Tonight we are camped a single day's ride from the Monastery of St. Catherine and in full view of the mountains of Sinai. We rode, Sharif Pasha and I through the most spectacular pass, called the Nugh Hawa, so precipitous and narrow that camels cannot go through it but have to be sent the wider and more level route through Darb-el-Sheik. Sharif Pasha put the question to me: would I prefer the spectacular route or the easier one? And naturally I chose the first. He said, 'It can be done on horseback.' And since we have only two horses, we would have to go alone.