Notes from a Sandy Spot

Up at the crack of dawn (well no, actually some time before hand) to get a mini-bus to a hotel up the road and cross the Nile by boat before catching another mini-bus that took us off to the take-off site near the valley of the queens. Somewhat reassured by the fact that our pilot was proudly wearing his blue peter badge, the 22 of us (not all from our group) clambered more or (in my case) less graciously aboard. The basket was divided into 5 compartments - a central one for the pilot and then 4 at each corner for the passengers. It was a rather tight squeeze but it certainly meant you weren't going to accidentally fall out!

With a few blasts of the burner (which was rather hot on the back of our heads!) we were soon drifting skywards over the village and heading towards the Theban necropolis as the sun began to rise.



We spent something like an hour in the air gently drifting over the hills and watching the changing light on the landscape ... it was fantastic and a definate highlight of the trip that I wouldn't have missed. The Pilot was very good in gently turning the balloon around so that everyone got a chance to see the various views and we explored the hills from various heights which made it all very interesting.



The landing was amazing too ... a perfectly upright touchdown that could barely be felt as the ground crew basically caught us in mid-air and lowered us to the ground.

Now for most people that would be enough for one day ... but not for the intrepid explore team ... it was barely breakfast time and we had a schedule to keep to ... next on the list was Deir el Medina to visit the tombs of the workers who actually made the tombs for the kings and queens.