10th Nov - Journey to Abu Simbel

We'd been warned previously that the flight to Abu Simbel might require that we get a wake up call at 3am. Thankfully this wasn’t the case as the flight was scheduled for 10:30am. After breakfast, I was feeling quite off colour - feeling a build-up to exploding, possibly out of both sides. So I took it fairly easy. And when we got to Aswan airport & the flight was delayed by 30 mins, it gave me ample opportunity to pay a lengthy visit to the local facilities. Which I did & was even happy to pay 1EP to do.
After a good bowel cleansing, & drinking plenty of water, I felt quite a lot better & was ready to battle the 40 degree heat in Abu Simbel. (Not sure how people cope in the off-season where temperatures can get up to 50 degrees or more here). This was an optional trip on the tour & there were a couple of people who chose not to go. But I’d been told by friends that this was a must-see trip, so it was something I was determined to do.
The Air Memphis plane seemed to date back to the 1960s, its condition reflecting that assumption. There were only a few seats left when I boarded the aircraft - right up the back in a windowless window seat, located next to the engine at the back of the plane. One thing I was extremely relieved of was that my seatbelt worked, cause at the point I sat down, I wasn’t entirely sure I was going to survive the trip. The steward sat in a fold-up chair between the 2 toilets at the back of the plane. I’m sure I saw him praying during the 30-min flight. Cause we could see out the plane from the back row of seats, we thought we’d hit a really rough patch of turbulence when in fact we’d landed. Got there safely!