Coastal Change

After a pretty good night's sleep we were up early for our delivered breakfast - again a none too appetising mix of bread rolls and pastries. We were sitting up to see the platform at Giza Station during our stop there at about 6:00am - the place we had been in such a desperate hurry to reach just over a week ago. This time we continued on across the river to Cairo's main Rameses Station, which with a few pauses for signals or whatever, took another half an hour.

Exiting the platform at Rameses we took the wrong turn and - after a vigorous struggle up the stairs against a tide of humanity coming the other way - found ourselves on the opposite side to the main ticket office. While I minded the luggage Laura went off and found the right place to be - and how to get there - and we then used an overpass to get to the main station concourse. As it happened there were no 1st Class tickets left for the next train to Alexandria, leaving at 8:00am, so we had to settle for the cheaper 2nd Class Air-Con tickets instead, costing EGP70 (AU$5.30).

Which turned out to be fine. Laura used a doily on the rather grubby seat, and there were no other foreigners in sight, but the carriage was air conditioned and comfortable. The trip took us through the extensive Nile delta which is a heavily cultivated region growing all manner of crops. And, in this post Aswan High Dam era, also reportedly struggling with over use of fertilisers, salinity and the effects of irrigation on the water table. The Nile splits into two main branches through the delta and we crossed both of them on the way to Alexandria.

The trip took about 2h:30m and after we disembarked we had to haul our luggage along part of the "platform" that was dirt and sand only. Our hotel - the recently restored Paradise Inn Windsor Palace - was situated on the corniche running along the shore of the harbour, and since it was not yet even lunch time and much more temperate here on the coast, it was a pleasant introduction to the city to walk to the hotel and take in the sights.

To begin with, just in the small square outside the station, there was a street market in operation. I minded the luggage while Laura had a quick look, but it was mostly western style clothes and cheap plastic goods which were of no interest to us. We crossed the park and followed the main street down to the harbour. There were lots of interesting shops and we noticed at least one place selling what looked like a nice fruit yogurt. When we reached our hotel we were a bit puzzled, because it seemed to be all closed up, until we realised that the entrance was in the side street.

Ocean & Fort glimpses.

The place next door.

It really was quite grand looking inside and we were again pleased to learn that we'd been given a free upgrade to a suite. The lift up to the 5th floor was a real vintage piece - very small with swing inner doors and a fancy, ironwork, gate-like outer door that had to be operated manually. Our room was spacious, with high ceilings and an ornate chandelier, and  and the small balcony offered "ocean glimpses" from the side street - and a nice view of what could have passed as a bombed out building across the road!

The restaurant menu.

After settling in we set off to find some lunch as our first priority. We explored the streets one block back from the corniche and, after Laura managed to narrowly avoid getting run over by a tram, ended up at a little corner restaurant - with clichéd red-checked table clothes. As is so often the case, reading the mangled English menu offered some entertainment, but nevertheless we had a nice mixed plate and some salads.

Nice harbour views on offer.

A fishy looking mural.

Thus fortified we set out on a walk along the waterfront to the fort out on the point - The Citadel of Qaitbay. Along the way we passed the local fish markets, which smelled exactly as you'd expect a fish market to smell. In the end it was a gentle stroll of less than an hour to reach the fort. Once there we paid the modest entry fee of EGP40 (AU$3) to enter the fort and have a look around.

The fort's main citadel.

Doorman on a break...?

Fort Qaitbey was built in 1480 on the site of the legendary Pharos Lighthouse (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) by a sultan whose name, co-incidentally, was Qaitbey. Some of the stone from the original lighthouse, which was destroyed by a series of earthquakes, was re-used in the fort's construction. The fort itself is a bit of a warren of rooms, many of which provide good views out to sea or back over the city. I think there might have been a few local school groups visiting as well - there seemed to quite a few youngsters about.

Exploring the fort.

The ornate ceiling.

Window view.

On our way back, instead of just retracing our steps along the corniche, we detoured about a block back from the waterfront to explore. This took us through some much less touristy scenery. At one stage we found ourselves passing through a whole lot of small mobile fair ground rides lining both sides of a street. Some of the merry-go-round "seats" were a bit macabre - fierce looking sea monsters, scarily grinning clowns and tigers with children in their mouths. We couldn't be sure if they were in active use or had been "mothballed" for some future carnival. Certainly nothing was happening at the time - perhaps it comes alive on weekends or holidays.

The carnival is over...

We also found a local cake shop selling a variety of delicious looking cakes. We duly sampled some, although it took a while to decipher the correct selling process - point to the thing you wanted, have a chunk cut off, wait for it to be weighed and then take a small slip with the price on it to the sales counter - three steps way. After paying,  the slip was stamped and you could return to the cake counter to pick up your packaged purchases. It was certainly worth it though, as we found a step to sit on and devoured them straight away.

Back in our hotel room we put our feet up for a while as we considered plans for dinner. Around dusk we headed out to an eatery nearby that was recommended in the LP guide but found that it was standing room only - just to wait for a table! Well that wasn't going to work, so we left there to browse for an alternative. Fortunately we found a little local diner with pictures of some attractive looking meals out the front. Pointing to one, the owner seemed a little reluctant to sell us this dish. Memories of the offal stall in Luxor came flooding back, and with some pointing to appropriate body areas we were able to confirm it was in fact liver.  Luckily there were beef dishes on offer as well, which sufficed nicely.

With the main course taken care of we set off to try for dessert at The Bakery Shop, or TBS as it is known. It was about a 10-15 minute walk, and we passed another very promising looking patisserie, "Chaque Jour", just before we reached TBS.

Treats in hand we walked back to our hotel, with a slight detour to get a couple of the fruit yogurts we had seen on our walk from the station this morning. So by the time we made it back to our room it really felt like we'd done quite a bit of walking today - which of course we had. Still we had some nice desserts to savour before turning in for the night.

Not a bad view for breakfast!

Breakfast the next morning was on the rooftop terrace - such a common feature in Egypt - and this one was truly superb as befitting a hotel of this stature. Not only was the view over the harbour  stunning, the array of food available from the buffet was possibly the best we'd seen on this trip. Needless to say we were both as full as the proverbial egg by the time we waddled back to our room.

Hauling in the net.

Sorting the catch.

After packing up, checking out and leaving our bags in the care of the hotel for a few hours, we set off for a walk, in the opposite direction to yesterday afternoon, to the modern "Bibliotheca Alexandrina". This is the modern equivalent of the legendary Library of Alexandria, which was once the ancient world's single greatest archive of knowledge. Before we got very far we saw a group of fishermen on the shore hauling in a huge net that a boat had dropped out in the harbour, so we doubled back and watched to see what they managed to catch. It took them about 20 minutes to haul the net in, and the catch looked to be a fairly modest one. Perhaps the most striking thing was not just the number of plastic bottles and that were caught in the net, but the fact that the fishermen simply plucked them out of the net and tossed than back in the water! It was hard to believe, given the huge harbour that Alexandria sits on is beautiful - blue and shiny and, fishermen's hauls not withstanding, very clean.

The Sea Bride statue.

Fish-eye view of the library.

Once that entertainment was over we resumed out planned walk. The library was much closer than the Citadel had been so it only took us about 20 minutes to stroll there. Just in front of it was an interesting piece of art work known as "The Sea Bride Statue" - couldn't quite see the connection myself, but it looked nice. As the guide book says, the modern library building looks a bit like a discus half buried in the ground at an angle. Clearly, even thousands of years on, the Egyptians are still capable of producing buildings to captivate the viewer. We didn't have time to go in and explore the library so we contented ourselves with a look around the outside.

The plan was to next treat ourselves to a nice morning tea at the TBS, but by the time we had navigated our way there we still didn't really feel very hungry (did I mention the big breakfast?) so we decided to first continue on to the train station and buy our tickets for the 2:00pm train back to Cairo. This time, knowing that the cheaper 2nd Class Air-con cars were perfectly acceptable we didn't even enquire after a 1st Class fare. By the time we made it back to TBS we at least felt we could do some justice to treating ourselves - so we did, by ordering a couple of cakes and a cappuccino and sitting at an upstairs table. As we approached the end of our trip it was a nice indulgence.

The ornate front room of the hotel.

The old style lift.

It was then time to start back to our hotel to collect our bags. Rather that just walk down the same main street we took a bit of a detour and got there via a slightly different route. Back at the hotel I took the opportunity to take a couple of photos of the sumptuous interior before we left. With our packs in tow we walked back to the train station. We were early but the train was already waiting on the platform so we had plenty of time to find our designated seats and settle in before the 2:00pm departure.

When we were planning our travels around Egypt I was wondering if we might have been better to skip Alexandria to give ourselves more time at other points in our travels. However even though our time here had been limited to one night we were glad to have seen it and would have been happy to stay longer - even just for the hotel alone!

Amazing Abu Simbel

Our route out of Aswan took us over the original Aswan Dam rather than the High Dam a few kilometres further upriver. Once we were out of town the roadside scenery on offer was a whole lot of not much - certainly in the way of any greenery.

A lot of straight road, and little else.

In pursuit of desert selfies...

Counter mural in the rest stop.

About two hours out the driver turned in to a little rest stop for a leg stretch. A bus of Asian tourists pulled up just after us and almost all of them headed straight across the road to take photos of each other against the desert background - probably a landscape they don't see much of at home. About this time we realised we'd forgotten to collect our leftover chicken from the fridge this morning, which was a real shame.
When we got back in the car our driver said it was only another hour to Abu Simbel. About half and hour later we started to pass what looked like a sizable new development, full of many high unit blocks, on our left. The driver explained that this was part of a "new city", an integral part of a massive project to turn more of the desert into arable land by harnessing the water from the huge Lake Nasser, created by the Aswan High Dam, for irrigation. Young men willing to take on the farming of these "new lands" could buy an apartment in the new city quite cheaply. Shortly afterwards we crossed a bridge over a huge canal that was directing water to these new lands off to our right - where we could indeed see a hint of green in the  distance. It seemed surprising that water was enough to make this country arable as the soil looked sandy and barren. A little bit further on we passed over another canal which the driver explained was an overflow canal to take excess flood water away from Lake Nasser when it got too full.

The "New City".

The main irrigation canal for the new farmlands.

Just after this we reached a fork in the road. Straight ahead for about 40 kms and you'd find yourself in Sudan (if the military let you through) but we turned left for Abu Simbel, which was not far away. The town was built from scratch in the 1960s as the rise of Lake Nasser flooded the ancient Nubian lands. Most famously of course it involved the dismantling of the ancient Abu Simbel temple dedicated to Rameses II and reconstructing it above the Lake Nasser high water line. As we drove through, the "new" town of Abu Simbel was therefore a little reminiscent of Canberra, in that it was purpose built, well laid out and had lots of open space.

Our bed, complete with towel swans.

We checked into out lodgings at the Toyu Hotel about 1:30pm and were surprised and pleased to find that we had been given a free upgrade to the deluxe suite - perhaps because we just happened to be the first to check-in for the day. We were glad of the upgrade as from what we saw of the other rooms they looked a bit pokey.

After we'd settled in we set off to walk the 400 meters or so to the ticket office for the Abu Simbel temples. Abe Simbel had long shown up on my phone's weather app as the hottest place on our itinerary and we were grateful that over the last couple of weeks the daily maximum had dropped from the searing mid 40 degrees celsius to just a sizzling mid 30s. The route took us past a large cafe, which seemed largely deserted, and a long arcade of souvenir stalls, which were also mostly deserted at this hour. When we reached the ticket office we could see the incumbent ticket seller asleep on the floor at the back of the booth (clearly this wasn't peak hour for visitors) and were not going to disturb him until an attendant nearby insisted on rousing him for us. This way we learnt that it was not economical to visit the temples now and then again for tomorrow's sunrise, we were best just coming for the sunrise. We also found out that tickets for this evening's Sound and Light show were to be purchased from Shop #2 in the arcade we had just walked past. The shop was not currently open, so we'd just have to purchase our tickets when we came back later. And hope that at least 13 other people did likewise as there was a 15 people minimum for the show to go ahead. And so far Abu Simbel looked rather devoid of tourists.

Adjacent to the ticket office was a little museum with information about the massive UNESCO sponsored campaign to save not only the Abu Simbel temples but at least a dozen other ancient temples and monuments from being drowned under Lake Nasser in the early 1960s. An attendant came in and turned on the video which showed the massive operation that was required to save the  temples. It truly was an amazing feat of engineering that took four years, working right through the blistering desert summers. The whole temple and parts of the surrounding cliff were cut into blocks of up to 30 tonnes and moved 65 metres higher and 200 metres back from the river . They were then reassembled under an artificial dome to mimic the original cliff face - with the cost in today's terms being about US$300 million. The video covered the efforts to save a number of other temples as well. One of the more remarkable projects was to save the Temple of Amada. It was deemed that cutting it up would do too much damage to the fine painted reliefs on the walls so it was mounted on rails and moved intact via hydraulics, a few centimetres at a time, about 2.6 kilometres to higher ground. Pretty amazing feat of engineering.

We didn't stay to watch the end of the video as it was getting well past lunchtime so finding some food was in order. (We were really regretting having forgotten to collect that left-over chicken from the fridge this morning). The cafe we'd passed on the walk up was still pretty much deserted and had little to offer. We continued on past our hotel and eventually found a little general store. If we didn't find something here we'd have had to continue in the heat for at least another half a kilometre to where there were a few more shops, but even then we couldn't be sure of finding a suitable restaurant that was open - Abu Simbel didn't seem to be a very busy place. So we contented ourselves with a few assorted snack supplies from the general store and returned to cool off in our hotel room.

With sunset approaching we set off back to the temple site for the Sound & Light Show. When we reached Shop #2 just before 5:00pm it still hadn't opened, so we passed some time by walking across the road and down to the lake shore to take in the view. Laura even took her shoes off to dip her toes in the water - her verdict, a bit colder than she expected. The sun was setting at 5:20pm as we returned to Shop #2 to buy our tickets (EGP250 or AU$19 each). We had just bought them when we realised that sitting still next to the lake at dusk suggested that some anti-mosquito spray might be in order - and we hadn't brought ours with us. Laura volunteered to dash back to the hotel to get it while I continued on into the temple site and claimed some seats for the show. The temples were reconstructed facing the lake and covered with an artificial hill. The entrance was on the landward side of the hill so it was a bit of a walk around to the "lake side" to where the temples were - and the seating area, which was right next to the lake. Laura took longer than I'd expected to make it back but still did so in plenty of time for the show. We easily made the 15 person minimum too, with about 35 people on hand for the performance.

Temple of Ramses II during the show.

Pano of the temples after the show.

There was a short false start to the show at about 6:20pm, when a fuse blew just a few seconds in. Apparently this  is not unusual and in less than 10 minutes they were able to restart the show properly. Sound & Light shows can be a bit hit and miss from my experience, but this one turned out to be quite good. It didn't just focus on a linear history of the temple but the relationship of the temple to its environment and the achievements of the Pharaoh Rameses II, in whose honour it was built. It also touched on the effort to save the temple from Lake Nasser. Many of the images shown were large-scale copies of the original artwork inside.

Rameses II temple under lights.

Temple of Hathor under lights.

The show finished a little after 7:00pm and we didn't linger long before setting off back to our hotel, where an 8:00pm pre-ordered dinner awaited. After the walk back and getting cleaned up we took our place in the outdoor restaurant and fortunately didn't have to wait too long for our meals - since we hadn't had anything substantial since breakfast. The meals of fish and chicken were both appetising and filling.

Here comes the sun...

Sunrise from temple door.

Afterwards we didn't waste too much time getting to bed since we had to be up early, as in 4:45am, to catch the sunrise at the temples. In fact less than 10 hours after we had walked back along the road from the Sound & Light show we were on our way out again to get there in time for sunrise, which was due at 5:50am. The entry fee was a strange combination of EGP160 (AU$12.20) each for the "Temple Entry & Documentation Centre", plus a "General Tourist Guide Syndicate" fee of EGP13 (guides pension fund?), plus a 200 pence Local Council Fee (possible less than the cost of printing the ticket for it!).

As it happened today (15th October) is only seven days short of one of the two days per year when the rising sun shines all the way through the the Great Hall, the Vestibule and the Sanctuary to illuminate the statue of Rameses situated at the very back of the Sanctuary. Even as it was it was pretty much bang on target today so I don't think the alignment changes much over a week.

The sun hits the back wall.

I have to say that it would be extremely hard to pick from looking around inside the temple that it had been cut into pieces and re-assembled. Once again the walls were more heavily decorated with reliefs than I had expected, which made it all the more impressive. Hats off to the UNESCO sponsored rescue mission that preserved the temple - it would have been a real tragedy to have allowed it to be swallowed up by Lake Nasser. The main hall is supported by the usual massive columns and the ceiling itself was decorated with vultures, the symbol of a protective goddess. The walls were decorated with pictures telling the story of Rameses II's many victories in battle. He reigned for 63 years, during which time he expanded the Egyptian empire and secured its borders. Of course there was the usual restriction of no photography within the temple so the best I could do was a couple of discreet photos with my smart phone.

Temple of Rameses II.

Temple of Hathor.

Rameses II smiting is foes.

Once we had completed a thorough exploration of the Temple of Rameses we checked out the adjacent Temple of Hathor. Whilst not as expansive or as spectacular as its more famous neighbour it was still very impressive. It is fronted with large statues of Rameses II and his consort Nefertari, who is depicted wearing the costume of the goddess Hathor. The reliefs inside tell gentler stories about the goddess Hathor, rather than stories of battle and conquest.

Having completed our sightseeing we had one final look at the overall setting and then turned to make our way back to our hotel. Having been up for a couple of hours we were happy to enjoy a leisurely breakfast - which was served inside the ground floor restaurant rather than up on the rooftop terrace. After breakfast, with still a couple of hours to fill in, we went for a longer walk than yesterday down to the "main" part of town. There were a few more shops here and we stocked up on fruit at one of them. With the day warming up we returned to the air conditioned comfort of our hotel room to pack up and prepare for our return to Aswan.

Mural near our hotel.

Wall poster in town.

Our driver arrived on time at 11:00am for the pickup and it was a straightforward three hour drive, with no rest stop this time since the only "road house" was barely an hour out of Abu Simbel. As we approached Aswan, knowing that we'd still have a few hours to fill before our 5:00pm train, we enquired about taking a slight detour that would have allowed us to see and drive over the Aswan High Dam. However the driver wanted an extra payment for the detour, which we considered a bit steep, so we passed on that idea.

And so we arrived at Aswan Station a little after 2:00pm. First thing was to stroll - luggage and all - to have lunch at the same little eatery we'd visited on Thursday when deciding whether to proceed with the expense of getting to Abu Simbel and back. By now of course we knew that it had been well and truly worth it and we were glad not to have missed the memorable temples of Abu Simbel.

We then setup camp in a shady spot on the station platform while first I, then Laura, took turns minding the luggage as the other went for one last walk through the Souk. On my turn I visited a supermarket we'd found previously to stock up on a few snacks for the train trip. The train turned up by 4:30pm and some staff went to work washing the windows before we boarded. Departure was on time at 5:00pm. For the on-board meals this time we had ordered one beef and one vegetarian meal for a change. The vegetarian meal was the same as the beef one except that instead of the meat there was a small container of limp, lukewarm chips. Laura was somewhat (massive understatement) disappointed.

Thereafter we settled down to bed early after our long day. Luckily I remembered to lock the cabin door, as someone getting on at Luxor tried to join us. Otherwise we slept pretty well after our week of exploring southern Egypt.

Adventures in Aswan

The train trip in the 1st class air con carriage was very comfortable. Lots of leg room and space to recline your seat. We arrived in Aswan pretty much on time at 11:00am. Once again we had opted not to stay on the east bank of the Nile, so this time our hotel was on the large Elephantine Island in the middle of the river. Thanks to Google Maps we also knew that it was a much longer walk to the ferry wharf than it had been in Luxor, so we figured we'd treat ourselves to a taxi ride. The bidding started at EGP80 but we eventually settled on a fare of EGP30. As we were getting into the taxi we noticed that there was a Tourist Information office next to the train station - I think the first one we'd ever seen in Egypt.

The ferry across to the island was much the same as in Luxor - EGP5 for us and EGP1 or free for locals - but no big deal. Our guest house was only about 50m from the ferry wharf on the other side so there was no missing it. We were each given a delicious, cold, fresh mango juice to drink while we discussed check-in - without actually checking in. We talked about our plans to go to Abu Simbel though and this is where things became a little problematic. It seems most people see the temples in Abu Simbel as a day trip via mini-bus - which leaves at 3:30am and gets you there about an hour after sunrise. You spend a couple of hours looking around, and then come straight back, arriving about lunch time. Well, we had already booked a night in Abu Simbel - partly to avoid such a hellish rush and also to see the evening Sound & Light Show at the temple. Unfortunately it seemed that getting there other than on a mini-bus leaving at 3:30am wasn't straight forward. All minivans left at the same time from a central point in the city because a police escort was required for trips so close (40kms) to the Sudanese border. Our hosts told us we'd have to hire a private car with driver to get there and back, which they said they could arrange but we knew not at what cost (and at this point neither did they - I don't think they'd ever been called on to arrange it before). Anyway, once we had dumped our stuff in our room we decided we'd take advantage of the fact that we knew where the Tourist Information office was and go back there to see what we could find out.

We chose to walk it this time, since we were not encumbered by luggage and though hot it wasn't too overbearing. We did attract a lot of attention from felucca captains though. Laura had a long discussion with one and later promised another (mistakenly believing him to be the earlier tout she had spoken to) that if we decided to do a felucca tour we'd let him know.

At the tourist office we discussed our need to get to Abu Simbel on Sunday with the only tourism officer on duty, and our options were indeed limited. Hiring a car to self drive was not an option because - although with the end of the civil war in Sudan it was no longer necessary to always have an actual police escort to Abu Simbel - you still needed a police permit to get through the many checkpoints and we wouldn't get one to self drive. Nor could we just hire a taxi to take us for the same reason. The mini-buses all did the day trip gig starting about 3:30am. So it looked like a private car + driver was our only option - and no doubt that wouldn't be cheap. The tourism officer put us in touch with a tour organiser (another Mohammed as it happened) so we could discuss a price - and we were right to be worried about the cost. His first quote for a return trip was EGP3,500 (AU$270) - more than double what our night's accommodation in Abu Simbel was to cost. At that point we wondered if we might be better to abandon going to Abu Simbel at all, even if it meant forfeiting the night's accommodation. Eventually we got the price down to EGP2,900 (AU$233) but we still wanted time to think it over so we said we'd go and have a (late) lunch to discuss our options.

The tourism officer recommended a nearby restaurant called "Mekka" but when we found it it looked a little fancier and more pricey than we were accustomed to. A look at the menu and an attempt to order some dishes to share confirmed that the servings were both expensive and small, so we abandoned that option and went looking for somewhere offering better value. Fortunately this wasn't too hard and we were soon enjoying a late lunch as we discussed our options. There was the possibility of getting a private car and driver there but a minibus back. The hotel at Abu Simbel had assured us many minibuses travelled from Abu Simbel to Aswan every morning and we would be able to catch one of those for the return journey. However, we realised these minibuses were the ones leaving Abu Simbel about 9:30am to take the day-trippers back, and again we didn't want to be tied to this schedule. Not to mention it wasn't a huge saving as we still had to pay for the driver to return to Aswan, even if we weren't with him. The bottom line was that we didn't really want to miss the chance to see the temples at Abu Simbel - widely reviewed as being unmissable - so to cancel the trip there to save a couple of hundred dollars did not really make sense, nor was rushing to negotiate a minibus ride back an attractive option. With the situation thus resolved, and re-nourished, we returned to the Tourist Office and went about the confirming the booking. This involved writing a formal note about the booking details and sending a photo of that to Mohammed via WhatsApp so he could arrange the necessary police permit, and leaving a deposit of EGP1,000 with the tourism officer.

It was after 4:00pm by the time we had all that sorted and set off on the walk back to the ferry wharf. On the walk back we bought some "take-away" for dinner (two meat dishes + rice + salad) as there were no restaurants near our guest house for dinner and we weren't sure what the guest house itself had to offer. We also managed to book ourselves in for a felucca tour tomorrow afternoon, after Laura again got talking again to the first chap she'd spoken to earlier and realised he wasn't the one she'd promised to contact. The chap's name was Mohammed oddly enough, and he suggested we take his photo so that we would remember what he looked like when we came looking for him at 4:00pm tomorrow.

Once across the river and back in our nice air conditioned room we took it easy for the rest of the evening and firmed up our plans for the remainder of our time in Aswan - not having ended up doing any serious sightseeing today.

From the museum.

Breakfast the next morning on the terrace upstairs overlooking the Nile was a filling and satisfying start to the day. Our sightseeing for the day was to start close to "home" - the ruins of the ancient Nubian village just to the south of us on the island. Just before the ruins we encountered the Aswan Antiquities Museum so we figured we might as well have a look. And a good thing we did - it is actually quite good. The information displays were particularly informative and interesting, and many of the artefacts were also very fascinating.

Temple in Abu village.

Rows of columns.

Once we had finished in the museum we continued on, via a nice shady little garden, to do a self guided walking tour of the ruins of the ancient Nubian village of Abu. The ancient Nubians had their own distinct culture though it included (or pre-dated?) the Egyptian's absorption with pyramids. The village contains the ruins of an ancient stepped pyramid, though of a much more modest scale to those we'd seen in Giza. It was approaching midday, so it was pretty hot walking around the barren site which has very little shade.

View to west bank from Abu.

Remains of wall decorations.

Moving on from the village we had a look at the Nilometer - once used to measure the height of the annual Nile floods in order to predict the likely harvest. I have to admit that I found it seriously underwhelming - just a large square stone-lined pit with its connection to the river all but silted up. We did get a nice view over the river from adjacent to it though.

As we retraced our steps, via the same nice little shady garden, our thoughts turned to lunch. There is nothing resembling a restaurant around the ferry wharf though our map showed a "Nubian Dream Restaurant & Cafe" a little further up the island. Being the Muslim sabbath we were not sure if it would be open or not but figured we might as well check it out. With the aid of Google Maps we were able to wind our way to it though the maze of dusty walking tracks and found that it was at least open if not exactly busy. Being quite hot and thirsty we tried a cold apple flavoured Fanta as we contemplated the menu, but since the Fanta alone cost EGP20 we figured that any food wasn't going to be cheap. In addition, the owners were eating their own lunch and we weren't sure how long the food might take to arrive.

The makeshift slipway.

Instead we returned to our hotel to freshen up before setting out to catch the ferry across to the east bank. While we waited for the ferry we watched a group of guys trying to winch a felucca sideways out of the water up a makeshift slipway. After a couple of false starts they did eventually manage it. We decided to walk through the Souk hoping to find somewhere suitable for lunch, but there was not a lot of buzz at this time on a Friday. We eventually had to content ourselves with ice creams and pastries.

The lizard.

Walking back through the souk Laura spotted a shop with a couple of craft lizards on display and stopped to investigate. The shop was run by an older man and his young adult son. Once they established that Laura's interest was in lizards they scoured their shop, which included a kind of mezzanine level, to collect samples of every lizard they had. This turned up a gem that was quite different to any of the lizards already adorning the front of our house so naturally it was the one we focused on. As a result we probably didn't bargain as hard as we could have but EGP260 still was a good result on his opening asking price of over EGP600.

We were still about 15 minutes early for our 4:00pm felucca trip by the time we made it to the appointed rendezvous point. We were promptly greeted by a man who presented himself as Mohammed's brother who told us he would take us out as his brother was still sailing with another party. He even remembered that we had taken Mohammed's photo when we'd arrange the tour yesterday afternoon. So we followed him down to his boat and climbed aboard as he got a push out from his mooring and set sail down river. We'd only been tacking back and forth across the river, a little clumsily it seemed, for about 10 minutes when who should appear at a bow in a chasing motor boat but Mohammed - come to retrieve his customers from his "brother". I had speculated a little earlier that perhaps this "brother" thing was a scam but I assumed that there would be some code of honour between felucca captains - apparently not.

Fish-eye view of main sail.

Plenty of room with only two passengers.

Anyway we promptly transferred to the motor boat with Mohammed and returned to shore so that we could set off again on his felucca. We started out the same - headed down river but into the wind - though it seemed that Mohammed had a little more panache in the way he handled the sails. We rounded the end of Elephantine Island, with its huge Movenpick Resort, and started sailing downwind on the other side.

Felucca undere sail.

Up the garden path!

We took the opportunity to stop and check out the Botanical Gardens on Kitchener Island. There was less than half an hour until they closed at 5:00pm so it was necessarily a relatively quick walk down the middle and back up the far side. They certainly are very nice gardens and are a great shady place to spend time on such a hot day - though it was approaching sunset so we were well past the heat of the day by then. We were glad we had taken the opportunity to stop and have a quick look around.

View of west bank from the gardens.

We re-boarded the felucca and continued up river as the sun set and the lights of Aswan started to dominate. Once we rounded the southern end of Elephantine Island we were back to tacking into the wind as we sailed past the Nilometer and our guest house on the port side. With all the tacking it was about 6:30pm by the time we disembarked - about half an hour longer than we arranged and, to be hones,t about half an hour longer than we needed. We paid Mohammed an extra EGP20 tip on top of the agreed fare of EGP200 but passed on his plea for more for the "extra" half hour.

By now we really felt like some dinner so we headed back to the Souk. There was a lot more activity there by this time so it was a more interesting time to be wandering through. We were greeted by lines such as "I don't know what you need but I think I have it in my shop" and "We have no foreigner prices - only Egyptian prices". One of the more inventive ones was  a chap who, with a worried glance behind us, called out "You lost something!" When we couldn't see anything on the ground he proclaimed, with a wide smile "You lose a big chance if you don't visit my shop".

We eventually found a little street cafe serving a choice of stewed meats in pita bread pockets. We started with two - one that looked like minced chicken and one chopped beef. Laura took one bite of the "beef" one and realised it was liver, whilst I thought the minced chicken tasted a bit bland - turned out it was lambs' brains. Laura, not a renowned offal eater, was turning a bit green while I was more than happy to finish off both servings. Apparently everything on the menu was offal - there was also a kidney dish I would have been happy to try. However it was more important to try and find something we could both enjoy. At least the offal dishes were cheap - the pita pockets only cost EGP2 each.

Moving along we became enthralled watching a falafel stall. One guy was scooping handfuls of the falafel mix out of a big dish, squeezing some of the mixture out the top of his clenched fist to make a ball and then with his other hand whipping that into the large frying pan - all in a very fast, continuous motion. After a batch was ready he gave us a free sample to taste and it really was so delicious fresh out of the frying pan. We ended up buying some falafel pockets plus salad as our dinner - it was quite yummy.

We made our way back to the ferry wharf via the Souk. Along the way one of the shop owners obviously recognised us as having walked past earlier and said hopefully "You came back! Are you looking for my shop?" At the end of the Souk, instead of turning down onto the main road along the river, we continued straight ahead though a maze of little lanes and dimly lit gravel backstreets until we came to Dr Mohammed Yasin Alyan Street, which was festooned with colourful street lights,  and followed that back to the river near our wharf.

Anchor man and boat captain.

After another nice breakfast the next morning we set off on a new day's adventure. Through the hotel we had arranged, at a cost of EGP120,  a driver to pick us up from the other side of the river and take us to see the Temple of Isis on Philae Island. What this actually involved was about a 15 minute drive south to the Philae Temple marina where you buy your tickets for the 10 minute boat trip over to the island - along with a few dozen other tourists.

Main entrance to Temple of Isis.

This is not actually the original location of the temple, or the original Philae Island. When the first Aswan dam was built in 1906 the Temple of Isis in its original location was flooded for most of the year. With the building of the Aswan High Dam in 1960 the temple would have been inundated completely and permanently, so a rescue missing was launched which saw the temple carefully dismantled and painstakingly reassembled above the water line in this new location.

Different column styles.

It's a good thing that they went to such trouble because it would have been a great pity to have lost such a wonderful piece of ancient architecture. Sadly though the decades of being partly submerged before it was moved means that virtually all of the original colour has been stripped away from the elaborate reliefs. Still the 18 metre high reliefs on the main entrance of the Temple of Isis - featuring Ptolemy XII smiting his enemies - is pretty impressive. Inside the hypostyle hall there is an impressive array of huge columns (reminiscent of Karnak, though on a smaller scale) topped with a range of different cornices.

Talented ape.

Kiosk of Trajan.

Next to the Temple of Isis is the Temple of Hathor notable for its many reliefs of musicians, including one of an ape playing the lute. ("Hey, Hey, we're the Monkeys"! 😄). The other main structure on the island is the Kiosk of Trajan, apparently made famous by the fact that it was a favourite subject for artists in the 19th century.

Once we had finished looking around we caught the next available boat back to the marina and sent a message to our driver that we were ready to be picked up. We only had to wait a few minute for him to arrive and we headed back to town. Instead of returning to the ferry wharf though we arranged for him to drop us at the Nubian Museum - a few hundred metres from the wharf.

We spent the next couple of hours at the Nubian Museum which is quite extensive - and nicely air conditioned! Most of the time was spent reading the many interesting information boards which describe the interaction between Egyptian and Nubian culture over thousands of years. We were feeling a bit hungry and leg weary by the time we'd finished with the inside of the museum, but there was still the outside to go. The grounds include a botanical garden with a variety of Egyptian plants. You are also supposed to be able to see the Unfinished Obelisk from the grounds but despite working out roughly which direction we had to look we couldn't make it out. Perhaps if they had at least left it unfinished and standing up instead of lying down it would have been easier to spot! There is also apparently a school next door, and when we first ventured outside we were hailed with the usual requests wanting to know our names and where we were from.

It was now well past lunch time (again - this is getting to be a habit!) so we set forth in the heat to track some down. After about 20 minutes we ended up at the place along the river where we'd bought take-away on our first afternoon in town. This time we took a seat inside and ate in-house, with Laura glad to know that we were safe from being offered any more offal! It was very nice of them to turn the air conditioner on for us - we must have looked like we needed it.

After our lunch we walked via the Souk back toward the train station. Along the way we bought a whole cooked chicken from one of the street cafes, and some salads to go with it, to serve as our dinner. I needed to get some extra cash to pay the EGP1,900 balance for the car hire in the morning so I tried using one of the ATMs near the station and hit a snag. The ATM would let me get to the point of just about issuing the cash and then abort. After a couple of failed attempts I tried another ATM and it told me I had already exceeded my daily withdrawal limit. We even tried Laura's card but it wouldn't work either.

The terrace view across the Nile.

After all that frustration we ended up catching a taxi back to the ferry wharf - once they had dropped their price to the same EGP30 we'd paid when we first arrived on Thursday. Once we had returned to our hotel and had a rest in the air con we had a very nice chicken and salad dinner on the roof top terrace with a nice night time view over the Nile.

After dinner I tried using Skype on my laptop to ring Mastercard in Australia to check if there was any problem with my card but that didn't go well. Being out of business hours there was no operator to answer the call and the messaging system didn't recognise numbers pressed on a Skype keypad. I also tried using Skype on my iPhone but it didn't recognise the credit I already had on my Skype account and wouldn't let me add any either. Technology - great when it works, but...

Next morning, by which time it was during business hours in Australia, I was able to ring again on Skype and get through to an operator. They confirmed that there was nothing wrong with my card and no incomplete transactions had made it through either - it must have just been a dodgy ATM. Since it was a new day there should be no more spurious messages about having exceeded my daily withdrawal limit either.

After another nice breakfast on the rooftop terrace we packed up and caught an early ferry back to the east bank, so I'd have time to walk up to an ATM before our scheduled 10:00am rendezvous with our driver for Abu Simbel. I walked past a couple of ATMs to make sure I used one with a Mastercard symbol on it to minimise the chance of another screw up. Extra cash in hand I made it back to where Laura was waiting with about five minutes to spare before Mohammed showed up to take us to our ride which was parked close by. It was all very formal - he confirmed all the details including the pick up time tomorrow (we'd specified 11:00am) and gave us an official receipt for the hire of the car + driver before he wished us well and left us to it.

And so it was that pretty much on schedule at 10:00am we bid farewell to Aswan- for a bit over 24 hours anyway - and set off on the road to Abu Simbel.