Aswan to Luxor via Fallouccah

Rushed for the first part but wonderfully relaxing after. The 3:30am start to drive 300Km to Abu Simbel was a pain. Wonderful temple, incredible feat of engineering to move it up the hill away from the waters of the Aswan dam an' all, but was it worth the time and heat and fatigue? Not really. Still, I suppose I can now say that I've done it and seen it.

The two day ride down the Nile in a felloucca was just magical. I was so tired after the train ride and the early start the day before that I was exhausted so time spent just lying about and watching the scenery and chatting with some very interesting fellow travellers, or learning from our host, Captain Mohammed, and his regular visits with mates along the way.

An interesting side trip was a visit to the once-a-week camel markets in Darow - the largest in Egypt - where camels are brought in from Sudan 1500Km over 45 days for sale to traders, farmers, racers and butchers. (A young eating camel goes for LE4000, a racing camel for LE6000, a working camel for LE8000, and a mother and calf for LE12000)

My fellow travellers included Devin, an American pharmaceuticals sales rep taking a year off, Maria, a Melbourne fashion buyer on her way to visit with relatives in Greece, Robert and Elleanor, two Londoners taking a late honeymoon, and a French couple who rarely said anything.

Not being able to bath for two days and all sleeping in the open on the boat is probably not the best for many people but we all enjoyed it. Pooh pooh to those Agatha Christie wanna-be's on board those giant stink-boat castles - them with their air-conditioned ensuited private rooms, roof-top pools, and bars serving ice-cold beer. They weren't experiencing the true Egypt as we were. The bastards.