Mount Sinai

As I wrote in our last post, we were going to Mount Sinai the following day. It seems like a while ago now that we were there, but here some of the pictures.

First we went to St. Katherine's Monastery, and then we started to climb. The hike to the top took over 2 hours, partly because we started at noon, and it was really hot making the climb to the top. Of course, Tara and I did not bring enough water with us, so it was a struggle. There were a couple of 'shops' on the way up, where we were able to pick up some much needed over priced water. Once we reached Elijah's Basin, a plateau close to the top where many people who climb to see the sunrise sleep for the night, we climbed the 750 steps to the summit. The views were amazing from the top, and because we climbed during the day instead of the morning when most people do, we were able to spend 2 hours just sitting at the top, having lunch with the people we were with. All of us agreed it was worth battling the heat just to enjoy that time alone at the top. We went down on other trail, called the Steps of Repentance, made up of 3000 steps. The steps weren't perfect of course, but it was a much faster easier trip on the way down.