After spending 3 days scubaing in Dahab, I decided on my way back to Cairo to stop off and hike up Mt. Sinai. Now compared to the other two Mountains, this one was much smaller at a mere 2,285 meters. I arrived at the base (well probably about 1000 meters up) around 2 in the morning having been awake since 7 am the previous morning. After finding a place to store my large bag, I set off up the mountain.

I arrived here on my own, and the people on the bus from Dahab were not all the friendly, so I just headed up on my own. Inadvertantly, (cause it was dark at I was just following the crowd at this point), I went up the camel trail. Not bad, quite a bit easier than the steps, and full of camel dung. There were a lot of people climbing at this time, and I was stuck behind a large group. I ended up walking up with one of the women from this group who forged on ahead as well. Her name was Julia, she was from Moscow and didn't speak much English. Apparently there were 50 of them traveling around to monestaries (she described herself as Prevoslava, which I think may be Orthodox Christian?) all over Europe and here.

For those of you who don't know, Mt. Sinai is the mountain the Moses is said to have climbed to get receive the 10 Commandments. At the base of this mountain is St. Catherine's Monestary, which has apparently been around since 400 BC, pretty old. Anyway, it was neat talking to her, although I could understand too much from her. I ended up getting near the top (after a bit of a break) around 4:30 am, I rested in one of the several huts near the top til it came close to sunrise.

Okay, I know it is cold in Canada right now, and I've heard from some of you the "S" word here and there. But, for someone who did not have a sweater in his wardrobe until after he climbed Mt. Sinai, the peak was freezing. Here is me shivering away. Oh, and for those of you who think I may still be wandering around in t-shirts and shorts it is not the case. First of all, walking around in Egypt in a short sleeve shirt and shorts is considered bad taste and makes you stand out as a tourist (which means you get hassled by people trying to sell you stuff A LOT), and secondly it sometimes is only 16 or 20 during the day and dropping down a little lower at night.

Anyway, the sunrise was gorgeous, below are some pics of it...

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So yeah, I ended up taking a nap in one of the huts at the top and then took the bus back to Cairo...