"My knees are killing me" - Moses

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Or so we think that's what Moses may have said upon descending Mt Sinai in his barefeet. We are certainly feeling ours after quite a steep descent from Mount Sinai this evening. We left at 8 this morning to have a look around St Katherine's Monastery and climb Mt Sinai for the sunset.

St Katherine's is a Greek Orthodox church which has thrived since the 6th C ( I think) and was saved from being torched with the explicit agreement and blessing of the Prophet Muhammed and subsequent caliphs when Islam came to Egypt. There is a very valuable and interesting piece of paper in the museum which shows the leave to remain given to St K's and has a drawn hand of the Prophet's at the bottom. Religious tolerance was a hallmark of Islam in the early days, in contrast to the actions of the Crusaders.

As for Mt Sinai, the top of the mountain, I thought, was a bit of an anti-climax after the spectacular 2 hour trek up, but I am sure seeing the sunrise or sunset would be pretty fantastic from that vantage point although there was no sunset for us today as it was too cloudy. Bad luck! Nevertheless it was a nice day out.

Tomorrow, we will be embarking on a 3 day desert trek with a guide, a Bedouiin and 2 camels. We will be going to some fantastic places (they look fantastic on the posters anyway!). HOpe the legs are up to it. Doing a 2080m climb the day before embarking on a 3 day trek was probably not the best of plans but we are running out of time. Our visas run out on the 4th and we need to be legging over the Red Sea to Jordan.

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Photos

Taxi rank, St Katherine
Mandatory camel pic. It would be wrong to not have one in our holiday album of Egypt.

View from the summit of Mt Sinai 2
Not much of a sunset but there were some beautiful colours nevertheless

Comments

[leslie&Paul]

glad you are trekking
Hi, the trip definitely sounds fantastic so far. We are just checking in and glad you are doing a desert trek now instead of the red sea as we just read that a passenger ferry crossing the red sea from Egypt sank with things not looking good for most of the passangers :( so hoping you guys are OK. Things are good here but we are definitely not having as much fun as you are. Cheers

[Kirsty]

Hi guys, Wow - your travelogue is well comprehensive KP! It's great to read! I feel very nostalgic reading it actually having been to so many of those places - days sailing on a felucca and climbing Mt Sinai etc. We climbed Sinai in the dark and waited for the sunrise - it was helluva cold tryin to sleep up there using a 5 pound hired blanket! Sounds like you're havin a great time! Tom and I have just been cruisin round Northland - not sure our tales can match yours though! It was beautiful though - fantastic beaches and stunning scenery. Oh yeah we checked out the Hundertwasser toilets in Kawakawa. I thought the gallery in vienna was one of the best I went to! I really like his stuff - can't remember the price of the posters though! Anyways - hope you guys are keeping safe and having fun. Enjoy Syria and Jordan and for goodness sake don't hang out with any Danes! Esp Danes carrying cartoons! :)

[Thomas Peter Fraser]

Baked beans
Howdy KP and Simpson I'm glad to hear that you dudes are having a good time. I remember going up Mt Sinai too. I sat at the top after running up in world record time and had to hire a blanket because it was so cold. I crouched next to a rock with the blanket over me and proceeded to get walked over by a chick who mistook me for a large boulder!!! As Jones mentioned we have just got back from Northland. It was really stunning - heaps of cool beaches and a multitude of stuff to do. Haven't heard about your container yet. Will of course pretend I don't know anything about it when they do contact me. Hope you're having a great time in Jordan. Ciao Tom