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Wednesday, 16 May 2012

From Aswan to Edfu to Luxor


Sunday 13 May 2012  - Edfu – Horrus Temple and on to Luxor. Happy Mothers’ Day.
Day 31 and 128 to go

Our wake up call came at 5.40am today. Paul was the one looking to sleep in so I got up and ready while he stayed put for a while. When we were ready we went for breakfast before heading out for our excursion to the Horus Temple.
Our transport this time was horse and cart. Our guide picked out the better-looking carts and horses for us to take. Some of the poor horses are nothing more than a bag of bones. It is quite sad.
The trip took only 20min and we were faced with our next temple. The Egyptian temples are similarly designed but dedicated to different gods and as such are carved with different inscriptions.
We were shown around the temple and given the story before having our own time again to wander, take photos and video and dodge the Japanese tourists or in Paul’s case photo bomb. This temple had many scrawny and mangy cats wandering around. Again it was sad to see.
We returned to our horse and cart. Paul had brought 2 apples that he fed to our horse. It didn’t take long for her to demolish them. The owner told us she was pregnant and would give birth in the next week. Guess she needed the apples.









We returned to the boat and our room where we relaxed. The boat set sail again at 9am this time on it’s way to Luxor. We stayed in the room for a while downloading pictures and having a drink. Our room was made up with the cabin boy making a monkey out of the towels today. He was very clever.
It was a relaxing ride with the scenery slowly drifting by. We returned to the sundeck to enjoy the warm. We had the Ipod playing and just soaked in the serenity.
At midday we reached the river lock at Esna. At this point many vendors were in boats being powered by an oarsman. They were bagging up garments and throwing them onto the boat deck. Paul thought it was great as he was able to ditch the things back at them. It was becoming a sport. It was a great laugh. How they weren’t squashed by the boats is beyond me.
We weren’t in a hurry to go through the lock so we went down for lunch. Again we had a great feast and ate too much. From our windows we were sitting level with the vendors. We could see them still throwing packages aboard. 






Following lunch we returned to the sundeck. By 2pm we were finally being allowed through the lock. There seemed to be some initial holdup that had to be sorted by the captain. It was very interesting watching how the lock worked and how the water levels were changed.
Once through it was a 3 hour journey down the Nile to our final destination of Luxor. Paul and I returned to the room for a sleep that knocked off a couple of hours. We then returned to the roof to watch the boat dock at Luxor.
There were many more cruise ships here and resort style hotels along the river-bank. When we pulled in we were the 9th boat abreast. With the other Aussies we decided we would get off the boat and go and have a look at Luxor town.
We were met by one of the cooks who had finished his shift and he acted as our guide taking us to a tourist market where we picked up some more papyrus and other souvenirs for a good price. One of the vendors was a real sleaze and kept making funny noises. I think he had turrets. It was very disconcerting.
We then continued on through the food market. It was great wandering through as there was no hassle. The colours were vivid and the smells of spice were in the air. Of course there was also the smell of horse-shit everywhere too.
We continued to follow our guide back to the boat ensuring we weren’t run over by the nutso drivers and cyclists. Just in time for dinner.
Again dinner was delicious and the company excellent. We sat talking to Nick and Sandy for ages. We then retired to our room.
We packed up our bags in readiness for tomorrow. We have a 5am wake-up for our tour to the Valley of the Kings then we will return for a rest before leaving here at 7pm for our flight back to Cairo. Big Day ahead.

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