Edfu and Kom Ombo

After a good night's sleep following on from the whirlwind tour of the valley of the kings et al. yesterday, today's temple hopping was and altogether more sedate affair.

For the first time on the cruise I managed to sit down in the dining room and eat a meal with the rest of the tourists. It has turned out that I had unwittingly become (in)famous because, with the ship being full, there was only one seat not filled, and people were wondering who was missing. Then this strange chap (me) wanders on to the boat says "hi" to everyone and goes on a tour with the party (all of the parties are divvied up based on the predominant language they can speak). Then, during the tour, I almost got left behind, and the tour guide had to make the whole party wait in the blistering Valley of the Kings sun while he ran up to try and find me.

I maintain that I was only in the Tutankhamun tomb, although I might have spent longer in there than was scheduled, and I did sneakily walk up to some of the other tombs to see if the party has gone there (I knew in my heart of hearts that they had gone down to the exit, but I had to make sure...).

Anyway, after touring with the party, they were expecting to see me for lunch and dinner but I crashed out and slept instead, so people were trying to figure out if I was some antisocial misanthrope, or if I was stuck to the toilet with a severe case of Nile belly. So, to finally see me after a couple of days, I was surprised they all remembered me. I have been the butt of a few jokes about "making it back to the meeting point" and “don’t get lost” etc, but it is all good natured, and it helps me not getting lost again!! I have spoken to most of the group on my dinner table; 6 are a family party from Manchester, and 2 are a Mum and daughter (i think!) from Wales. They all seem like nice enough folk, which is always good, as we have to spend a few days together.

Today's first temple was the magnificent temple at Edfu. In order to get there they decided we should travel in a nice environmentally friendly way, horse and carriage. However, one look at these mangy nags and you can't help feel sorry for them. The horse I had was actually one of the more looked after ones, and the driver (called Shugar) did not use a whip. Another group though told of a horse that was struggling to run because one of its legs was bleeding, and instead of resting the horse, the man just whipped it harder. All this in the searing heat of the day. Poor things.

You can't see the horse's ribs, which can't be said of the rest...

Anyway Shugar was really helpful at pointing things out....school there, market there....baksheesh please.....hospital there. It was an interesting journey, but the town of Edfu is much like any other town, apart from the fact it has the bloody great big temple in the middle of it. Apparently, the whole temple is very well preserved because at some point in the past, it was completely buried in the sand, and the local town unwittingly built their town on top of it. This is an impressive factoid because the temple must be over 100 feet high.

Me employing clever camera angles at Edfu Temple, there were hundreds of people there really!

After popping to see Edfu, we were due to return to the boat but our horse and carriage was, in true taxi-style, out on another job so, instead of waiting in the blistering sun, one of his colleagues kindly offered us shelter on his carriage until he returned (for some baksheesh of course!). As we were waiting this man was proudly showing us a photograph of him with Omar Sharif (the cynic in me expected him to charge us some baksheesh for looking). Still, he was useful in exchanging some large notes into smaller notes (I had to pay some baksheesh for this). So just to be clear, I had to pay baksheesh for getting the money to pay this man baksheesh - I wonder if it was Egyptians behind the current banking crisis....

Eventually our driver returned, and I was given the honour of sitting on the front with him (yes, you guessed it, for some baksheesh). This was actually quite exhilarating though, but clearly concepts like the "health and safety executive" do not exist here as I was bouncing around almost falling off at every pothole we hit! Still it was a laugh, and he pulled over and snapped a photo of me holding the reins (baksheesh), before delivering us to our boat.

Me failing to keep a tight rein on my spending....

The afternoon was at leisure, and I sat by the window in my room watching the beautiful Nile drift by. I really can't properly describe to you how relaxing it is. I am on the side which the sun rises on for this part of the trip so it is lovely watching the sun rise in the mornings.

In the evening, we arrived at the temple of Kom Ombo, which was spectacularly lit up so we could see it as it approached. My camera is not the best in night scenarios, and so I am not sure the pics will do it justice.

Kom Ombo by night

The one thing I have been impressed with on the trip so far, is the standard of the tour guides. It is nice to see Egyptians being passionate about their heritage, and Mahmud our current guide is incredibly animated when explaining the stories of the temples, with arms flapping about wildly with every sentence.

Kom Ombo is quite interesting because the temple is actually dedicated to two gods, not just one. There are also a couple of mummified crocodiles here too, which i just had to get a picture of.

Mummified Croc grins for the camera. Say cheese......

The Egyptians link the crocodile to Nile floods (and therefore fertility) because the crocodiles would wait at the dam knowing the floods were coming, so when the Egyptians saw a crocodile, they knew the floods were coming.

As i write this, we are just arriving in Aswan, so another days adventures are just around the corner.....I will add pictures later.