We climbed Mount Sinai at night, our torches illuminating just a few metres around us and the vastness of the surrounding landscape shrouded in darkness. Just after six in the morning the sun started to rise allowing us to see the Beauty of the area. “Beauty,” of course, is this weeks PhotoFriday theme.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Awful!” I’m entry number 91.

Religion seems to be woven into the daily life of Tibetans in a way that seems alien to most Westerners, which made it a mine of possibilities for this weeks PhotoFriday theme.

In the end I settled on this image from Tashilumpo Monastery, one of my favourites from that trip.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “The Great Outdoors.” I’m entry 160.

Like many people, I take the vast majority of my pictures outside. Yet, how do you get across the greatness of outdoors? I wanted the picture to show the scale and grandeur, the exhilaration of being in the middle of nowhere. It was a tall order so instead I picked this image which was taken on the walk from Sermano to Corte in Corsica.

I found this weeks PhotoFriday theme, “Movement,” much easier than some of the recent ones. As soon as I saw the title I knew that I had to use this image of a speeding rally car that I took last year in Corsica.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Tools.” I’m entry 150.

Initially I thought that I was going to be staying in Fiesole for the entire trip. The description of the villa and some of the directions mentioned it explicitly so before flying out I made some effort to read up on the place. It turns out that it’s actually older than the now much larger city of Florence (Firenze). As such it has its own respectable church and some fairly extensive Etruscan ruins.

This chap is a professional camel handler that led my animal, dancing, singing and laughing all the way through Wadi Rum in Jordan. This weeks PhotoFriday theme being “Professional” I thought this image was appropriate.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “My Little Secret.” I’m entry number 185.

My Little Secret is this, the best coffee shop in Reykjavik, Iceland — it was always half-empty even though they had great drinks and even better cakes.

That’s also this weeks PhotoFriday theme. I found it a tricky subject¹ and I’m not entirely happy with this pictures connection to the topic, but I do think I captured the lighting and the atmosphere of the cafe well.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Electricity.” I’m entry number 225.

This weeks PhotoFriday theme is “Cold.” Here is my entry. Having spent nearly ten months working and living in Norway I had a number of good options here, but I think this image of Tromsø is a good indication of the cold, dark winters they get 400km north of the Arctic Circle. This picture was taken at about 3pm.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Fragile.” I’m entry number 222.

This young tea leaf looks pretty fragile and hence makes a good candidate for this weeks PhotoFriday challenge. I took this picture in Sri Lanka.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Far From Home.” I’m entry number 143.

[](http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephendarlington/10817487986/ ““No Camels & Horses” sign, Dahab, Egypt by stephendarlington, on Flickr”)

When you first step foot abroad everything seems fascinating and new. After a while you manage to acclimatise to most of the sights, sounds and smells, yet occasionally something still makes you feel “Far from home.” (Which is this weeks PhotoFriday theme.) In this case, a seemingly normal sign on a beach in Egypt stands out when you note that camels are banned from enjoying the surf.