Friday 3 August 2012

Life in deNILE

My next adventure in Egypt was on a felluca on the Nile. The boat was to be home for the next couple of days.




Sailing down the Nile in July is very relaxing ..... when there is a breeze. To keep things cool we jumped over the edge into the very cold water. Despite what my sisters have suggested, I don't think I caught any parasites from the water and am not in deNILE about this (thanks Kathryn for this pun, we used it constantly on the boat).

A night was spent on the west bank in the home of a Nubian lady and her daughters.


We were very grateful for the water fan thingy which helped us survive the near 50 degree heat.



After a welcome shower and farewells we headed back to the felluca. It was loads of fun but we did nearly pass out in the afternoon heat when the winds stopped .... so more time was spent in the water than on the boat.
Luckily for my buddy Tania and I, we had purchased a few beers along with our water supplies for the boat.


As we pulled into an island (so we had a bush for a bathroom) Tan and I cracked a couple of coldies and watched the sunset.



It was off the boat and back on the road the following day, heading for Luxor. We stopped at a temple on the way, I must try and remember the name of it as it was amazing.











Luxor is a beautiful town of the banks of the Nile. We strolled around the town checking out Luxor temple by night.










After a late night it was tough pulling myself out of bed at 3.30am but I was quite excited as I was going in a hot air balloon. Floating over the Nile as the sun rose was quite an amazing experience.





From the air it was easy to see the contrast of the lush green around the Nile against the desert hills.







I asked for a very bumpy landing, much to the horror of the others in the basket, but the landing was ok - except we landed on a farmers potato crop which he was none too pleased about!

Next stop Valley of the Kings. It was close to 50 degrees again but nothing was going to stop me from walking the dusty hills of one of the most amazing sites in Egypt. Once again, no cameras were allowed in the tombs, which is a shame as the carvings and paintings are so well preserved.

Another temple was on the agenda today, Al-Bahari temple which was built by King Hat Chi Su (not the correct spelling but think hot chicken soup). This king was actually a queen but pretended to be a man so she could rule Egypt. Not a bad gig if you can get it. Parts of this temple are exposed to the elements but the paintings are still so vivid.






That's me being a king ... kings do the folded arm business.








It was quite hot so i had a rest and chat to a few of the locals. Not sure why I'm poking my tongue out, maybe I need water. BTW the dude next to me is wearing my sunnies and he so didn't want to give them back!


We had lunch with a local family. The food was great but it was a bit weird eating in their home when they cant join in because of Ramadan.


The other big temple in Luxor is Karnac temple. It is so enormous.
The temple covers about 60 acres (i didnt cover it all!) and was built by various Kings over a period of hundreds of years. The good thing with this temple is they didn't finish it ... leaving clues on building techniques which have helped solve many mysteries of how the Egyptians did what they did.

















I made a few more friends at this temple.


And the girls and i had a few laughs playing charlies angels ... Well the egyptian king poses were getting a bit boring.


After scones, jam and cream it was time to pack up and head back to Cairo.



NB: not your typical Egyptian dinner



Posted from somewhere round the world...

1 comment:

  1. Wow if it's that hot it would really suck wandering around in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights, hey! The hot air balloon looks awesome.

    ReplyDelete