Jan 2, 2011

Day 15

We woke up to our last breakfast on the boat and bid our crew goodbye. Think we were all sad to see our boat life go and shocked at riding in a vehicle with wheels again.

After 4 days camping on the Nile (again, without showers or toilets!)

Pop, like that, the bubble bursts and the spell was broken.

A luxury tuk-tuk?

The area of Kom Ombo is known for its sugar cane production, which meant the city was filled with black factory smoke.

 

Hungry?

Taking the back way through farming villages we could see how many people still live poor but simple, honest lives. With a bewildering array of mud brick ingenuity. We made our way to Edfu temple. Dedicated to Horus, Edfu is the most intact ancient temple. Period. I’ve spent a lot of time looking at stumpy Greek & Roman columns trying to imagine what it looked like. No need here. Thanks to being buried in sand for centuries, Edfu’s 90% intact, and amazing.

Horus and Anne

 

Nearly every temple we went to was defaced...by Christians. They took issue with polytheism & Egyptians gods.

Some random guy who wanted us to take a picture of him, then asked for baksheesh. Gotta love the Egyptians.

Even if we were starting to feel “templed out” this was a good order to see them in.

Then on to Luxor, formerly known as Thebes, and the capital of the New Kingdom (circa 1500 BC). We rode horse carts to Karnak, which was an incredible, huge temple complex. The columns! Oh, they were so cool. In rows 6 by 16, and so fat it takes ten people to link arms around them. Words and photos don’t do them justice.

Luxor Temple

Avenue of the Ram-headed Sphinx in Karnak

It would take a lot of Anne's to encircle that column!

 

One of Hatshepsut's fallen columns, with one of the only images showing her as a *woman* king.

Jan 1, 2011

Day 14

More boat. More river. Thoughts drifting along with the current, between Heart of Darkness and Huck Finn.

I smelled like woodsmoke and mosquito repellent but I am happy. In the afternoon we stopped at Kom Ombo temple (woohoo, a real toilet!). Situated at a curve in the Nile and dedicated to falcon-headed Horus and Sobek, the crocodile god. We took coffee in a cushioned tent and enjoyed live musicians playing traditional music. Our guide explained this was a dual place of healing and appeasement to the crocs (since gone, with the High Dam). There were massive, breath-taking hieroglyphs and a ruined wall where you can see a secret passage the priests used to whisper to worshipers as the Mouth of God.

 

Dec 31, 2010

Day 13

Set sail! On our way we made great time, take with and against the wind. 4 days sailing along the Nile, 3 nights camping on its banks (with all the associated joys of camping...sleeping bags, mosquitoes, peeing outdoors.)  


As the waves carried us along I was awestruck yet again. The banks of the Nile, the sailboats, the sun... I don’t know what to write to describe it. We got to see the “real Nile” and let our minds drift back through the ages. 

People still live and work the land with their livestock in simple mud huts, with palm roofs. Majestic feluccas furl their angular sails like white wings. Bloated, boxy river boats which vie between nostalgic chic and cheesy are the only things that break the spell.

That and Australians playing “I’m on a Boat” for New Year’s Eve.

Anne and I have spent the last 6 consecutive NYEs together. This one was one of the most interesting, by bonfire with our Nubian crew drumming and singing call-and-response songs...when we couldn’t quite catch on to the Nubian tunes, they switched to “She’ll Be Coming Down the Nile When She Comes”.

Happy New Year.

Dec 30, 2010

Day 12, And... we’re off!

Nowhere fast. We arose, checked out and embarked on our adventure down the Nile by a rustic felucca sailboat. No electricity, no plumbing for 3 days/4 nights...

Our first day the winds were too high to go anywhere so we “camped” by a construction site... but on the other side, having gotten a tow across the majestic Nile with its eons of commerce and history! It was still relaxing to lie about and read, watching more fortunate feluccas sail the opposite direction up river. We took a break back at the hotel we’d just left for a soccer game and a beer. And a toilet.

We stayed in a secluded cove, told ghost stories around the fire, and got bitten by mosquitos.