Nile Cruise -- day two

While we were asleep in our small, modestly furnished, under-air conditioned cabin (with a nice view through double-glass doors), the ship motored to Kom Ombo. We toured a large temple right on the Nile and learned more about the ancient gods and pharaohs. We then sailed to Edfu, sitting on the sun deck and relaxing under the canopy. The land along the Nile is green and lush. Lots of fields of corn, sugar cane and date palms. There were water buffalo grazing on the shore and in several area, kids swimming in the Nile. They would yell and wave to the boat as we went by. The houses were mud and stick shacks. The crops were transported along dirt roads by flat bed wooded carts pulled by burros. We did not see any tractors.

We docked in Edfu. These big Nile boats pull up next to each other and you need to walk through the lobbies of 2-4 boats to get to the ramp to shore! We met Bedwan and caught a horse drawn carriage through the town to the Temple of Horus and again listened to the history. He is very focused on the Gods and it is hard to get any info out of him about the real people of ancient Egypt and how they lived. The temple was beautiful with lots of the original colors well preserved. It was very hot touring this time of day and we were ready to catch the carriage back to the boat where we spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool with a cold beer-this is getting to be our afternoon ritual. The canopy on the top deck was lowered and the lights were all lowered to sit flat on the deck because we had to pass under a bridge. We stayed in the pool, everyone else on deck had to sit on the deck, not on chairs and when we passed we had about 6-8 inches to spare-it was really close and everyone clapped once we passed under!

The boat took off for Luxor. It was beautiful sitting on the deck with a warm dry wind watching all the feluccas and fishing boats on the Nile and the activity on the farms on the shores. We went throught the big locks in Esna and on to Luxor.