Our first stop this morning was at the Greek Orthodox St George's Church in Madaba. This church is renowned for the 6th century Byzantine mosaic on its floor that shows the entire region from the Nile Delta in Egypt in the south to Jordan and Palestine in the north. The detail recorded in this early map is impressive. Just a few more kilometres by road found us at Mount Nebo which has been a centre for pilgrimages since the earliest Christian period. It is also reputed to be the burial site of Moses who climbed the mountain to view the Holy Land before he died. Unfortunately at present the peak of Mount Nebo is largely obscured with construction works. The historic church atop the mountain has been restored, but is now having a larger church, sponsored ... read more

Here we go again! Wake up call at 6.00am, breakfast at 6.30am and on our way to the airport by 7.15am. I hate cleaning my teeth before breakfast, but it's either before breakfast or not at all with the these early starts and having to leave our bags outside our room before we go to breakfast. We only found out that we were being dropped at a different terminal from Meredith and Alex as we neared the airport. There was no opportunity for a long, emotional farewell as Amal bundled us and our luggage out of the minivan while Meredith and Alex stayed on board. Meredith and Alex have been wonderful travel companions and the four of us have really enjoyed each others company during the last 20 days. Amal escorted us into the airport, but ... read more

Groan, yet another early start this morning for our flight back to Cairo. Wake up call at 6.00am, breakfast at 6.45am and ready to go by 7.15am. Ahmed accompanied us to Aswan Airport and facilitated our check-in. In fact he printed our boarding passes yesterday so we were all seated together for our flight back to Cairo. I can't remember if I recorded that we were seated all over the plane for our flight from Cairo to Luxor? Ahmed asked us if we had enjoyed our trip to Upper Egypt. When we said that we had had a great time he asked us to encourage our friends and acquaintances to travel to Egypt. We have been so well looked after here in Egypt that we wouldn't hesitate to tell anyone who has been thinking about visiting ... read more

So, we were up at 2.50am, had a quick shower and cleaned our teeth. Hussein rang us at 3.25am because we hadn't been down for tea or coffee and he was worried we were going to be late. I assured him that we were just about to head down. Down at reception we collected our breakfast boxes and crossed the gangplank onto the dock. We didn't have to disembark through any other boats this morning which made it quick and easy. We drove into the part of Aswan where the convoy for Abu Simbel forms up. All of the vehicles going to Abu Simbel have to be security cleared and then the convoy is escorted to Abu Simbel. I fell asleep soon after we left Aswan and woke up at about 6.15am. Good, I am sure ... read more

We had breakfast this morning watching the balloons floating over the West Bank of the Nile which was very atmospheric. There is something very restful about watching balloons hanging in the sky. It's nice to see the balloons floating over Melbourne on the odd occasion that I see them, but it was spectacular to see balloons floating over the West Bank of the Nile with the mountains that surround the Valley of the Kings in the background! After our breakfast we left for our visit to the Valley of the Kings. Unfortunately no photography is allowed in the Valley of the Kings so we had to leave our cameras on the bus. We might have to download a few images from the internet or buy some postcards?! Just behind the entry to the site there is ... read more