Sojourns in Antiquity: Day 28

WEDNESDAY 6th JANUARY.

Synopsis of day: More temples and more cruising.

Highlight of the day: The leisurely pace we take cruising down the Nile. I also enjoyed the temple at Edfu more than I had expected I would.

Our boat, the Florence.

Lowlight of the day: A horse ride. Me. Near horses. Also the crowds of people at the sites. Far worse than Israel, and mostly due to the fact that the boats all seem to dock and tour at the same time. Favourite quote/word: We were talking about King Abdullah of Jordan to our guide Amro, and he was looking a little clueless (he usually does if we ask him questions). But after a minute, he stopped and started laughing and exclaimed “Oh, Abdull-ARH!!” whereas we were like “Yes, King Ab-DUL-lah”. Communicating has been more complicated in Egypt.

Favourite photo:

Sunset at Kom Ombo.

Cultural-shock moment: A tiny child trying to sell souvenirs at Kom Ombo at sunset. He looked so little and so tired.

Favourite purchase: Water. We're not spending much at the moment because we're concerned about our weight restrictions on luggage for our flight from Aswan to Cairo.

The thing I lost today: Kerri for a few moments at Edfu. If you could imagine how many hundreds of other people were there and the layout of the place, you'd understand that this was a concern at the time!

Random act of crazy: Our housekeeping staff seem to be trying to outdo themselves with original towel designs and sheet making. Today we were greeted with an almost full size human figure draped with a quilt and Kerri's glasses sitting on a chair in front of my bed.

Something I want to remember: The peacefulness of sailing down the Nile, and the magnitude of these temples pretty well works for me.

Number of times I have wanted to strangle Arthur: New levels.

Last evening Arthur reached a new level by contacting our agent and complaining on everyone's behalf about the trip. He also said that he had told the agent that there were Egyptologists on the tour and the calibre of the guiding was not good enough. I was horrified to be misrepresented, and that he had gone far beyond the boundaries of his own authority to talk for us, even more so when it was so inaccurate.
This morning we woke up and had travelled a little further down the Nile. We had arrived in Edfu and took a horse-drawn carriage ride to the temple. That was a rather uncomfortable experience of course. The temple itself was the crowded place that we have seen to date I think. It is also the most preserved temple in Egypt and looked so impressive because it was enormous. It had been encased to an extent by mud bricks and they looked kind of cool too.

See the mud bricks?

Nifty reliefs.

Dedicated to Horus, hence the falcon.

We were able to go back to the cruiser and then set sail again. More nanna naps beckoned and we also enjoyed some time on the deck. Towards sunset we arrived at Kom Ombo which was another temple and almost equally busy.