Egypt emails

Before I go off on a tangent about how wonderful the last four weeks have been, I must say that it is with very mixed emotions that there are only four more sleeps before we are on the plane on the way back home. As much as it will be wonderful to see family and friends again, it is also the end of a way of life to which we have become extremely accustomed. We have been so privileged to have seen and done all the things we have and it will be a heavy hearted trip back home in many ways. However, we will have a lot of things to look forward to in the future with wonderful memories of the last few years. I didn't think that I would be so emotionally hit by the end of the trip but it is quite a pull.

Now that all that emotional stuff is out of the way, what can I tell you about our last few weeks? How long have you got? I think I will leave Botswana until the next time because we could write a book on this wonderful country. We took 1500 digital pictures in 2 weeks and I have only culled about 250 of them. It may be advisable not to ask to see our slideshows! I promise that once we are back in Adelaide (or if I get time in the next few days), I will let you all know about Botswana - another place to which I really want to return.

Let's back track to 11 May when we left for Cairo. A flight with Egypt Air left us non-plussed as our food was almost thrown at us and we were not really made to feel welcome at all. Our Tour Manager, Patsy (and her understudy, Sally) did their best to make up for that and when we arrived in Cairo we were greeted by very friendly ground staff from Eastmar Travel. It didn't take long to realise that some of these well dressed young men were not really travel agents but armed body guards with their guns well hidden under their suit coats. Nevertheless we had a speedy trip from the airport to the Nile Hilton where we had a beer sitting on the terrace in the warmth of the night. Cairo is not an attractive city. Armed guards, whether plain clothes or in uniform, soon became so much part of the scenery that you were almost unaware of their presence.

Next day we met Raafat, our guide for the trip. He had a BSc in Egyptology, a four year course at Cairo University, and further postgraduate qualifications to boot. He really knew his stuff! Our first stop was the Egyptian Museum. This large building is, unfortunately, poorly lit and poorly organised but holds some of the most amazing artefacts imaginable. Obviously the most impressive was the treasure from the tomb of King Tutenkarmoun (there are countless ways of spelling his name). The gold burial mask is in a darkened room and is, fortunately, extremely well lit (great head shots). He had several sarcophagi, one inside the other like Russian dolls. One of these was made of over 100kg of pure gold.

We had the afternoon "at leisure" and decided to go back to the Egyptian museum to try to absorb the grandeur of the things we had seen. In a very short morning we quickly learnt that it was very important to try to understand the chronology of the kings and the complexity of the gods - not easy in 2 weeks. However, going back to the museum in our own time, spending time reading and trying to put pieces together ended our day. Dinner was in a floating restaurant where we tried our first bottle of Egyptian red wine - less said soonest mended!

Next day saw us on the bus to Memphis, a former capital of ancient Egypt. Along the way we were driven through the backstreets of Cairo and the very poor farming areas between it and Memphis. Here many of our group were aghast to see, for the first time, children sorting through the rubbish for something to eat. It was certainly a time for reflection. The donkies carrying overly heavy loads had flyblown ears. A few of them had no ears at all obviously amputated because of the horrendous condition they were in.

Memphis is now not much more than a museum with huge statues of Rameses II. He was very prolific, not just in the over 100 children he bore his various wives, but also in the number of statues of himself that were commissioned. The most exquisite statue lies almost neglected here in Memphis. The delicacy of the carving of his fingernails and the decoration of his clothes will always be remembered. After Memphis we went into our first tombs. Several noblemen have tombs near to Saqqara and had our first taste of going down, down, down, into the gloom of a tomb. We also saw the vivid colour and vibrant life of the not so recently departed. It was all there - his family, his gods, his daily life, hunting, tributes to gods. Saqqara has its step pyramid as well as some pre-Doric columns. And you thought the Greeks invented doric columns didn't you?! Wrong - Egypt had then long before.

Obviously no trip to Cairo can be considered complete without the Great Pyramid. Despite the heat being over 40oC we trundled along and a couple of us braved the claustrophobic staircase to the burial chamber. It is very dark, very steep and very un-nice! Once inside the chamber there is little to see except the sarcophagus of Cheops, HOWEVER, it is amazing to be inside the centre of the the Great Pyramid. Something to say that you have done. There is an atmosphere there that is hard to describe. Everyone speaks in whispers. Standing inside the sarcophagus of Cheops was a little chilling and ended up being bitten by something - Arnold says Cheops. Whatever it was my body didn't like it and I still bear the mark.

There are several viewing points for the pyramids and we trundled around to them all. I hope I don't sound as if it was boring, because it was not - just very very hot. The sphinx was smaller than I imagined and, unfortunately, the viewing platform from which you can see it is very small and was one of the few places that was crowded. Nevertheless, many great pictures of the sphinx with the pyramids in the background were taken. I didn't fully appreciate just how many pyramids are in the area - you only ever see the three in the pictures.

This letter is becoming long so I will go quickly through a few things. We visited Coptic Cairo, and area full of ancient Christian churches and synagogues and then on to the citadel to see several mosques. The day ended with a visit to an Egyptian market which drove me mad with all the hassling - I hate it.

On a plane and fly to Luxor. Arrive in Luxor and board the Nile Beauty, our home for the next six days. The flight was interesting because you could see the green line that was the extent of the river's influence and then the dramatic difference between that and the very very very arid desert. I did not imagine that there could be so much of nothing (despite having seen plenty of Australian desert). We visited the relatively new Luxor Museum which is more like an art gallery than a museum. Selected pieces are artistically displayed here and Sally (our student tour manager) fell absolutely in lust with a statue of Tumoses III. He was lovely. Egyptian sunsets are stunning. We saw the first of many.

Sunset must be followed by sunrise and I was up to watch it as we left Luxor to sail to Dendara and the Temple of Hathor, the Goddess of Beauty and love, light maternal and family love. We were exposed also to the first of the great hypostyle halls. Huge columns with wonderfully carved and decorated capitals that hold up the roof. We learnt such wonderful things as the fact that the reason that so many temples have vultures carved into the ceiling is that vultures are, apparently, wonderful mothers to their children, shielding them from the heat with their outstretched wings and fanning them when necessary. Hence the vulture became a symbol of motherhood and protection. Raafat said that although the Cistine Chapel is pretty good, we should take a good look at the ceiling in this temple. Not only is it painted but before it was painted the stonemasons had to erect the building, carve the figures out of the stone - making sure not to make a mistake because they couldn't take the roof down to correct it - and then the paint job could be done! Very impressive.

The scenery as we headed towards Dendara was picturebook stuff (maybe you had better see the pictures). Daily life went on along the riverbanks - people washing themselves and their clothes there, working the fields and answering the call to prayers. Great stuff.

The Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens is hot dry hilly and amazing. We started our visit there by going into the Valley of the Workers, the guys who built and decorated the tombs of the pharaohs. Their village is still there, along with the tombs of some of the leading workers. It is said that, because they built their own tombs, that the work in these tombs rivals much of the work in the pharaohs' tombs. We visited several tombs in the King's Valley but the most outstanding, expensive and lavish of them was that of Nefertari, favourite wife of Ramses II. This has only been open to the public for a short time and controversy reigns about whether it should be open or not because of the damage caused by people breathing in the tomb. The current compromise is that 150 people a day are allowed into the tomb for a maximum time of 10 minutes. We were warned that we would not come out of this tomb with a dry eye. Raafat was right. The colour and texture of the drawings makes you want to reach out and touch what looks like silk in some cases and felt in others. Hardly a word is spoken in this tomb because of the magical quality of the place and the stunning beauty. And no, you can't take pictures!

Back to Luxor and a visit by both day and night to the Temple of Karnak and the Luxor Temples. All I can say is that obelisks, statues, wonderfully capitaled pillars and stone stone stone abounds. Evidence of various cultures and religions using these buildings over the centuries is clear but the overall feeling is still totally Egyptian and totally overpowering.

Setting sail again, we headed to the lock at Esna where, having harassed us but having been successful in making a sale, a young lad who had rowed his boat into the lock with us was arrested. I think his crime was not the selling but having taken the boat into the lock. It was extremely dangerous because he was sandwiched between us and a flat bottomed barge like boat that was hauling grain. Wonder what happened to him.

When we got to Edfu the riot police were out. Parts of the street were blocked by these guys and a bulldozer was knocking down the verandas of several shops. Not a lot of care was being taken with the knockdowns and some of the shopfronts were going too. When someone asked what was happening, Raafat tactfully said that the correct building permission had not been given for the verandas to be built. Basically the people had been told to pull them down and because they didn't the local authorities did it for them. In Edfu there are very strict laws about not hassling the tourists.

I bought a galabiyya (long dress thing) from a young man there who would not talk about prices until I crossed the white line into his shop "Tourist police madam, they will get me". I bought the galabiyya because we had a dress up night where we all wore the local garb and joined with some of the staff on the boat for a night of song and dance. A bellydancer and some other entertainment was thrown in too. All good fun.

More sunsets and sunrises and we reached Aswan. Here we saw the unfinished obelisk which, had it been completed, would have been the largest ever created. They are actually carved in situ and are removed from the living rock by tunnelling under then and then lifting with a series of levers. Unfortunately, this obelisk showed stress fractures so great that it could not be lifted. We visited the original and the High Aswan Dams and were forbidden most strongly from taking pictures of the electric power station. Security here on the dam wall was phenomenal. Should the dam burst (unlikely) or be blown up, all of life in Egypt would cease as we know it. The land would become a sea.

The Temple of Philae is a masterpiece of modern man's ingenuity as well as that of the ancient. This temple is one of the many that UNESCO and various others moved so as to be saved from the drowning waters of the dam. So as not to bore you I will say that it was more of the same with wonderful carvings, paintings, statues etc. The novelty here was tha we had to reach it by going on a little boat. The whole time we were on the boat a man kept trying to sell his stock to us. He was very successful and I think both man and guests were happy.

The personal interaction between our group was quite good. All from different walks of life, the 15 of us got on well and we had a wonderful boat building competition between the boys and the girls. Naturally, the girls won! The boys were not good losers but is it our fault that they lacked imagination? Raafat was the judge and we considered him impartial. To be fair, the guys built a very good boat from plastic bottles and straws but we had a real live human boat. Sally became our Bales Barge and we all dressed up in our galabiyyas and presented the solar boat that we had seen time and time again in the temples. We won on imagination alone.

A felucca ride across to Kitchener Island, Aswan's Botanic Gardens, was delightful and several hours were spent amongst the foliage. This part of the trip was almost over and we ended with a day off. It was great to relax around the pool (for a short time because it was actually too hot 45oc) and gather our things for the next part.

Lake Nasser. Only Malcolm and Anne came with us for this part of the trip, the others not choosing to go on this extention. The days on the MS Eugenie were quiet but the boat was luxurious with a huge pool deck, alfresco eating area, wonderful food from a French chef and wonderful sights along the way. Several temples were seen either from the deck of the boat or, after a small boat ride in the little motor boats attached to the Eugenie, we did early morning walks around some great places. Wadi el Seboua had a row of falcon headed, lion bodied sphinxes that positively shone in the early morning light. This was a quiet cruise with not a lot to do but we were quite ready for this after the previous hectic two weeks.

The highlight of the cruise was the water approach to Abu Simbel. Although the light was a little strange at dusk that night it was a breathtaking sight and we were even more impressed when we docked and went to the light and sound show at the temple. It was spectacular. Back to the boat for dinner and the captain sailed in large figures of 8 whilst we ate outside with a constant view of the floodlit temple. A sight never to be forgotten.

Our last sunrise - this time lighting up the Temple at Abu Simbel. (Lots of 5am mornings on this trip) A morning visit to the temple proved it as stunning, if not more so, than at night and we were left breathless at the end (not only from the climb back up the hill) but also from the ability of man not only to build this place but also to have been able to demolish and reassemble it with such precision.

This has been a brief!! description. So much more could be said and still more that words would find hard to describe. Raafat has told us that if we can get a party of at least 10 people together he will be our guide and organise a similar, but better, trip for us if we will act as tour managers. He needs 12 months warning of it happening so we are giving you all warning that in May 2004, all things being politically equal, we would like to do another Egypt trip, this time with our friends. Anyone interested, you know where we are - or at least you will soon.