This morning Grant, Paulzi and Dad went off at 7:30am to fly to Abu Simbel.

Rox and I relished a little lie in and then went and had a very leisurely breakfast. The pastries were particularly yummy, so we had a few….oink, oink!

We decided to take a walk along the wharf, to try to rid ourselves of the pastry guilt. We found the internet café someone had mentioned to us and logged on for a little while. We strolled around for a bit and then went back to our boat and up to the pool deck.

We had a lovely lazy morning, watching life on the Nile.  We also spent some time chatting with one of our tour-mates, Jose, who lives in New York. A really nice chap.

We had lunch and then the others arrived back. Seems like Abu Simbel was absolutely wonderful.

This afternoon our boat set off for Kom Ombo. It is so lovely to sit on the pool deck as we sail along the Nile, sipping on a delicious cocktail called “Egyptian Mist”.

We also sampled the local brew and found it to be very good.  Sakara was my beverage of choice.

What I loved about the cruise is that there is always something to see on the banks.  People working on their plots, donkeys or camels grazing, quaint little homes.  All along the way there was lovely green scenery with the desert a little further back.

When we docked at Kom Ombo we walked the short distance to the temple.

All the temples had some sort of market nearby

This temple has the most beautiful frieze on one of the walls. By the time we got there it was dusk and the frieze was lit up, it looked really beautiful.

It was very atmospheric in the temple in the twilight.

After supper it was time for the Galabea Party. We had bought galabeas during the day at the little shop on board the boat. Those of us who wanted to, gathered in the lounge for the party. The staff on board the boat played traditional instruments and danced in a conga, hauling passengers up to join them, soon everyone was joining in. Wael and the other tour guide organised various games. It was a lot of fun.

In front is Wael, our tour director

Tonight as we sleep we will be sailing to Edfu. 

Wake up time was 2am this morning for our flight to Aswan, bags had to be out at 2:15am and we met in the foyer at 3am after a quick hot chocolate in the Terrace restaurant. We were given breakfast boxes to take with us.

We had such a laugh at Walter this morning. Apparently he had a shower and then wrapped his towel around him and took his suitcase out at 2:15am and the door shut behind him!! He couldn’t get back into his room, so had to catch the lift down to reception to get another key, clothed only in a towel! Can you imagine?! Hee, hee…..

The flight was quick, just over an hour. On arrival in Aswan we were immediately driven to the High Dam. Very impressive. The expanse of water is just HUGE.

We then continued to Philae Temple. We were taken to the island on which Philae Temple stands by motor boat. It was a lovely boat ride there and back. A local chap brought some of their locally made jewellery with and we had the opportunity to buy some without being hassled by vendors. In retrospect I should have bought more from him as we didn’t have many opportunities to buy this type of jewellery.

I fell a little in love with Philae Temple, the setting is SO beautiful, very much what I imagine Greece to be like. Charming oleander bushes, rocks and water and of course the beautiful, ancient temple watching over it all. Philae temple was in fact moved from it’s original site on Philae island to the nearby Agilika island in the 1960s, because of perpetual flooding caused by the building of the dam. Imagine the logistics of moving an ancient temple?!

We then drove to a perfumery. We were totally taken in by the sales speel and ended up buying rather more than we had anticipated. Typical tourist suckers, that’s us!

Finally we made it to the boat in time for lunch. There were numerous cruise boats berthed along the river. Our boat, the MS Sapphire, is berthed between two others.

The food is really good on the boat, more local flavour, which is nice. We’re sitting at a table with 3 Canadians from our tour, and will keep this table for the remainder of the cruise.

Our cabin is very nice. A room with a double bed, side tables, 2 chairs, a large dressing table and a chest for our suit cases. There’s a big built-in cupboard too. The bathroom is small with a loo, shower and basin.

We’re on the 3rd floor and above us is the pool deck. The pool deck is really lovely with lots of loungers under canvas as well as tables and chairs around the bar area.

The Nile is gorgeous, very wide, with a narrow strip of green along the banks and then the desert takes over. Aswan is much cleaner than Cairo and far more peaceful too.

This afternoon we were taken on a felucca as far as the Botanical Gardens and Aga Khan’s mausoleum. We then transferred to a motor-boat for the return trip to our boat. It took about 1 ½ hours in total. It was very relaxing and a wonderful opportunity to see life along the Nile up close.

This evening after supper there were performances by a belly dancer and a whirling dervish in the lounge. Shame, young and lovely the belly dancer was not, but she got a few of the girls up and taught them some moves which was fun to watch! The whirling dervish was something to see though.

We had a fantastic nights sleep and were up bright and early at 06:15. We made it down to breakfast at 7am. The buffet style breakfast was superb. Fruit salads, yoghurts, cereals, porridges, quiche, all manner of eggs, bacon, sausages, beans, tomatoes, breads, croissants, cold meats, cheeses, pastries, pan-cakes, chocolate fountain….. you name it, it was there! I tried Hibiscus juice for the first time, it was gorgeous.

We eventually managed to tear ourselves away from the spread to meet our tour director, Wael,  in the lobby at 8am. We were immediately whisked off to a conference room for a tour briefing. They briefly ran through our itinerary and detailed which optionals were on offer. We booked and paid for our optionals and also provided details of our flights home, so that our transfers could be arranged for us.

We left the hotel at 9am and headed straight to Giza to see the pyramids.

We started out at the Great Pyramid – awesome!

We then went to an area where we could go on camel rides. Paula and I decided to be extremely brave (well that was me, Paula thought it was a piece of cake) and go on a camel ride.

Note to self: being short and stout is obviously not conducive to climbing onto the back of a camel. Once I had got over the getting-on part, I thoroughly enjoyed the 15 minute ride. It was SO special to be wandering around in the desert, on a camel, with the pyramids as back-drop and to share this experience with Paula was lovely. Having got off the camel (which was a lot easier than getting on, the secret is to lean back, so that you don't get pitched over the head of the beast) we went to the viewing deck and took some photos.

We then drove to the second pyramid, where those who wanted to could go inside. Being the claustrophobic sort, I decided against this, but Dad, Rox and Paula went in, while Grant and I wandered around outside, taking photos, fighting off the vendors and drinking in the atmosphere. Dad said the walk inside was quite a strain on the thighs… he ended up being horribly stiff for a couple of days, so I was VERY glad I hadn’t attempted it.

Then it was off to the sphinx. Very impressive and yet another great photo opportunity.

We were taken to a fast food outlet which specialises in falafel and shwarmas to buy a take-away lunch to eat on the bus. I thoroughly enjoyed my first falafel.

We then drove the approx 45 mins back to the Egyptian museum. There is SO much to see, it’s quite mind-boggling. Wael gave us a guided tour of some of the exhibits and we were then left to wander around on our own and to pay the extra fee to enter the Royal Mummy room if we wanted to. The girls and I decided to go into the Mummy Room and I was glad we did, I got a bit spooked by the mummies, but it was quite amazing to see them literally in the flesh. We also went to see Tutankhamen’s jewellery etc and that was really amazing.

It was a relief to get back to our hotel for a nice soak in the bath after a very big day!

We went back to the Sherlock Holmes pub for Happy Hour and supper with Walter. Cheers!

Time to go!! We left home at 1pm and got to the airport uneventfully. Our flight on British Airways to Jo’burg was quite pleasant (and coming from me that’s saying something!)

Being Good Friday, Jo-burg airport was very quiet. We tried to check our luggage in immediately, but were told to come back later. So we went and had a drink at the Keg. On our way back to the check-in counter the girls and I got distracted by some people who were welcoming "who knows who" with vuvuzelas and toyi-toying, for some unknown reason I came over all Proudly South African and got very teary eyed…… I know, it was very weird because I never cry.

We had to queue for ages at the check-in counter and watched in disbelief as a large group of Egyptians checked in multiple enormous suit-cases, huge bags and even a large printer! Talk about excess baggage! I was beginning to doubt that the plane would be ABLE to take off...

We then had a mini-drama when Rox’s boarding pass got lost (now it was Rox’s turn to get all teary eyed!), but Grant sorted out a duplicate and we were finally able to go into the duty free area and have some supper. We had a good meal and then it was time to board and off we went.

I hadn’t been comfortable about flying Egyptair (OK I admit, I'm not comfortable about flying. Period), but it was better than expected. The plane was a little tired looking and the loos weren’t the best, but I was soon to discover that that was a typical Egyptian scenario... quite the norm.

We got presented with a 2nd supper at 11:30pm – just as I had dozed off, I refused it, but ended up tucking in to Paula’s salad, simply because it was there.

Finally we tried, and on the whole failed, to fall asleep. Breakfast was presented to us at 4 am – you’ve got to be kidding me!! And an hour and a half later we landed in Cairo.

I immediately had my first encounter with the scary Egyptian toilet. It seems that flushing is not a big thing in Egypt……

We had no trouble finding the Trafalgar rep, he was standing near to the luggage carousel. After rounding up some other Trafalgar people who had arrived at more or less the same time we set off for our hotels.

Oh my soul, the driving and traffic were eye-opening, or rather eye-shutting, stuff!! 3 lane highways with no lines painted and a very loose regard for the rules of the road.

Cairo is a strangely fascinating place. Pretty it is not, but there is something about it. The buildings are in the main a uniform greyish colour. It seems quite normal to live in an unfinished building and even to keep a couple of goats in the middle of the city. Every family seems to have a satellite dish attached to their building, even if they are living in complete squalor. Not the kind of place you’d want to take your annual holiday, but I’m very glad I’ve seen it.

We arrived at our hotel and as our room was not yet ready, found a spot in the lounge and prepared to wait.
 The girls managed to snooze and I had a lovely chat with a fellow tour-mate. His name’s Walter, and he’s also from KZN. He is an Austrian who has lived in South Africa for the last 40 years or so, although you wouldn’t say so, he still has a very broad accent. He’s been on many Trafalgar tours and is extremely well-travelled and interesting to talk to.

The guys eventually decided to take a walk and the girls finally woke up. We watched, fascinated, as nearly every man in the lounge ordered a sheesha pipe at about 10am. We’ve already noticed that smoking is a much loved past-time in Egypt.

When we finally got into our rooms we discovered that we have a lovely view over the Nile. And we spent quite some time watching the traffic in the roads outside the hotel.

The Egyptian Museum is just opposite our hotel, but I wouldn’t want to have to cross those roads to get there!

After a much-needed shower (nice Crabtree & Evelyn bath goodies!) we set off to the shopping centre which is just over the road (a very little road, thankfully) It’s quite a strange centre, made up largely of shoe shops! Suits Rox down to the ground ;-)

We decided to have lunch a a Lebanese restaurant. As we have never encountered Lebanese cuisine before, we had no idea what we were doing! We were presented with a basket of various delicious breads – slightly sweet, puffed up ones (very delish), a type of roti and then another type of crispy roti. We had no trouble working out what to do with those – we ate them in about 5 seconds flat. But then the waiter arrived with a bowl of whole veggies – a green pepper, a carrot, a large chilli, a whole cucumber, a tomato and a lemon! What to do? I don’t know whether it was sleep deprivation or culture shock, or what, but we collapsed in fits of giggles as we stared at the veggies… the waiter looked quite worried about us. Grant eventually ate the chilli ;-)

Grant, Dad and I had various kinds of shish kebab. They came on large charcoal burners with roasted veg, a mound of savoury rice, a roti-type bread and another sort of pizza bread covered in spicy tomato paste and pickled red onion. It was VERY good. We had another silly, giggly moment when Grant announced in all seriousness that he thinks the word “Shish” in “Shish Kebab” comes from the Egyptian word “shisa” which means “hot” – we had to point out to him that “Shisa” is in fact the ZULU word that means “hot”…… funny man!!! The girls opted for Italian food. Rox also had something called a “Moon Cocktail” It was 7-up with a mint syrup and it tasted just like Panado!

We found a tiny little shop near the hotel selling cheap bottled water. Quite important to find a cheap supply as we have been told to even brush our teeth with bottled water.

And then it was back to the hotel for a desperately needed nap. After which we made our way to the Sherlock Holmes Pub in the hotel for happy hour. The girls and I were delighted to discover that they serve good cocktails and as they were 2 for the price of one, we had an exceedingly good time. We only remembered afterwards that we weren’t supposed to be having ice in our drinks! Oops! Fortunately we suffered no ill-effects at all.

We persuaded the manager of the pub to put the Sharks game on, so we got to watch the rugby even though we were so far from home. And our boys won! It almost made me teary-eyed again ;-)