12th Nov - Valley of the Kings

Having arrived in Luxor the previous eve, we received a wake-up call at 6am & by 7am we were heading to the Valley of the Kings. The valley itself is surrounded by hills of dirt & rocks, threatening to landslide any minute. It was dry & very hot - at least 37 degrees.
There are 72 known tombs in the VOKs, & our pass enabled us to visit only 3 of them. About 12 tombs are open for tourism & each day/week several are closed for cleaning &/or renovations. The ones we visited, as recommended by Big Mo, were King Ramses IV, & two others whose names I can't remember. Compared to temples we’d visited to date, these tombs maintained an astonishing amount of detail. The colours were still quite vivid, & the drawings & hieroglyphics relatively unscathed. This was definitely one of the highlights of the visit so far.
King Tutankhamen’s tomb was discovered here in 1912 by a couple of foreigners. It was discovered underneath one of the Ramses tombs. There was an extra charge of 100EP to view his tomb, which I declined. Most of his tomb possessions, excluding his mummy & coffin, are in the Egyptian Museum anyway, so seemingly there’s not much to see.

Bring on the Belly Dancing!

Our last night on the cruiser was belly dancing night, & when I got upstairs at 9pm, there was a fully-fledged belly dancer strutting her stuff (consisting mostly of extremely large breasts) on stage. There was also a young boy, perhaps 13 y.o. who did this twirling dance that went on for about 20 mins - I was incredibly surprised (& impressed) he didn’t spin out & fall over. But when the 3rd act came on - a bit of a dodgy magician - I decided it was time for bed.

A Free Day on Board

Ahhhh…time to relax & unwind after a fast-paced trip. After the Edfu Temple visit, it was back to the cruiser for breakfast, then a full free day. I took the chance to wash all my smalls & put some of my bigs in for washing. It was also a great chance to catch up on some writing, which was quite a way behind. In the afternoon, some of us in the group were up on the sundeck chilling out & getting in to some very in-depth conversations about people that scam the welfare system & racial/religious discrimination. David & I had a great talk on what would be needed to transform the bigotry within the human species. He believed it would come perhaps when we are visited from ET’s - quite possible really!

11th Nov - Edfu Temple

The boat had docked at Edfu & we were up bright & early & headed off to Edfu Temple. On the way, we drove by lots of horse & carts pulling tourists fresh off their cruisers up to the temple. The condition of the majority of horses was atrocious, & the group I was with were amazed that tourists even chose to buy rides knowing the horse were suffering.
The temple was only a 10-min drive away from the dock & we arrived amidst a flock of over-zealous tourists all scrambling to get the best viewing places on their tour. This was the only temple that depicted through drawings the king laying & blessing the foundation stones. This was also the first temple on our tour that retained some of its original colouring, though it was faded & some had been damaged either through fire or restoration. On the sacrificial slab at the core of the temple, there had been laid a replica of one of the original boats that used to be placed there. Big Mo explained the primary drawings then left us to wander about for 30-mins on our own for a look-see.

Eve Visit to Kom Ombu Temple

We returned to the cruiser at about 3:30pm, had lunch, then a chance to relax on the sundeck. At 6pm, we met in the lobby for a tour to the Kom Ombu Temple, the smallest temple on our tour. The cruise parked right in front of the temple, alongside another 20 or 30 other cruisers double-parked at the tourist stop. There were thousands of tourists following their respective guides all over the temple grounds as they explained the meaning & interpretation. The temple was exquisite lit up in the early evening darkness. In front of the temple there is a Nile-o-meter used to measure the height of the Nile water in times before the High Dam was erected (no longer required).
After the visit, a couple of us strolled down to the riverside markets. The guys there were pretty full-on with their selling tactics, one even going as far as to blocking my exit to his stall. I calmly told him how intimidating that was & that he should immediately step away - he did. I did, however, buy a pair of sandals (25EP) & a scarf that I intended to use as a wrap-around on the cruiser (20EP). I was quite happy with my purchases. Kirsten had her blonde hair down that eve & nearly every man made a comment about offering to buy her or just wanting her. It got a bit too much in the end really.

The Great Abu Simbel Temple

It was stinking hot when we landed at the airport in Abu Simbel. Kirsten had lent me a black scarf so I could wear a singlet top underneath & still keep the perverts at bay. Not that they really perved at me cause they definitely prefer blondes over here - thank goodness! The bus ride to the temple didn’t take too long, & after a quick toilet stop, we entered the temple ground gates.
We had to walk about 500m to the entrance of the temple of King Ramses II. This temple & the smaller one dedicated to his main wife, Nefertari, were both moved to a higher level in the 1960's to prevent them from erosion due to flooding. What a massive effort that would have been.

Ramses temple was enormous with many more rooms built into it. It really told an incredible story through the carvings & hieroglyphics which were, literally, all over the temple walls & ceiling & dedicated to various Gods - Isis, Horus, Ibis, etc. The very back room had 4 statues in there, one of which was Ramses. Twice a year at sunrise, the sunlight pierces through the entrance to the very back of the temple into this room & for 18 minutes shines on the statue of Ramses. The last time this happened, the Tourist & Antiquities Police counted over 12,000 tourists on the day coming to observe this phenomenon. Unfortunately, you weren’t permitted to take photos inside either temple, but we were allowed to take photos from the entrance looking in. Of course, the guards wanted a small fee for this & I, of course, completely ignored their request.
Nefertari's temple was built adjacent to Ramses temple, looking out to Lake Nasser. It was much smaller with fewer rooms. This was dedicated to Hathor, the Goddess of love & music, offering many gifts to the Goddess. Neither temple had much colour left, just a few dibs & dabs here & there, generally in areas shielded from the elements.
After an hour of wandering on my own through the two temples, I made my way through the scorching heat back to the café for a Sprite. I completely forgot to visit the visitor’s centre which outlines the process of relocation of the temples - silly me.

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!