Rest Day - Until Tonight

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Tim wakes up this morning sick as a dog, possible because of his migraine yesterday coupled with stress and not eating tea last night. We’re so glad we brought the gastro packs (they have everything you could need for an upset tummy, nausea, bugs etc) from Perth, they have come in handy for Tim a few times now! So he is left to sleep it off.

I have a bit of an explore around, try to exchange money, stupidly it seems. Nothing is open (Friday and Saturday is the weekend in Egypt, but oddly the bank is supposed to open at 5pm according to the policeman out the front…) and the hotel doesn’t exchange money. I can’t wait until we hit the 20th century when we get our new card off Anna in London and can use ATM’s again! You don’t realise how you rely on something until it’s no longer available. Anna will be a hero, there will probably be monuments erected in her honour and a public holiday!

Just like last night where it looked different to the rest of Egypt, daylight doesn’t change that thought. There’s girls walking down the street just in bathers (things you can get away with on holidays), there are bars and restaurants all the way down the street with Plasma TV’s on the sidewalks, I’m guessing at night when everything kicks off there will be World Cup on all of them, and it’s a lot cleaner than even Luxor. There’s a McDonalds (they even deliver!) so with our last few dollars I get us a drink each and take it back to Tim. That perks him up a bit, then it’s back to sleep.

So when there is nothing else to do in a country with a temperature of 39, you hit the pool. The water is 32 degrees and it is heaven! That kills a bit of time till 5pm when the bank allegedly opens, although I still have my doubts. But surprisingly it is! This place really does only come to life at night! So we are flushed with cash again - if for no other reason than those damn tips!

I get some sleep as tonight we are going to St Katherines to climb Mount Sinai (or Mount Moses as it is also known).

Before we leave we hit McDonalds for tea and check out the World Cup that being played every 15 metres. Great atmosphere, wonder what it’s like when there’s no World Cup…

We get picked up at 10:30pm for the 3 hour drive. We anticipate starting our climb at 2am and it’s supposed to take 3 hours, we’ll get to the summit in time for sunrise.

So we try to nap in the car on the way…

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