Day 5

I got a wake up call at 1:00 a.m. and I had 30 minutes to get ready for the hike up Mt. Sinai. There were about 30 of us in the group who went. We actually did not get to start the hike until 2:30. We got to the base of Mt. Sinai and started our walk up the rocky path. We all got separated, some walked faster than others, some went by camel. It was dark. Luckily, we had flash lights because it was pitch black. I wish I could have been able to take a picture of the sky. I don't think I've ever seen that many stars. The sky was so clear. Well, after 30 minutes, I was tired and sweating already. I had to keep going. Finally, after about 1 hour and 15 minutes, I just really couldn't go any further. One other lady and I stopped where the camels were parked. We sat for 30 minutes but then we started to get cold so we walked up about another 45 minutes. By this time, it was around 5:30 a.m. We found a place where we could see the sunrise and just waited there. It was going to take at least another hour to get all the way to the top. I couldn't make it anymore but I am glad to say that I tried and got up about 2/3 of the way. We started to walk back down at 6:00 and arrived at the base at 7:30 a.m. I have never hiked for such a long period in my life and in 20 - 30 degree weather. It was definitely an experience I will never forget, watching the sunrise from Mt. Sinai. Anyway, to make a longer story short, the rest of our group did not make it back down the mountain as quick and 4 people even got lost for a while. We missed going to St. Catherine's Monastery which is right at the base of Mt. Sinai. We were supposed to go inside and see the actual Burning Bush. They say that it is the same one that Moses saw. I did walk by it on my way down from the mountain but it was too bad that we didn't get to see it up close. We had to leave because we had to catch a ferry to go to Jordan. Our ferry was supposed to leave at 2:00 p.m. We actually did not leave until 7:00 p.m. We arrived in Jordan and had to drive 2 hours to Petra to our hotel. We ate dinner around 11:30 p.m. Tomorrow, we will tour Petra and see Mt. Nebo and then drive to Amman in the afternoon and spend the night there.