Ten hours on the bus brought us from Cairo and Pharaonic Egypt to the bottom of Mt. Sinai and the holy land of Bible stories. The Sinai Peninsula is a massive desert which rises from the sea up to a long chain of rocky barren mountains. The highest point at over 2200m is Mt.Sinai and at the base of the mountain is St. Katherine’s Monastery built in the 6th C on the site of the original Burning Bush where Moses saw God (a cutting still flourishes in one corner).
We climbed the mountain, and although God did not give us any commandments we could understand why God chose this spot to speak to Moses and we marveled at the multitude of colours that could be seen on the desert
mountains. At night we stayed in a “Desert Camp” where we ate in Bedouin style tent and slept in a cozy room built into the hillside, but facing onto an olive garden. It was very peaceful and absolutely quiet after Cairo.
Next day we hired a taxi for the 120 km trip to down from the mountains to Nuweiba, about half way down the coast from the Israeli border on the Gulf of Aquaba, looking across the 13 km
of water to Saudi Arabia. We are staying at the Soft Beach Camp, where the soft, almost powdery sand stretches into the clear water of the Red Sea (it’s really blue). We sleep in a tiny hut made of reeds and spend our waking hours on the beach or in one of the Bedouin tent-style
shady dining areas, where we lounge on low cushions and Nabil brings us drinks. The Red Sea is supposed to be world famous for diving and we have seen some colourful fish at a clump of coral just off our beach, but the water was quite rough so we never ventured out to the main reefs. Still, it has been a delightful rest from the hectic touring and we are now ready to head into Jordan and the next chapter of our adventure.
Ten hours on the bus brought us from Cairo and Pharaonic Egypt to the bottom of Mt. Sinai and the holy land of Bible stories. The Sinai Peninsula is a massive desert which rises from the sea up to a long chain of rocky barren mountains. The highest point at over 2200m is Mt.Sinai and at the base of the mountain is St. Katherine’s Monastery built in the 6th C on the site of the original Burning Bush where Moses saw God (a cutting still flourishes in one corner).
We climbed the mountain, and although God did not give us any commandments we could understand why God chose this spot to speak to Moses and we marveled at the multitude of colours that could be seen on the desert 
mountains. At night we stayed in a “Desert Camp” where we ate in Bedouin style tent and slept in a cozy room built into the hillside, but facing onto an olive garden. It was very peaceful and absolutely quiet after Cairo.
Next day we hired a taxi for the 120 km trip to down from the mountains to Nuweiba, about half way down the coast from the Israeli border on the Gulf of Aquaba, looking across the 13 km 
of water to Saudi Arabia. We are staying at the Soft Beach Camp, where the soft, almost powdery sand stretches into the clear water of the Red Sea (it’s really blue). We sleep in a tiny hut made of reeds and spend our waking hours on the beach or in one of the Bedouin tent-style 
shady dining areas, where we lounge on low cushions and Nabil brings us drinks. The Red Sea is supposed to be world famous for diving and we have seen some colourful fish at a clump of coral just off our beach, but the water was quite rough so we never ventured out to the main reefs. Still, it has been a delightful rest from the hectic touring and we are now ready to head into Jordan and the next chapter of our adventure.
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