Day 8. Sat 20th September
The Road to Luxor.
Up at 05:00 to be on the coach at 05:30. Today we will be joining the tourist
convoy to drive across the Arabian (Eastern) Desert back to the Nile Valley
and Luxor.
On Sinai security is maintained by means of multitudinous police checkpoints
where passports may and and often are scrutinised. In the deserts of mainland
Egypt it is done by allowing a convoy of vehicles to cross twice a day.
It is not at all clear what the purpose of all this security is, in fact
one of our guides suggests that it is just to give the young men doing
national service something to do. Nevertheless it is very strict - we must
remain with the convoy at all times, and woe betide the hapless tourist
who needs a pee between official stopping points. I inquire what happens
if the coach breaks down, but do not get a satisfactory answer.
Maria has booked a 50-seater coach (with loo) for the 20 of us, and
we stagger on bleary-eyed, most of us falling asleep again almost immediately.
We join the convoy, consisting of 20-30 coaches, near Port Safaza, and,
once the police have given us the go ahead, set off inland across the desert.
There is a small crisis on the coach when Laura, desparate to go to the
loo, finds that, although the coach does have facilities, the door is jammed
tightly shut. We have a spare driver who is asleep on the back seat. He
is roused from his nap and does manage to prize the door open, much to
Laura's relief. Otherwise the trip is uneventful. We stop once on the way
for coffee and Hob-Nobs.
As we approach Qena and the Nile Valley the landscape changes abruptly
from desert scrub to lush farmland. From Qena we drive south up the Nile
and arrive in Luxor around 11:30.
We check into the Emilio Hotel, and then Maria takes us off for an
"orientation walk" around Luxor. Not for nothing is Luxor known as the
hassle capital of the world. We are immediately beset on every side by
traders trying to entice us into their shops, some even volubly insisting
that their particular emporium is "hassle free". They seem quite oblivious
to the blatant contradiction!
There are certain shops that are recommended by Explore, and other
holiday companies, and proudly display the companies' logos in their windows.
Certain other areas we are advised to avoid. Two shops in particular are
recommended by Explore as being genuinely hassle-free. One is the Old Arkhashom
Shop, which is downstairs is filled with every imaginable piece of Egyptian
bric-a-brac, and upstairs houses their amazing stock of carpets. There
are hundreds of them, from beautiful silk carpets to hand-painted cotton
and wool. Boshra, the proprietor,is at pains to tell us that all his carpets
hand-made. He provides hot tea and gives us a demonstration of his wares
with all the panache of an experienced showman. Several of us buy cotton
headcloths which, although they look a little silly, actually prove to
be very effective. They are very light and cool, and keep the sun off without
making the head hot. With half a pint or so of cold water poured on top
they are even more effective, and several of us take to carrying a bottle
of ordinary tap-water (carefully marked, you wouldn't want to drink it
by mistake!) for the purpose.
The other shop is a jewellers immediately opposite Boshra's "Aladdin's
Cave", where they also ply us with tea and chat, but genuinely do not pressure
us to buy, making this a welcome oasis in a desert of high-pressure selling
to which we gladly return on subsequent occasions.
At 15:00 we are back at the hotel to take caleshes, horse-drawn carriages
seating 4, to the temple at Karnak, which is a short distance outside Luxor.
Sophie, Isobel and I are allocated calesh number 62 (we are advised remember
our calesh number for the return journey) driven by a friendly old chap
with only two teeth and very little English.
Our guide at the temple is called Mohammed (just for a change!), and
is very knowledgable and gives an excellent tour round this magnificent
structure.
The Temple of Karnak and the Temple of Luxor are nearly all that remain
today of the ancient city of Thebes.The two temples were originally connected
by a 3Km-long avenue lined on both sides by sphinxes, although most of
this still lies underneath the modern city, the two ends of the avenue
have been excavated. Karnak was originally built in the Middle Kingdom
(2065 - 1781 BC) but was added to over a period of 1300 years. Just about
every Pharaoh added something, creating a complex of different temples,
sanctuaries and monuments, including the great hypostyle hall built by
Seti I, a forest of 134 papyrus-shaped pillars which is large enough to
contain both St. Paul's in London and St Peter's in Rome. At 29.2M tall
the Obelisk of Hatshepsut is the tallest in Egypt, and was originally tipped
with electrum, an alloy of gold and silver. It's twin now lies by the Sacred
Lake to the east of the temple.
It is sometime about now that I discover that there is a problem with
my camera. It still works, but the view screen has a tendency to break
up, and it turns out it is not just the screen, as the photographs are
ruined as well. I find that if I give it a squeeze or a sharp thump it
rights itself, but it is extremely irritating, and I lose a lot of
pictures because of it.
The caleshes take us home again, and after a cooling beer by the pool on
the hotel roof we all go our separate ways for dinner. I make tentative
arrangements to meet up, but when I return to the room, which I am sharing
with Chris, I find him fast asleep, and decide that he has the right idea,
so I have a quick shower and collapse into bed. It is only eight o'clock!
It has been a very long day, and tomorrow we are up even earlier.
