Cruising Lake Nasser – what a delight.

The weather is absolutely perfect – which given that Egypt gets 1” of rain a year is probably not a hard target. But it’s not only clear and bright and lovely – it’s not insanely hot either. So perfect.

Our ship pulls away from it’s mooring at exactly 6:15 – and we arrive in front of Abu Simbel just in time to admire the morning sun illuminating the two temples. Lovely.

Now that we have a broader view of the Temples at Abu Simbel and the surrounding landscape it’s easy to see that our ship was actually moored extremely close to the monuments – the need for a boat ride and a bus ride one of ‘guest safety’ – not distance. I had a feeling this would be true – my intense sense of geographical orientation had been ringing off the hook. I just couldn’t explain the relatively short boat/bus rides and my feeling of exactly where the monuments were located.

The interesting thing about seeing the Temples from the water is that you can also understand where they had been before being moved. It’s really not that far!

After breakfast – not up to Kempinski standards – but I did love my eggs – so fresh and delicous – Andrea and I decide to do a walk.

Ok – we’re on a ship – and it’s a small ship at that – but we still want to walk. The best bet is the 6th floor – where there’s an open air covered lounge area, a swiming pool, two ‘hot tubs’ – one with cold water, the other empty, and enough space to allow folks to walk two abreast.

We walk and chat – and walk and chat. I haven’t done that since my last walk and chat with the Intrepid Traveller – and I admit to missing her, and our walks terribly.

At 10:30 we get a passing view of an old fortress – Kasr Ibrim – and then a detailed lecture on the subject of Ethopia, Egypt and the dam. Not the Ashwan Dam – the one that Ethopia has built blocking off the source of the Blue Nile. The dam has yet to generate any electricity – but it is blocking the entire flow of the Blue Nile into Egypt – and as per Hussien – the discussions between Egypt and Ethopia are not going well. 15% of the water for the Nile comes from the White Nile, 85% from the Blue Nile – so it’s a major problem.

He predicts that if the normal 7 year cycle of the Nile repeats (as it usually does), Egypt will face severe water challenges and it is highly likely that a war will be waged to settle the issue. He explained the situation from Egypt’s perspective – and detailed some of the compromise positions that Egypt has offered, all of which have been denied by Ethopia. He’s predicting that Egypt will (with Sudan’s ok – since Sudan lies between Egypt and Ethopia), try to grab the new dam and run it. Keep your eyes open on that topic.

Sigh – great – another war.

After the lecture we have free time – and I chit chat with my fellow travellers before deciding that I’m seriously hungry. Good news – it’s almost lunch time!. Suddenly several huge flocks of birds skimming the water of the lake fly in formation right in front of the Ship. Our birder friends recognize the larger white birds as Pelicans! They are certainly a lot prettier than the brown ones on St. Croix.

I know it’s insane – but the open air and the exercise has combined to make me hungrier than normal – and I find myself counting down the minutes to ‘feeding time’!

As all the other meals, it’s a buffet with a small section that has two cooks who are preparing food in front of your eyes. Today’s selection is grilled chicken. Yum.

After the lunch, we take the smaller boat from the Ship to a landing near the Amada Temple. Another Temple devoted to Rhamses II – he did a LOT of building in Nubia – and again – it’s glorious.

Unlike Abu Simbel which is lit inside with Electric lights, the Amada Temple is not lit inside. But Hassien is allowed to come inside with us – so in fact the tour is more interesting. The quality of the wall carvings, like those at Abu Simbel is wonderful. Hassien uses a very bright flashlight to illuminate the walls – translates some of the Hiergliphix for us – and explains the meaning of the various images. He also explains how the Egyptians used both natural and artificial colors. They were excellent chemists- and the artificial colors were a lot less $$ – so they are used here – and the colors are still bright 4000 years later. When the temples were moved – the walls were coated in at attempt help preserve the colors – I hope it works.

I do love the pictures I took – there is the oval of the light of the flashlight – illuminating images as Hussien carefully explains the meaning of the pictures. Like Abu Simbel – and unlike Egyptian Temple art I’ve seen in the past, these images seem to move. Brilliant.

Hassien directs our attention to newer ‘graffiti’. This was a camel way station on the way to Mecca – and there are images of camels drawn along the top edges of the walls. A Muslin version of Killroy was here!

We explore the temple complex – its not huge but it is glorious – and then reboard the skiff to head back to our ship.

I should mention how we get on and off the skiff. Leaving the ship, there is a metal staircase that is lowered to the level of the skiff, and then a 2 step ‘stool’ is added to make it relatively easy to get up and down. Helping out are several ‘sailors’ from the ship – and I for one am quite happy to hold their outstretched arms or hands!

When we have to get off the skiff and onto land – there have been created landing areas that are a bit uphill – and the skiff pulls up level with the landing, a boarding plank is placed from the bow of the boat to the landing site, and two sailors hold a pole as a make-shift ‘railing’. Another sailor will stand below the plank to offer a supporting hand on the other side. It sounds dangerous – but actually feels quite safe. I am not thrilled to ‘walk the plank’ – but I haven’t fallen yet!

We return to our ship, I grab a very welcome cup of tea from one of the staff, and we head up to the open air terrace to watch the sunset. At around 5:00 PM Hassien gathers us in the Lounge to watch an old TV show dedicated to the Herculean Task undertaken by UNESCO to rescuse the Nubia Temples. Images of hundreds of workers carefully hand sawing the monuments into pieces which are then carefully transport to the new Temple sites – with the same orientation to the sun of course – but above the eventual high water mark.

Of most interest to me is the fact that they built an arch of steel above the temples, and then hid the arch with stones to create the effect of the temples being built into the rock face as they were when they were made 4000 years ago. This was done between 1960 and 1965 – paid for and orchestrated by French, British, American, etc. experts. I’m so glad they did this – these Temples are unbelievable.

The sunsets – and sunrises – are amazing. A huge round disk appears on the horizon – and showly assends to the sky. This repeats at sunset. But this is not at all what the sunsets look like in Canada. Not even close. Because the horizon is basically flat – no mountains ring the lake – there is nothing to distrub the view. You can easily see why the Egyptians thought there was a scarb pushing a round disk around the sky. It’s stunning.

I take photos – but in this case – a picture just doesn’t do the view justice.

There is a ‘cocktain’ party tonight in the Lounge Bar – they present the heads of departments to us while music plays and we applaud. It’s a chance to meet and chat before going into dinner.

As is our norm – we eat and chat – this time we join Ed and Todd – and are having such a good time the staff has to come over to ask us to leave already! Oppsie!

It’s late, it’s bedtime – and I’ve definitely done my 10,000 steps for the day.

Signing off for another day.

The Soup Lady