August 28th, 2010

Last night, we just hiked up the St. Catherine Mountain in Sinai. We left our hotel in Dahab at 11pm to start hiking close to 2:30-3:00am. It was pitch black, you can only see the outline of the mountains, but our path was lit by the moonlight above and the starry skies. Hiking up the mountain at that hour was no easy feat, but after much motivation (thanks to Gurur’s phone), sweating, seeing the horizon rising, we made it to the top. The sunrise at about 5:30 am was incredible, definitely worth the hike going up. We had a nice watered down hot chocolate at the top (much needed) and started to head down (the last end of the hike involved 750 stone steps). Luckily for me, I stepped on something wrong and ended up spraining my ankle.

So, now limping, there is no way for me to be able to hike back down for 2 hours, therefore, a camel ride It was! The camel ride by the pyramids was quite an enjoyable experience, especially with the incredible back drop. Going down a fairly steep mountain on a camel on the other hand, the MOST uncomfortable thing I have ever experienced, EVER. I believe now I have some bruises in the inner thigh and the pain of my ankle. Yay!

So after we left the mountain, we headed to Cairo. Our first stop for food, was once again, my new favourite restaurant, McDonalds. Turns out the people that were supposed to meet Gurur and I were now nowhere near Cairo, it will be an adventure finding Gurur’s hotel and somehow make my way to the airport for my flight at 3 am tonight, I know, double yay!

Now I am eating my strawberry sundae, watching some marathon in Brussels on tv and preparing myself for a second night of no sleep. I will somehow manage to carry my almost 20kilo backpack around Berlin with a limp. I hope I make it out of this 7 week trip alive.
Until next time…