While
in Luxor saw an advert for a 3 night cruise on the Nile Admiral to Aswan,
returning by mini bus. Absolutely mind boggling! The ship was pleasant,
food pretty good and our group were all very friendly. We got on board
at 18.30 the first evening and stayed in Luxor that night, our first
trip being to the Valley of the Kings which was only a coach ride away.
Early start, the Collossi at Memnon photo was taken at 6.30!
They say the Valley of the Kings holds the tombs of 70 generations
of Pharaohs, think about that for a minute. Edna can
go back 9 generations and that takes us into the mid 1600s! As I said,
mind boggling. The weather was, of course, beautiful but it was January
and early mornings and evenings were chilly (note the sweatshirt in
the third photo). At every stop hawkers rowed out to the ships and tried
to sell their wares, seemed reasonable prices. The cruise was marred
by an accident at one stop where our ship and an adjacent craft started
to drift towards each other and one boat load of hawkers started rowing
like mad to get out before the boats collided. Although we didn't see
the outcome (thank God) apparently it wasn't good and there were fatalities.
This also showed up the difference between our countries. We were delayed
for a while but then sailed on. In Britain those boats wouldn't have
moved until there had been a full enquiry! In Egypt,
don't delay the tourists (sad but true). The mini bus trip back was
interesting. We had to wait until several bus loads arrived to be escorted
back to Luxor by the Police. A never to be forgotten experience. Click
on the photos for a larger picture.
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