When folks find out that I’ve traveled a lot, they always ask me, “Uh, so where’s the coolest place you’ve ever been?”
For a number of reasons, I conjure up the hot and dirty days I spent in Israel, Egypt, the Sinai Peninsula, and Turkey. I was twenty-three, and wandering around the Middle East alone. Just me, a backpack full of film, and my cameras. Stupid, I know. But I apparently had something to prove to the world and myself. I had bought a round-trip ticket to Tel Aviv, figuring I’d nose around the region for a few months and see what kind of stories I could shoot. It was the first time I’d really traveled by myself, and I was itching for an adventure.
From the minute I got off the plane and onto the actual tarmac(!)—Whoa! No jet way?—to the moment I landed back in the States, I was adventure incarnate.
After spending three or four weeks traversing the Israeli countryside, eating Sabbath dinner with welcoming strangers, sleeping at Kibbutzim, and visiting olive and lemon farms, I decided to head to the Sinai Peninsula. Here was some the best diving on the planet (even though I only knew how to snorkel, it was still amazing!), the site of the famous Mideast Peace talks—and, of course, Mount Sinai.
Mount Sinai is revered as the site where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments.
I got off the bus near Saint Catherine’s Monastery, which is at the base of the mountain, and followed a couple of French tourists up the dusty road toward a cluster of ancient-looking buildings. Now, I know what you’re thinking, “But I thought Moses was a Jew? Why is a Greek Orthodox monastery there?” Well, all I can tell you is that this region is the cradle of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. One religion’s holy site is often footsteps away from another’s—as is the case here. In fact, Saint Catherine’s Monastery is built atop the famous “burning bush.”
The temperature was about 120° F in the sun; the shade was slightly more comfortable at about 100° F. I had my big pack on my back (that’s the one with my two changes of clothes, toiletries, Powerbars, and a seemingly endless supply of film), and my camera daypack on my front; my tripod was hooked to the loop on my khakis. I looked like a retarded weeblewobble, for sure. But what did I care? I didn’t know a soul for miles around, and I had a mission to accomplish.
