Day 26 - St. Katherine Monestary

The bus left from the hotel at 11:15 pm and we had a 2+ hour drive to St. Katherine's Monestary. I left my passport in the safe so when we hit a checkpoint it became a little tricky. They almost made the entire van turn back, but the driver convinced them to write down his plates and to verify that I was on the van when we were on our way back. Not sure why they were so concerned since the area we were going to isn't close to any borders nor would I want to stay in the mountains in the freezing cold. Anyways, we got to the monestary about 1:30am, met our guide and started our hike to the top of Mt. Sinai to watch the sunrise. The moon was our source of light since the guide didn't have a torch which was odd...after a long 2 1/2 hour hike, we arrived at the top. Definitely took a few breaks since this was probably the biggest workout of the trip to date...well worth it though. At the top, I got a blanket and sat on the rocks bundled up in about 4 layers. At about 5am you saw the sun start perching out and the horizon glowing in orange. Over the next hour we watched the sunrise which cast a great view of the surrounding landscape as you can see in the pics. Sun came up and it was time to head back down. Going down only took a little over an hour, but my legs are definitely sore and I haven't slept in over 36 hours so I'll crash easily tonight. I plan to watch the sunset this evening to make the day completely worthwhile. Got back to the hotel, packed and checked out. I ran into Phillip and Maxi who I hung out with at Abu Simbel...they arrived this morning and are staying at the same place...Small world this backpacking life. We plan to get some beers and I can fill them in on Dahab's offerings since I have a night bus to Cairo at 10pm. I hope this bus trip is better than the last one...