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Published: September 16th 2008
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Friday 12th September
This morning after taking a Felucca ride to Kitcheners Island, we were sad to leave our Nile boat. Not only had we enjoyed the luxurious surrounds, delicious food and company of the crew, we had also made some good friends with our fellow travellers, our small English speaking tour group was all from all over the world, including Belgium, Canada, USA, Ukraine and fellow Australians. In the afternoon we transferred to our new boat the Eugenie, which was located on the high dam to start our next adventure, sailing for 3 nights to Abu Simbel.
While still tied to the dock we took our first tour which was by small launch to Lalasha Temple, Beit El Wali and the Kiosk of Kertassi all of which had been relocated before the rising waters. We had another great tour guide on this tour, named Hamed who was very knowledgable, our English speaking group consisted of Americans, New Zealanders, Australians and Japanese. Dinner that night was a buffet, we were sitting at a table for two and felt a little lost in amongst all the Spanish, French and Italian guests which form the majority of the passengers.
Saturday 13th September
We set sail at 4am to Wadi El Seboua, at breakfast we found we had been moved to a table of six thanks to two fellow Australians. We crossed the tropic of Cancer before arriving at the Temples of Dakka and Meharakka. We were transferred to the temples by launch, armed police accompanying the passengers. Our boat was the only one in the area, it is certainly different with only a few boats on Lake Nasser compared to the Nile which has 390 boats. While visiting one of the temples both Ron and I walked out ahead of the group to be told we had both nearly stepped on an adder that moved off once we passed, with the traffic in Cairo and adders in the desert we have had a couple of close calls.
In the afternoon we set sail to Amada, dinner was in the dining room which was set beautifully with candles and silverware and the menu was a delicious set six course meal. After dinner we all moved to the top deck for cocktails, the deck was lit with lamps and candles, we had docked against some rock formations and it
was a beautiful setting listening to classical music looking at the stars while reclining on large cushions.
Sunday 14th September
This morning we got up early at 6am to visit the temples of Amada and Derr, and the Tomb of Penout, it was interesting to note all the temples had been moved to higher ground when the high dam was formed. After taking our launches back to the boat we set sail to Kasr Ibrim which we were only able to view from the boat as the site is still being excavated. We continued on to Abu Simbel arriving around 3pm, as we approached the site we were served cocktails on the top deck with classical music playing in the background. We had watched movie that morning explaining how they had moved the temple to higher ground, this made the first sighting of the huge temple even more significant. The heat was draining, about 40 degrees celsius when we toured the temple but it didn't distract from seeing Abu Simbel for the first time.
That night we took the optional sound and light show which told the story behind the temple, because of the Japanese majority
at the site we had to wear headphones to hear the English version of the story while at the same time hearing the Japanese commentary over the speakers. To cap the wonderful day off we had a traditional Egyptian barbeque on deck while drifting backwards and forwards in front of Abu Simbel.
Monday 15th September
Not Ron's favourite day due to an early wakeup call at 5am to fly to Cairo from Abu Simbel via Aswan and Luxor. We arrived late afternoon at Mena House a beautiful Palace Hotel located at the base of the pyramids. After a late lunch we lazed around the pool and had a quiet night with room service watching Death on the Nile on Ron's laptop.
Tuesday 16th September
We started our last tour with Randa early this morning to view the pyramids. We decided to take the optional internal tour of the inside of great pyramid. It was very cramped walking up the narrow passage, very low and narrow, we had to bend right over while climbing. It was extremely hot and stuffy and the vertical climb took us two thirds up in to the centre of the pyramid.
After seeing the Sphinx we headed off to see the very old step pyramid, the oldest structure of its kind on earth. This afternoon we are catching up on our travel notes before another quiet night. We have two more nights at the Mena house to rest up before leaving for our next adventure, on to Muscat.
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