RED SEA

MT SINAI

SUEZ CANAL

ARABIAN DESERT

THE GREAT PYRAMID THE PYRAMID PENTATHLON

There is an Egyptian proverb: "He who once drinks the water of the Nile, though he may travel to the ends of the Earth, will one day return to drink of it again." This applies to me. As a boy growing up in San Francisco, climbing the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean, I wondered about exotic lands on the other side of the horizon. Nurtured on the photos of my father's National Geographic, I dreamed of getting inside the exotic and historic pictures, particularly those of Egypt. I've lived my dream. For me, "adventure" is multi-leveled. The raw physical activity is certainly exhilarating. Many times the challenge is embracing the fear that arises from what looks like danger. Sometimes scary, it has to do with being vulnerable. I have discovered my athletic adventures become cross-cultural tools that eliminate the stigma of a tourist. Barriers drop and clear lines of communication are opened. After researching a particular area, then engaging in some stressful physical activity, I experience the culture, land and history from a different perspective. In 1966, I represented the United States in an international race on the Suez Canal. In 1977, I kayaked the Nile from Khartoum to Cairo, completing the journey atop the Great Pyramid. I returned to Egypt in mid-April, 1996, to experience a piece of the landscape of 4,500 years of human history -- from 2600 BC (Cheops) to1300 BC (Moses) by performing what I called The Pyramid Pentathlon. To complete the athletic odyssey of five 'experiences'

I: Dove in the Red Sea at Ras Muhammad near Sharm El Sheikh. Climbed to the top of Mount Sinai (Mt. Moses) for sunrise. Swam from Asia to Africa across Crocodile Lake at Ismailia. Biked across the Arabian Desert to Cairo. Ran to the Great Pyramid of Cheops at Giza.

The Dive: The Red Sea Recognized by experts as rivaling the Australia's Great Barrier Reef as the world's great dive spot the Red Sea is a brilliant turquoise. A myriad of exotic species of tropical reef fish and coral formations has created this most unique underwater paradise. The diving experience was as if the water, the fish, the coral and the underwater vegetation were electrified in brilliant colors. My heart was palpitating from the intensity of the colors.

The Climb: Mount Sinai Desolate, harsh, craggy, uninviting, shameless, and thankless Moses crossed rivers of sand between mountains of bare rock. I retraced the Moses journey to the symbolic site of the burning bush at the monastary of St. Catherine. At 2 a.m. I met a young Bedouin climbing guide at St. Catherine ready to take me on the relatively easy switchback path up to the summit. I had trained to take 3,750 steps carved into the rock by monks to reach the summit of Mount Sinai. My Bedouin climbing guide told me that people don't climb the stairs at night. It is safer to go the normal path. Other people are constantly attempting to talk us out of our dreams I reflected. The Bedouin took the challenge. A gray shade of darkness split the night between the rock as I looked into the valley below. I could see a serpent motion of tiny flashlights describe the winding path up taken by the pilgrimagers. It reminded me that I had taken the path less traveled, or rather not traveled. Solitary, yet at one. Energized, yet calm. Sweating on the driest place on earth. I felt as if God was watching and the angels were watching out. Our pace was steady. Within the first 30 minutes the young Bedouin asked my age. "You older than my father. You should be on other route my camel or donkey," he sputtered breathing heavily. I climbed at night in order to watch the sunrise over Egypt. More significant was the visual descent into the "wilderness" between the summit and St. Catherine. The mountain speaks with its many difference faces. Here the wind cut the rock into a living sculpture. It doesn't take much imagination to see the rock looks like a pipe organ of agony and ecstasy. Each pipe looked like vertical sculptures of joyful and beautiful beings as well as grotesque, wrenching, twisted, tormented bodies and faces slipping into or coming out of the rock much like Michaelangelo' Prisoners in Stone in the room just before one sees David in Florence. On the side of Mount Sinai life spoke visually from the rock. The sound track was an orchestration of wind, birds and insects singing whatever one's mind interpreted. These were the very rocks that cried to Moses. The desolate terrain and the desert below were where Moses was purified before reaching this sacred ground. I could imagine Moses walking, sitting in prayer, waiting to be told, to hear the voice of God. He spent time here. The people who now climb this mountain walk the path or ride a camel for two and half-hours to near the summit. Then walk for another 20 minutes to the top. Many arrive in the darkness of night to witness the sunrise. It becomes more about the experience of the sunrise from the summit of Mt. Sinai - as in bagging a peak - than the experience of what Moses had 3,300 years ago. They miss nature's living cathedral where Moses lived for 40 days. Purified by years of trekking through the Sinai, Moses was ready for 'new' news: There is only one God. And here are God's Laws - ten of them. The Swim: Africa to Asia to Africa The Suez Canal flows through Lake Timsah, (called Crocodile Lake by locals because from the air it looks like the reptile). This is where I would make the round trip crossing. In a swim such as this it is prudent to have an escort boat for safety. Through my Osama, my interpreter, I hired a fisherman and his boat to stay next to me. Three hundred yards offshore the fisherman stopped rowing. This is as far as he would go. It was too dangerous to travel any further. Of course that was the point of why he was escorting me. I had a decision. Do I abandon the swim or continue. In Mt. Everest lingo continuing is called summit fever. Go for it at all costs - your life included. I realized I would open myself to exposure without a boat nearby. My mind flashed on three possibilities. Ships passing would not expect a swimmer in their lane nor even be able to see a swimmer and for that matter even a small fishing boat; I had heard that sharks follow ships through the Suez Canal to eat the garbage thrown off the stern; and yesterday I had dove using my legs and climbed. Will I get leg cramps today? What if I get cramps without an escort boat nearby??... Guess that's why they call me a risk taker." After reaching the Asian banks I swam back to Ismailia on the African side. Alone. I got cramps 150 yards from the finish off the African shore. It was several minutes before a fishing boat got to him. I pushed my foot against the bottom of the boat, eventually got rid of the cramps and swim it to the African shore.

The Bike: Across the Arabian Desert Triathlon-style, next I experienced the Arabian Desert on a bike. Crossing this desert has discouraged foreign intruders for 5,000 years. I started from Ismailia, an attractive town with tree-lined avenues, founded by Ferdinand de Lessep, creator of the Suez Canal. Ismailia was like riding through a patch of serenity -- green trees dotted by red strawberry stalls before the freeway cuts a path in the desert wind. The Egyptian government was quite helpful. Police escorted me through Ismailia and onto the freeway to Cairo.

The Run: The Great Pyramid Finally I ran to the Great Pyramid at Giza. As I was running, I thought, 'The Pyramid of Cheops is probably the most celebrated and most remarkable structure ever built by humans or whoever built it.' What superb organization and planning! 4,600 years ago and it is still standing right there and we are worrying about internet, cellphone and fax speed. In two days from Moses to Cheops I just covered 4,500 years in reverse history. Both from a liability and preservation standpoint for several years it has been prohibited to climb the pyramids. It felt great just to touch the Great Pyramid. The Egyptian government tourist office went out of their way to acquire special permission for me to climb Cheops. So I scrambled up the crumbling rock. What a view! Sitting beside The Great Pyramid of Cheops is the Sphinx. It was Herodotus who said The Sphinx has watched all the sunrises and sunsets for the past 4,500 years.

Many legends from three great religions to the ancient Egyptians are set in Sinai. Today it is a refuge for adventure travelers. The Sinai is where Moses received the Ten Commandments. 273 miles from Cairo the trip to St. Catherine Monastery on the side of Mount Moses less than a decade ago ranked as one of the toughest trips a traveler could make anywhere in the world as it required driving through rock and boulder-strewn mountain valleys and trails. The desert changing in a sea of subtle colors- lavender and mauve and rust as the hills grow into mountains. St Catherine Monastery is a place sacred to three faiths Christians, Muslim's and Jews, a spiritual oasis in the quarrelsome Middle East. Revered by the Jewish people and Christians, Moses is probably one of the most admired person in history. Muhammad recognized Moses as a true prophet and he became admired throughout the Moslem world. Moses is honored by Jews, Christians, and Moslems alike, and is even respected by agnostics. There are three major achievements attributed to Moses. He is credited with being the political figure who led the Hebrews in the Exodus from Egypt. He is the reputed author of the first five books of the Bible or the Five Books of Moses, which include the Ten Commandments. And many people consider Moses to be the founder of Jewish monotheism although Abraham is also credited with being the founder of monotheism. Let us not forget one of my favorite Egyptians Ikhnaten, the pharaoh who first said there was one God - the sun god Aten. Yet it is clear that Jewish monotheism would have died out had it not been for Moses. So he played a crucial role in its preservation. The idea of one true God, which Moses believed in so passionately, is of great importance, since Christianity and Islam are both derived from Jewish monotheism.