Sinai

We boarded our bus and headed our past the Suez Canal to the Sinai.

Our destination was St Catherine, the tiny town at the foot of Mt Sinai, which we were to climb to see the sunrise.

It was absolutely freezing at St Catherine. It had dropped to zero degrees Celcius by the time we arrived at 6pm! The rooms in the guesthouse weren’t heated, so we piled on the blankets (thank goodness there weren’t many people in each dorm so we could nab the spare blankets!) and layered our clothes multiple times when the time came to set out for the climb. I ended up wearing:

• jeans
• two pairs of socks
• 2 sets of thermal underwear
• 1 tshirt, 1 singlet and 1 shirt
• 1 polar fleece vest
• 1 jacket
• 2 scarves
• gloves

Even with all that, it was icy on the mountain!

We were told that there would be camels to transport us part of the way up if we wanted, but by the time we got there, they’d all been taken. I was a bit anxious about this, since I’m not the best mountain-climber! We kept climbing slowly though, and managed to snag an early returning camel for a lift for half an hour or so. Even with that help, it was really hard going after three hours of climbing! By the time we got to the Steps of Repentance, I was dead, and avowed my intention to stop. After ten minutes of rest, though, I managed to keep going, and met the others at the peak, just in time for dawn!

Daybreak was gorgeous, but with hundreds of people all perched on the top of the mountain it wasn’t really the spiritual experience people talk about. Nevertheless, it was an experience I was glad I managed.

The walk downhill was much easier on the legs, but very slippery. Now that we could see, it was a pretty impressive climb!

After leaving St Catherine, our last trip was on the bus to the port of Nuweiba to catch the ferry to Jordan. Goodbye Egypt, and goodbye to Hamam, our fabulous tour leader!