sunrise on mt. sinai (the gasp)

we left our hostel in dahab at around 11:30pm and arrived at mt. sinai at about 1:30am. the purpose of our trip? like 2 or 3 hundred others that night, we wanted to watch the sun rouse from its slumber behind the mountainous horizon. to do that, we needed to wind our way up the long switchbacks and steep stairs carved into the rock (apparently by a monk). the last half hour of the hike - tired, hungry and sapped of energy - was pretty tough. i had to keep reminding myself of the reward at the top. by 4am we had made it to the peak (elevation = 2285m) and plunked ourselves down in prime sunrise viewing territory. it was cold at the top and we only brought 1 sleeping bag for the both of us, so we spooned up under the bag and caught a bit of shut-eye. in 1 hour the sky turned from brilliant to brilliant (the stars at 4am and the orange horizon at 5am). unsure of the exact time of sunrise, we huddled up to keep warm. then, at about 5:50am it came....the gasp of the masses. we didn't see the sun first poke its orange/red head up from behind the mountains, but we knew it had....something special had happened and the people gasped in amazement. it truly was a beautiful spectacle.
the sunrise is such a great reminder of ALL things new. thank God for every new day!