reading. Great post.
Thank you Shirazi :)
Me too..i enjoyed the post...as if I was there...but u know what..i need to see the photos that u took :)
Sure.. I'll try to put some of them here.
With the exception of فرش الرمانة Farsh arRommana, I did not find any names misspelled, and I did not see you taking notes!