Notes from a Sandy Spot

Today (by which of course I mean at O stupid hundred hours this morning) was valley of the kings day - famous for the tomb of Tutankhamun amongst others. Anne had opted for the donkey ride option but thankfuly explore's responsible tourism remit meant that I was excused on grounds of potentially flattening the poor beast and joined a group of 7 of us who were taking the taxi instead.

Sadly our dreams of a lie in were shattered by the news that we would all cross the nile before dawn to meet the donkey wrangler and so sometime before 5am we were duely huddled on a small boat venturing over the waters. We trogged through the streets to the donkey wrangler for what then turned out to be one of the most hysterical briefings I've ever seen. Ossama duely mounted his steed and began to demonstrate how to sit, get the donkey to change direction etc ... with just one teeny weeny little problem - well, 2 teeny weeny little problems actually. a) it was pitch dark and b) Luxor isn't renowned for its street lighting. Made even more amusing by a few donkeys who made a break for it and began running down the hill ... and who could blame them!

Boy was I glad I was going by Taxi.

Briefing complete, the riders duely mounted their donkeys and rather bemused, set forth in the gloom towards the valley of the kings. We meanwhile waited for the taxi. At this point the organisation went a bit pear shaped really and we only had one taxi for a group that was too large to fit in it - so while the first group went off we sat with the donkey wrangler and played with the rat his wife had caught in the upstairs bedroom!

Eventually we all ended up in the valley and hung around waiting for the donkey riders to emerge over the ridge above. Quite why we couldn't all have had an extra hour or more in bed escaped us really but soon we were all assembled in the valley and ready to explore the tombs. Although possible to visit, we opted out of King Tut's tomb as by all accounts it is rather boring and also happens to have an additional entrance fee. Instead we decided on Tuthmosis III followed by Rameses III and Rameses IV.

The tomb of Tuthmosis III was a rather imposing site as the entrance is high up in the mountain and reached by a step set of wooden stairs suspended in a narrow gorge.



The tomb was most impressive - as indeed were those of the Rameses clan - the state of preservation of the wall paintings kind of takes your breath away when you realise they are thousands of years old.

Valley of the kings duely explored (your ticket gets you in to 3 tombs), we all hopped on a bus to visit the amazing temple of Queen Hatshepsut where 58 tourists were murdered in 1997. The understandable impact on tourism led Egypt to significantly enhance the security presence at tourist sites and whilst keeping a low profile, armed guards and airport style x-ray machines were much in evidence everywhere we visited. I think the Egyptians have managed to get the tone just right - the security is obvious and reassuring rather than being oppressive and unsettling.

As for the temple ... yet another amazing work of Egyptian architecture.





After visting the temple, those of us going by taxi led a mini-rebellion. We were supposed to go back to the Nile Valley Hotel and wait for the donkey riders to join us, however partly inspired by Karen who was ill and needed to get back to the boat somewhat faster, we decided en-masse that we too wanted to get straight back to the boat and despite our guides protests about security, we didn't really give him much choice. We duely returned on board MS Doma and set-sail upriver on the cruise part of our trip.