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Nile Valley Tour
27 September – 7 October
Our last ten days in Egypt were spent on a tour down the
Nile River with our mates from Oz - Iven, Pete, Maria, Phong,
Lisa, Jill & Rhandy. You meet so many different people when
you travel independently but there is nothing like meeting
up with mates in an exotic country. It was like a reunion
when we met up at the hotel in Cairo with lots of squealing
and hugs.
The tour took us to the great Pyramids of Giza, Abu Simbel
and St Simeon in Aswan, up the Nile for three days stopping
at Kom Ombo and Edfu and finally the Temple of Karnak and
the Valley of the Kings in Luxor. I was a bit hesitant about
the three day Love Boat-esque cruise, wondering what the
hell we would do to fill in time. But there was lots of
catching up to do and of course, mature card games such as
Pig and Bullshit complete with dares such as Stinky Toe
Smelling, Be an Animal and Belly Dancing Egyptian Style.
The hardest thing about the last ten days was the stifling
heat. Worse than anything I have ever experienced, it must
have been 40 degrees + in luxor & Aswan which made the
experience of visiting enclosed temples such as the ones at
Abu Simbel unforgettable for the wrong reasons. It was even
difficult to do one of things I love most, which is just
wandering around a town and seeing what goes on because it
was way too hot to do anything but to find either a pool or
air-conditioned room to hang out in.
Highlight of the tour was the donkey ride to the Valley of
the Kings and the tombs of the kings themselves. I was very
apprehensive about these donkeys as we had to steer them
ourselves - and I have seen what Egyptian donkeys are like
when they get into a strop, making weird scary noises and
going crazy. I needn’t have worried though as ours were
quite tame and after a while we were all trying to get our
donkeys to go faster but they seemed to have a mind of their
own and would either bolt forward without reason or squash
themselves in between their friends. The ride took us
through the town on the west bank of Luxor and down a long
stretch of dirt road with corn fields on one side and small
mudbrick homes along a river on the other.
The tombs of the kings were magical. The Egyptians were such
great storytellers, there were scenes depicting many
different stories all over the walls and ceiling and
amazingly alot of the colours were still intact. To think
that at one time they were filled to the brim with treasures
- it is unfortunate that many were looted and will be lost
forever.
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