Friday 31st December 2010

Having arrived home at 2.30am, a rude awakening awaited at 7am. Today would be a pilgrimage to the Monastery of St Antony, the father of asceticism. The long drive of more than two hundred miles took us along the Red Sea coastline. The rugged nothingness of the stony desert to one side and a deep blue sea to the other was a perfect vista for my first excursion from Cairo. Large cargo and oil liners crept up the Suez Gulf, and the odd oil platform could be seen. But what was more extraordinary by far was the vast inland wind farm with a 320MW output extending along a seemingly never-ending 20Km of the coast. Egypt aims to generate 20% of its energy from renewables, and they are clearly making big inroads with this wind farm.

Whilst the views were indeed stunning, my mind was focused more on the road. Most people who ask me are surprised that the traffic in Cairo doesn’t scare the living daylights out of me; by contrast, however, the rural roadscape caused many heart-in-mouth moments as oncoming busses careered across the road, cars overtook lorries that were themselves overtaking other lorries, and oncoming overtaking vehicles expect you to dodge them rather than visa-versa. It is a cause of great relief that my driving skills aren’t called upon.

On arrival at the monastery, we were welcomed by a rather grumpy monk whose mobile phone seemed to be permanently attached to his ear. The tour was rather brief, and the monk occasionally snapped at the Italian tourists. But it was interesting, especially the somewhat blazé attitude of both the monk and every single visitor to the relic of wood from the holy cross; perhaps they knew something about it that I didn’t...

• A view of the main gates of St Antony's Monastery
• A view across St Antony's Monastery to the mountains
• The body of a departed monk. In front is a monstrance containing a relic of the True Cross
• Our grumpy monk shows us the 14th century dining table where the monks would once have eaten
• Joists sticking out of an ancient building
• The monastery Bishop/Abbot has a quick prayer meeting, probably to discuss finances

Afterwards, four of us decided to climb the 1,200 steps to St Antony’s hermitage cave. (The other seven in the group didn’t fancy it.) Needless to say this was somewhat tiring, though the descent was probably the least pleasurable part. A grand vista of desert opened up before us from the vantage point at the top, and after admiring the views the cave beaconed. The entrance was narrow, and the cell tiny. Inside, steps had been provided in addition to an altar and some icons. The carpets gave the cave an unfortunate odour of decades-old socks and generally my feeling was that the integrity of this important pilgrimage site has not been preserved. The viewing platform was littered with, well, litter, and had clearly been used by miscreants for overnight activities. However, it was still worth the trek, and never again will I complain about climbing the Cathedral tower in Durham.

• Four intrepid explorers climb the steps to St Antony's hermitage and shrine
• Climbing the ceaseless steps to St Antony's hermitage – I'm sure these steps weren't here in his day
• Nearly at the top...
• ...and we're there
• The entrance to St Antony's hermitage
• The shrine to St Antony

On the return journey we stopped for “lunch” at around 4pm at a very well-kept Swiss-owned Möevnpick hotel resort: African sea bass and beer, overlooking the Red Sea. The drive home was uneventful (though I was amazed at the lack of signage or illumination on the roads – for example there were large road humps in the middle of motorways with no warning whatsoever). After a couple of hours rest, the New Year was celebrated quietly and midnight passed almost un-noted.

Blog Home

Previous:
Cairo Diary: Coptic Cairo
Thursday 30th December 2010

Next:
Cairo Diary: New Year's Day
Saturday 1st January 2011