One of the excursions we did while in Dahab, on the southeast coast of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt was to watch the sunrise from the summit of a mountain top. For our sunrise, we booked a trip to Mt. Sinai. Actually, the mountain we hiked up was in fact Mt. St. Catherine, but Mt Sinai has a better ring to it. Sure, that sounds good, after all, at 7500ft, it’s the highest peak in the Middle East, but the adventure didn’t come in enjoying the sun break across the horizon and over the mountains to the east at 6:30am, it was in having our van pick us up at 11pm the night before. That’s right. To watch the sunrise, we’d have to drive and hike all night to get there.

I don’t know why, but I was surprised when I heard that our trip would be delayed until after the end of the World Cup match that was running long. I don’t know who was playing (and we we’re even watching it), but it must have been an important game to have a majority of our tour – and more importantly, our driver – decide that the game was more entertaining and worth sticking around for. Anyways, after the game was over we piled into our minivan to begin the two hour drive through the desert in an ink black night. Our first destination? The Monastery of St. Catherine.


Like every other trip we’d been on in a minivan, there were too many people, not enough air flow and a driver who refused to turn on the air conditioner to cool us off. You see, though it was midnight the temperature still hovered around 34*/95*, not the conditions to be stuffed in a tin can for an extended period of time. After an hour, the van was gaining altitude and the air swirling around our heads in the van began to cool. After a few hours and only one security checkpoint, we were dropped off in the parking lot of the Monastery of St. Catherine where we were met by our guide. The next leg of our sunrise had begun. He explained that he would lead us up the trail for the next three hours and that there would be the occasional rest stop along the way. The initial climb wasn’t bad and the path was nice and wide. But we soon found out why. “Camel sir?” “The mountain is difficult, ride my camel”. “You want camel? She is good camel! You want camel?”


The first kilometer is swarming with camels and men who want to rent you these camels so you don’t have to climb the mountain! For $15US, you can hop on board and the luxury of a camel is yours as you’re whisked up the mountainside. For us? . . . no thanks. The hike is part of why we were here. But being persistent – and numerous – we found that our most used words of the night were “No thank you”. The path is around six feet wide and we not only shared this with camels going up and the fellow participants in our predawn pilgrimage, but you have to keep an eye out for the camels coming down as well. It is pitch black and the only light is emanating from the flashlights of the walkers, so there isn’t much time to move when a camel comes your way! All the while, you’re looking down watching for not only irregular steps, but to avoid the camel dung as well! After three hours and several stops along the way, we reached the almost top.


Yep . . . the almost top. This is where the camel path stops. There was still the final ascension of 700+ steps. It was around 5am and after a break and a candy bar, we were on our way up the final portion of the climb. By now, the dawn was beginning to break and we could see our fellow hikers around us – and there were a lot . . . we definetly weren’t alone this time. We finally reached the peak, or at near the top on the east side where there was a wonderful place to sit, stretch out and await the sun. While Christine sat and rested, I continued to the summit to get some photos and check out both the Mosque and Greek Orthodox Chapel of the Holy Trinity. Neither were open to go inside, but they were cool to see and know that I got to stand amongst them at what seemed to be the top of the world. I had heard that somewhere there was a cave where Moses stayed for his time on the mountain top, but I couldn’t find it. I guess, truth be told, I didn’t really look that hard for it though.


After 10-15minutes wandering around the summit taking photos, I went back down to Christine and with smiles on our faces, we welcomed a new day as the sun crept up and piercing the morning horizon, quietly and warmly began its’ ascension into the clear morning sky.






As amazing as the hike was and as amazing as witnessing the sunrise was, the truly amazing thing was, as soon as the sun had risen, most of the people who had taken so long to climb the mountain, were quick to grab their packs, get in line and start back down the mountain. It reminded me of disembarking a plane when everyone jumps into the isle only to stand there and wait. We earned our place at the top of a mountain, and didn’t want to leave just yet, so while the others started back down, we hung out – taking pictures, talking and enjoying the view. We’d rather have a quiet walk back down and not have to be stuck in a two hour line as everyone left the summit at the same time.


We had spent the night hiking up with Jihad and Demelza, and after meeting up with them again after the sunrise, we all started our hike back down – no crowds and no problem. It was so peaceful and we were able to stop along the way and take photos and enjoy the new world around us (since it was dark when we went up, we hadn’t seen the surroundings yet).






We reached St Catherine’s Monastery by 8am, and spent an hour or so walking through its grounds, buildings and . . . hoards of people. I’m not much of a religious scholar so I don’t know all the specifics, but this is an extremely and religiously significant location. As one of the oldest Christian monasteries in the world, it is also a location that Christianity, Islam and Judaism hold sacred. At the foot of Mt. Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God, it also contains within its walls the burning bush that Moses is said to have seen as well. It had originally begun as the “Chapel of the Burning Bush” in the fourth century, and over the subsequent centuries, it was built up, modified and improved to the impressive set of buildings today.


The monastery’s actual name is the Monastery of the Transfiguration, but it later became associated with St. Catherine of Alexandria, a 3rd-century martyr whose head and hand were brought here for safe keeping in the 10th century.


Here is a website with further info if you’re interested: Click Here


The Burning Bush, The Basilica of the Transfiguration, the bell tower and the gardens made for a wonderful way to spend the morning. Soon, the crowds became too much to take and we made our way outside and back towards the awaiting minibus. We hadn’t seen our guide since around 5am, but found or correct van and were soon heading back to Dahab.


So by now, we’d been up for over twenty-four hours and were drained – both physically and emotionally – and wanted a tranquil ride back to town. Our driver would have none of this. By now, temperature was in the 90′s again, but we’d given up any hope of him running the air conditioner. He had another idea instead. Maybe he was going for a new record, or maybe he was late for breakfast, but in all our travels through Asia and all our crazy drivers in all the various buses and minivans that had us believe those particular moments would be our last ones alive – this current driver was on a mission to prove that he could do it better and he was either more insane or less interested in our safety.


Twelve of us were jammed into this Toyota minivan and our driver was hurtling us down the black ribbon of desert highway in speed that we would later learn surpassed 180km/hr – over 112mph!! Of course, without the AC running, all the windows were open and it sounded like a hurricane having sex with a tornado as the wind whipped into the windows and beat our heads and eardrums into a frenzy. No seatbelts? No problem! Leaving the roadway at those speeds, a seat belt wouldn’t matter anyways. I felt bad for the couple in the front seat.


Crammed into the front seats, she would look over at the speedometer then bury her head into her boyfriends shoulder. Dangerous passing, riding the shoulder, forcing other cars off the road – it made for an interesting time. Being in the third row back, we couldn’t smack the driver in the back of the head, and the wind was too loud to yell at him, so some dozed while the rest of us sat in disbelief, awaiting our final moments.


Once he had left the highway and tried to continue his driving pattern on slower surface streets, I yelled at him to slow down and other joined in support, but it didn’t yield much. I couldn’t stand it and when he tried to pass a car on a town street with a vehicle coming the other way (while going two/three times the speed limit) it sounds lame now, but at the time I yelled out that he was a stupid man. Maybe not the most eloquent, but I couldn’t keep quiet, and the chorus of others joining in let me know I wasn’t being just a grumpy old man!


Back at the guest house, as soon as everyone was out of the van, he took off and we never saw him again – he was probably eager to pickup his first place trophy for driving a 2.5 hour stretch of road in 60 minutes!!

Good riddance to him.


Back at the guesthouse, we went for breakfast, good conversations and a good laugh to release the nervousness.