From Cairo and with a different crew we took a 7 hour bus ride to St Catherine. On the ride we took the tunnel under the Suez Canal. The Suez Canal runs through Egypt separating Egypt from the Sinai Peninsula. It links the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea and is big business in Egypt. The canal is big enough to support the largest ships in the world. It is a short cut and ships pay large tolls to get through there, but it would save days of travel time than having to go around Africa. On arrival to our gorgeous little hostel we had dinner and sat around drinking tea and telling stories before going to bed in a Beduin tent. We had an early rise in the morning 1:30am to climb Mt Sinai.
We arrived at the bottom of the mountain and started our climb around 2:30am. We were met by a local guide who climbeb up with us, his name was also Mohammad. There are two ways to climb Mt Sinai, the camel trail, and the steps of redemption. Just by the name we decided on taking the camel trail. On the camel trail there are many stops along the way with little huts serving tea, coffee, chocolate, water and soft drinks. They were great resting places. Also along the way there are many camels you can take almost to the top. There were 800 steps that took us to the summit once you reached the end of the trail at 2100 mtrs above sea level.
One step at a time, 2400m and 3 hours later we made it to the top to view the most wonderful sunrise ever. At the top there were heaps of people, even some African’s singing harmonious religious tunes. It was an uplifting experience.
Mt Sinai has a huge religious history. This is the mountain that Moses climbed to receive the 10 commandments from God. At the top of the mountain there is a small chapel. After watching the spectacular sunrise and resting our limbs we started the trek back down the mountain, only this time it took around an hour and a half.
Feeling exhausted we returned to our rooms, had breakfast then had a nap before heading to our next destination, Jordan……………………