Egypt

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February 12th 2007

Published: March 3rd 2007

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Sawa Camp huts, Egypt

Had an amazing Nutella pancake for breakfast this morning; the second in eight months of travelling. Would LOVE to eat them every day, but am sure I would put on weight pretty fast if I did. Am considering switching from the traditional Sunday hangover breakfast of bacon & eggs on toast to Nutella & banana pancakes.

We were collected after breakfast by a different driver than yesterday (thank God...) & driven to St Katherines Monastery. It´s purported to be the oldest continuous monastery in the world. Added to that, it´s the place of the burning bush, where Moses chatted with God & was given the ten commandments; which all good Christians should live their lives by! St Katherines was a bit of a disappointment, as there wasn´t much to see other than the ´burning bush´& the church. A guide probably wouldn´t have gone astray here because I was certainly ignorant as to the whole purpose of the place; am obviously NOT a ´good Christian' am I?

Ate a buffet lunch back at the hotel in Daniella, rested for an hour or so, then it was back to St Katherines to begin the big climb up Gebel Musa (Mt Sinai),

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View from Sawa Camp huts, Egypt

to watch the sunset. Jan, Doug & our guide did the hard climb up the three thousand, seven hundred stairs. The steps were hand made by a monk as penance; apparently he must have done something pretty awful because it would have taken years for one man to complete. Meanwhile, Nige & I had taken the longer, yet much less steep camel track to the top. Two blokes on camels followed us up in case we wanted/needed a ride. Nige made a great effort, but was forcet to return halfway up due to breathing problems. We both agreed to give up smoking & I even gave camel man my left over half packet of cigarettes to show Nige I was serious.

Dad headed downhill to wait for us at the coffee shop & after I was happy he wasn´t going to have a heart attack, continued up & met our guide at the base of the last seven hundred steps. I met up with Jan & Doug not far from the summit, drank some tea & rested in the protected area until it was time to complete the climb. We reached the top about fifteen minutes before sunset &

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Sawa Camp huts, Egypt

got wrapped up in layers of clothes & blankets. It was faily cold, but we managed to find a reasonably sheltered spot behind the Mosque to watch the sunset. Unfortunately we couldn´t stay long after sundown because not only did it begin getting much colder, we also had a long downhill walk ahead in the dark. It took a couple hours to get down, we met up with Nige & shortly after our driver arrived to return us to the hotel. Sam & Lorraine were waiting in the lobby, so we had a hot drink & debriefed them on our adventure before deciding on skipping dinner in favour of an early bedtime.

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