Climbing Mt. Sinai

Bomb dog patrol in Dahab the week after three bombs killed some 30 people here.


The ticket office on the way to Mt. Sinai (or Gebel Musa as it is called in Arabic, the mountain of Moses). This was in the middle of the freaking night and as I jumped on this trip before even staying a night in Dahab I was really dead tired.


VERY early morning on the top of Mt. Sinai. As peaceful as this might look, remember that we had walked up a freaking camel path and a thousand steps along with what must have been 10000 other sweaty tourist AND spent a freezing two hours trying to sleep before this.


The deep blue nuances falling over the surrounding mountains almost made worth all the trouble. Well, not really, in fact, but they are nice to look at now! :-D


There was a LOT of people up there, despite the recent bombings. Loads of Russians and quite a lot of them were pretty religious too, lying on the rocks kissing them or singing psalms together. Not really my style. I prefer kissing my girlfriend, hihi. :-)


Some people were contemplating while awaiting the sunrise...


...others preferred sleeping through it. Not that it mattered, crappy as it was hidden behind the clouds.


After the sunrise fiasco the vast stream of people started making their way down the crowds, camels and loud annoying so called "guides" again.


Harr harr harr... Despite no sleep and all the internal grumpiness I managed to put on a half-assed smile anyway.


The morning light over the mountains was still pretty nice though...


Loooooots of people!! I decided to take the 7000 so called "Steps of Repentence" down which killed my knees an regrettably forced me to just lie in the sun and the pool in Dahab over the next few days. But it was definitely much nicer than the darn camel path, if I were to do it again I would have gotten myself a working flash light and walked up them too.


The way down the stairs was a lot emptier of people and hassle and actually offered some quite enjoyable views at times.


A small empty chapel halfway down. Probably there so that the poor bastards who climb up this way can pray there that they make it all the way up. :-P


The monastary of St. Catherine from up above, what was left of the burning bush is supposed to survive inside here.


It looks more impressive from down below. I never went inside because there was simply too much people to be worth it... I had had more than enough of other tourists at this point and couldn't wait to get back to Dahab. :-)