Safaga (Egypt)
Trip Start
Jan 06, 2008
1
41
49
Trip End
Apr 22, 2008
Safaga (Egypt) - 7th April 2008. We were up at 5:20 ready to travel 3.1/2 hours to Luxor. The first 2 hours we travelled through mountains and desert and the remainder through lush countryside, strip farming, main crops were sugarcane and wheat. Most of the work was done by hand with lots of donkey power. The mud houses along the route underlined the abject poverty of the day to day subsistence farming. We were shocked to say the least at how the Egyptians outside the city lived, however they were cheerful, smiling and waving to us all on the way. We had to travel in a convoy escorted by armed policemen at all times. We also had to go through several police checkpoints and villages were all the traffic was stopped to allow us to speed through on our way to Luxor, we felt like Royalty. On arriving our first destination was the Temple at Karnak a huge site of walls, pillars, obelisks and statues with most of them covered in hieroglyphics in excellent condition, considering the age of the artefacts. Next was lunch at a 5 star hotel and then off to the Valley of the Kings. We entered 2 tombs incredible drawings, hieroglyphics and fantastic colours so vibrant after 3000 years. We then had 2 more photo stops at 2 other ancient sites. Onto the hotel where we stayed for our overnight stop. A huge room with separate lounge and balcony with a view from the rear window overlooking the Nile. (So much space after living in a small stateroom) We had a BBQ on the terrace by the side of the Nile, we then returned to Karnak for a Light and Narration show. Then to bed.
