Day 4 Egypt – Up the down River

Woke to a new location, in Edfu – another lovely window view of the next moored ship :-(. The ride is very smooth in this boat and despite going upstream it is moving reasonably quickly. The confusing part is that we are going south, and yet upriver (against the flow of the river) – seems completely backwards to my North American mind.

Edfu was interesting, a more modern temple with what seemed like a maze of anterooms, and stairs and extra corridors and….. it was a complicated but very impressive building. Only sparse pigment left alas. We were taken by horse carriage in pairs through town to the site which was about 20 mins from the dock – many of us feeling uncomfortable about the condition of the horses, and especially those who had made to the animal care Egypt Centre yesterday. I think that will be in the feedback to Exodus – use tuktuks instead… coming back it was HOT and there was incredible congestion down the Main Street, not least because of the numbers of tourists. That’s one thing that will stand out for me for Edfu – the boats arrived pretty well all at once and there were MASSES of people at the temple.

Back on the boat again we settled into our deck chairs to watch the Nile banks go by – interesting. A rail station appearing to be in the middle of nothing sported many people waiting for a train though we never did see any go by. The bird life is decent with herons, egrets, kingfishers, terns, osprey, and others feeding on the shores and many green islands in the middle of the river (as were cows and goats). Rice paddies and banana plantations seem to be the two main crops.

Some enterprising vendors hilariously attached themselves by rowboat to the side of the cruise boats and sold wares from there, with excellent arms to throw onto the sun decks – money paid was sent to an opened towel below and remarkably, no accidents occurred. The afternoon was really hot despite the river breeze but the cool swimming pool was very refreshing to counter the temperatures. Tea was served at 4 p.m. and then at 4:30 we headed out to visit Kam Obo, a temple to the crocodile god. Again, jam packed with tour groups, but there was at least some staggering this time. Of note here were the first pictures of surgical instruments and birthing beds (see pics). The visit ended with a tour through the crocodile museum to see mummified crocodiles, which were found in the hundreds in a crocodile tomb site nearby.

Tonights program includes dinner followed by a Galabaya party (the Egyptian robe) where we are invited to dress up as the staff will. I suspect I will be horizontal after dinner given the cold I have…. The tour company seems to have left the bookings for Abu Simbel flights too late so there is no space now to fly and the only alternative is a 4 hour bus ride each way tomorrow – 4 a.m. wake up call for same (flight is 40 mins each direction and only have to be at the airport 1/2 hour beforehand as no baggage). Sigh.

Memories of today – the masses at Edfu, relaxing on the Nile (in the shade) on the sun deck, and trying to find the boat after Kam Obo as it had moved during our time on shore!