Day's Five & Six - August 17th & 18th

Well, aren't you a lucky bunch! A second dose of holiday fever!

DAY FIVE

Today was a seriously early start 3.45am!! We were off to Abu Simbel, you won't know the name but would probably recognise the place, it's those 5 huge dudes sitting outside the entrance to a tomb! But why the early start? Well, it gets so hot at Abu Simbel during the day that you want to get there as early as possible, and its a 3 hour journey, by bus, accross the Sahara. We had to go in a convoy aswell, and have an armed guard on board the bus with us.

When we got there however, it was well worth the trip! The place was huge, and I mean huge!! What was equally impressive was the fact that the whole thing had been moved up and accross to rescue it from the rising water after the building of the High Dam.

It was incredibly hot there and we were definately glad we had come in the morning!! Our encounter with the vendors at this particular site was the only time on the trip where I felt apprehensive about them. They were very pushy and would not take no for an answer.

The rest of the day was spent travelling back to the cruise ship, and the cruising back to Esna. In the evening we had a scavenger hunt which ended with us being dressed ridiculously, me as a belly-dancer and Dave as a woman! Don't ask!

DAY SIX

Another action packed today when we finally made it back through the Esna lock and got back to Luxor. We saw Karnak Temple as soon as we docked at Luxor. It is the biggest man-made monument in the world and is very derelict. Because of problems getting through the lock we didn't have much time at the temple before it was time to move on. We then saw Luxor Temple itself and it was a lot smaller but very beautiful. Our final stop was to a Papyrus Museum where we were taught how papyrus was made and used. We also bought some papyrus to take home as souveniers.

The evening saw a performance by a belly dancer and another by some nubian dancers.