Notes from a Sandy Spot

With Anne insisting that the calesh driver went SLOWLY, the 2 mile trip to Karnak was much more pleasant than the race through the streets from the station that we had endured the day before. I was looking forward to Karnak because of the amazing hypostyle hall it has although I have singularly failed to take any pictures that come close to doing it justice. I put this down to the fact that we were probably a little tired - having already done the balloon trip, visited the workers' tombs and been to Medinet Habut. Relaxing wasn't yet on the agenda for this trip.




A pleasant dander round Karnak soaking up the atmosphere was concluded by a calesh ride back to the corniche to meet the boat.

Fresh from the workers' tombs, onwards to Medinet Habu which came as something of a shock to the system. Here, in the middle of nowhere, was the most amazing temple that basically made the jaw drop. In part no doubt this was because it was the first temple we had seen ... but also because of the sheer scale and audacity of the architecture.

This was ancient Egypt writ large.





Unfortunately my photographs don't really do it justice ... probably because I spent most of the time wandering round with my jaw on the floor. The state of preservation was astonishing - just look at the paint still atop the columns in the hypostyle hall.






So ... day 3 and so far we've done a balloon trip, visited the tonbs of the workers and now the temples at Medinet Habu. That would be more than enough for one day don't you think? But Oh no ... not for us ... we returned to the boat for a spot of lunch and then it was time to hit the Caleche again for a trip to Karnak!

Fresh from our balloon ride, we went back to the Nile Valley Hotel where we had a quick turkish coffee to await the tour members who were going to join us at the valley of the workers.

Met by a new guide who explained the history and what we would see inside, we duely explored 2 of the open tombs. Unfortunately the advent of digital photography has spoilt the experience for those of us responsible enough to turn our flashes off as photography has now been banned throughout Egypt in all the tombs to save the delicate paintwork from further fading.

The tombs are remarkable in their state of preservation. Much of the painting looks as if it could have been done last week and yet remember that these walls were painted some 3,200 years ago!

They really were very beautiful indeed.

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.