The sun comes up pure white and hot on the Nile. No color in the sky; it is a white disk against a white canvas. Not a cloud in sight.
It was 114 yesterday and supposed to be the same today but right now at 5:00 it is a nice 89 degrees.
We are moving slowly north, the smell of burning wafts in on the breeze through the open French doors.
I went up on the sun deck by the pool for a half hour to watch as we glide on the current.
I am still not feeling 100%. I am rested but still have diarrhea, so I decide to go see the ships doctor. I go see the concierge and he just smiles, opens his desk drawer and hands me two pills.
“Come back if you need more!” He says cheerfully. Happens all the time.
The pills are dispensed like candy. Popped two down and I was good to go for the day.
We had a good breakfast. Nice break from typical Egyptian food. I had an omelette and a bowl of Cocoa Krispies and coffee.
Cocoa Krispies. Breakfast of sugar-deprived champions.
They make this really great lemonade that is really lemons and limes together, and it is very refreshing.
The ship tied up right outside of Komombo Temple for our first stop of the day.
“The mound of gold.”
This was a really nice temple with a surprising amount of un-destroyed carvings and hieroglyphs, some still colored.
It is all so detailed and ornate, you just have to wonder how long it took to do all the fine carving, both raised relief and sunken relief.
I mean we always think about how they moved such huge stones, but the fine finish work itself is a wonder. And the colors... they must have been a real sight.
There is a cool section that is a calendar showing the three seasons, represented by three lion headed goddesses.
“And what are the three seasons?” The guide asked.
“Hot, hotter and hottest” was my guess, but the answer was floods, planting and harvest.
Anyway, the calendar was interesting because it showed pictures of what to do on what dates. The dates were interesting because we could see the counting system, all sticks (one) and horseshoes (ten). So nnlll is twenty-three.
This temple was sort of divided in two, with two entrances and two basalt alters.
Did I tell you basalt is especially hard to carve?
And to top it all off, there were crocodile mummies! Also a nice selection of dried and shriveled up crocs. And carved crocodile statues.
Back to the ship and we are off again. They want to keep us busy but we want to relax, rest, have a drink and a swim, so we are refusing all the offers for extra tours, balloon rides and so on. It is just so relaxing to be out of the constant hustle and noise of the streets, hidden away on our ship gliding down the Nile.
So I sit on the sun deck, or in the lounge, laid back on the plush sofa with a drink (lemonade and a shot of vodka, on ice) or in our room, the French door open; my feet propped up on the railing watching time slip by.
The timelessness of the Nile.
I like this quiet relaxing Egypt. Time to recharge.
As we passed a dock I heard a whistle. I looked up, a bunch of kids on the dock. So I whistled back (the loud, two finger in the mouth kind of whistle). The kids jumped up, started waving frantically, whistling again, so I waved back and whistled one last time.
Our next stop was Edfu, the ancient capital.
Isis and Osiris got together here and through hook or crook or actually under “the protection of the cow” they had a son, Horus.
Horus is the favorite god of the Egyptians.
We tied up at the dock, and took a horse cart to the temple. You have to take a horse cart because the horse-cart-mafia has a lock on transportation. You wait and the horse-cart-Godfather assigns you a cart.
We trotted through the town. It is small, cleaner than Cairo, but hot and dusty.
A kid went by in a tuk-tuk yelling “Hello! Hello!” And waving.
We laughed and waved back. “Hello!”
“Money money money!” He yelled with his hand out.
We had to run the gauntlet going into Edfu, then again going out. Bunch of crap for sale.
Edfu is a mostly intact temple. It has the usual vandalism and the paint is really faded, but all the walls are still standing as is the ceiling. So this gives you a real sense of the layout of the temples; the hidden rooms, books and crannies. I liked the marks in the rock where they fit wood to hold it together.
Gail and I changed and went up to the pool on the roof. Boy was that nice.
She stayed to sleep in the sun while I headed in for a beer and the soccer game.
At 16:00 we sailed on to Esna for the night. Tomorrow: Luxor.
We had an Egyptian meal and then there was a dress up Egyptian party.
During dinner the mosque next to the boat let go with the evening call. The imam had the speaker set on reverb, and it sounded cool.
You could pay the ship to rent Egyptian clothes. We skipped it and went up to crash, because tomorrow we are up very early and out at 6:00 to explore Luxor before the heat of the day settles in.