Mount Sinai at dawn

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We were awoken at 1.15am to start our trek up Mt Sinai, although we didn't begin walking from the monastery until about 2.15. The moon was still very bright so torches were unnecessary apart from when entering occasional patches of deep shadow. The walk was not strenuous, although the elderly members of the group had difficulty keeping up. We had got to within a short distance of the top by 4.30am, which seemed remarkably quick, and we waited in one of five tea houses with some hot chocolate. It was chilly, but not especially cold for the top of a mountain in mid-winter possibly because there was very little wind.

Around 5.30am the other group rolled up, having had a much more leisurely start, being awoken at the same time we'd set off. We weren't sure why we'd been roused so early, but our tour leader had waited lower down the mountain so we couldn't ask her. Just before six we made the final ascent - which makes it sound like it was Everest when it was in fact about three minutes of walking up some steps. The eastern horizon was brightening, but we still had a while to wait with the blanket/mattress sellers who became something of an annoyance the longer we stood there. To make them go away I suggested (jokingly) that we hire all the blankets and mattresses off them to make a giant blanket-mattress igloo (to sit inside), but one of the Australians pointed out they'd just come back with more. Fortunately they got the message in the end and wandered off.

Around 6.20 the sun popped up, lighting the tops of the nearby mountains and the mist between the peaks. Catching the image with a camera proved rather difficult, especially since the cold sapped the battery, but I eventually got some good shots.

To descend two of us took the quick route down the "Steps of Repentence", 3000 stairs leading straight down a gorge to deposit us right next to St Catherine's monastery. We waited there for the others before bribing (?!) the guard to let us in the monastery to see the burning bush. I have no idea how authentic it was, but apparently the species doesn't grow anywhere else so like a good little tourist I took a photo.

After this we returned to the hotel for a rather full breakfast - a nice surprise given what we were used to - and a shower. After that it was a long 7-hour drive across the desolate Sinai to the Red Sea coast and up to Port Said. We took the tunnel under the canal and then headed on to Cairo where we had dinner in Pizza Hut again. The traffic was crazy, but we survived to make it back to the rooftop bar of the hotel.

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Photos

The burning bush
The burning bush in St Catherine's monastery. Helpfully there were some "No Smoking" signs underneath it in case anyone was tempted to test the wrath of God. No stone tablets though.