More deaduns

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Catch the overnight train she said! It will be fun she said! What could possibly go wrong?!

We had a nice relaxed start to the day before we packed up and were collected for our lunch on the felucca. Some serenity being towed along the Nile but quite different to Aswan. Delicious lunch. The serenity ended as we had to get motored back to Luxor due to lack of wind. Back in the bus and headed to the valley of the Queens.

We were all keen to see Nefertari’s tomb as she was Ramses most beloved wife. She was Nubian in origin and considered a beauty. Entry was strictly controlled which was great as it meant that there weren’t many people. We were all absolutely amazed - it was just awesome. The girls particularly liked the fan that she had thoughtfully included provision for but were also impressed by the incredibly well preserved colours and paintings.

A visit to three other tombs of queens and sons of kings - Titi, Amen Khopshef, who died young and was buried with the foetus his mother miscarried at the shock of his death, and Kha M Waset.

Next stop was Deir El Medina, the city where the workers who built all these tombs lived. The ruins of their houses are still visible, but as with everything Egyptian, they put a lot of effort into the death side of things, so we visited three tombs here as well.

Unfortunately they didn’t put a lot of effort into the space side of things and clambering through the tiny passageways they incorrectly considered adequate for their fat arsed descendants was quite the effort. Combined with the heat and humidity down there, we all lost a lot of body weight. But it was truly amazing to see the work put in to decorating their final resting places - so much more importance than where they spent their daily lives. The last tomb was a family affair with the father’s and his two sons’ together but in different (equally challenging to access) rooms.

We were done with confined underground spaces and reverse manoeuvring our arses so we headed to their temple which housed some beautiful chambers with a depiction of judgement day in one of the walls.

But all good things must come to an end. And that is true of our time in Luxor. And also of our body’s reserves of hydration. So we motored over the Nile for the last time and walked the streets to a restaurant where we hung out for a few hours before our train. Poor Beeb had been on the decline all day and was desperately wanting a bed. What’s 12 hours on a ‘deluxe’ Egyptian train not going to provide?!

By the time the train arrived (thankfully on time), she was almost passing out but we managed to get her in bed and asleep before too long. A long rickety and noisy night but we all got some rest before a few false starts and vomiting in the corridor and we were thankfully off. We had previously arranged a morning trip to the pyramids but that wasn’t going to happen, so our incredibly accommodating airbnb host found us somewhere to rest before our place was ready.

We finally made it into our apartment and Beeb made it as far as the bed…but wow, the view, even the teenager was impressed! Maybe that journey had been worth it after all?!

We rested, washed and had some lunch and decided we needed some activity. Beeb was still flat out and Eloise not interested, so we took our lives in our hands and Ubered to the NMEC to see the royal mummies. At one point, the driver did ask me why I was “clutching” at the handle above my head…cause I don’t want to die in a blaze on an Egyptian highway mate and end up like the mummies I’m just about to see.

Absolutely incredible!! The girls would have hated it but we were mesmerised seeing actually in the (salty, kind of crispy) flesh these incredible people we’d been hearing about for the past 10 days - all the Tutmoses clan was there, Ramses as far as you could see and Seti I and Hatshepsut popped up too. It was like meeting old mates! But it’s a good argument for cremation in my view - I don’t want some dimwit tourist gawking at me in 3,500 years commenting on my skin tone (quite dark and a bit crackly, for the record). Quite a lot of them were tall, even in their desiccated state and still had hair attached.

But we thought we’d chance another Uber ride back and thankfully far less call for clutching as we sped past horse and cart and partially destructed building on the highway. I was positively delighted when we arrived back in our neighbourhood and saw the camels walking along the road and the donkeys parked by the side. Ahhhh, we were home!

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