A memorable New Year's Eve!!

Our alarm went off at 1.40am after a fretful 3 and a bit hours sleep! Initially, we were both wide awake. When reception phoned at 1.45 with our official wake-up call, the guy said he was surprised I was so cheery at such an early hour!!

We got up, washed and dressed in super-quick time and were in the top deck lounge bar (we still hadn't had time to explore the ship!) by 2.15am having coffee and cake! The normal departure time for the trip to Abu Simbel is 4.30am. However, it's high season and everywhere we've been so far has been absolutely heaving. Nabil was worried that if we didn't leave until the normal time, we wouldn't fit all our planned activities into the day. So he asked Timeless Tours to pay the extra 3000 Egyptian pounds needed to get us on the early tourist convoy and thus beat the majority of the crowds.

So, here we were at 2.45am, boarding our coach ready to start the three and a half hour journey to Abu Simbel. We arrived at a checkpoint just outside Aswan and waited in a queue until all the other buses who'd paid to be in the early convoy were assembled. There were about 20 in total so we would arrive about 2 hours ahead of the other 300 or so coaches which were expected to visit the site today!!

Mark and I can never sleep on moving transport so we stared into the darkness while our fellow passengers slept. 22 of our group were on the bus 🚌 - the others had opted to stay on the ship. At this moment, it seemed like they had made the right choice! We also had 12 Spanish people on our coach with their guide, David.

The journey was pretty boring until the sun started to come up at about 5. At least then we could look at the scenery although, to be honest, it wasn't very interesting - just desert! 😀

We arrived at Abu Simbel at about 6.30am. Having got our entrance tickets, we walked around the edge of the site on the western banks of Lake Nasser. Rounding the bend, we got our first sight of the iconic twin temples with their rock relief figures. It was jaw-droppingly beautiful in the early morning light and suddenly getting up in the middle of the night was all worth it!

The temples were originally carved out of the mountainside in the 13th century BC during the 19th dynasty reign of the pharaoh Rameses II. They serve as a lasting monument to him. His wife Nefertari and their children can be seen in smaller figures by his feet. Women and children were considered to be of lesser importance and were not given the same position of scale.

The Great Temple is dedicated to Rameses II himself and commemorates his victory at the Battle of Kadesh.

The Small Temple is supposedly dedicated to his chief wife Queen Nefertari although there are more statues of the self-important Rameses than of her!

In an incredible feat of engineering almost equalling the achievements of the ancient Egyptians who built it in the first place, in 1968 the entire temple complex was moved 200 metres from its original position! This was done as part of the International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia. If it hadn't worked, the temples would have been submerged during the creation of Lake Nasser, the massive artificial water reservoir formed after the building of the Aswan High Dam.

Nabil showed us fascinating photos 📸 taken during the moving process and explained how the statues were cut into blocks and then reassembled. Amazing!!

There was one thing that the engineers responsible for the relocation were unable to replicate with absolute accuracy. When the Great Temple was built, it was positioned in such a way that on October 22nd (Rameses II's birthday) and February 22nd (his coronation) every year, the rays of the sun would penetrate the sanctuary and illuminate all the sculptures on the back wall, except for the statue of Ptah, a god connected with death and darkness. This statue always remained in the dark.
The image of the king was enhanced and revitalized by the energy of the sun, and the deified Rameses the Great could take his place next to the gods Amun-Ra and Ra-Horakhty. Since being relocated, this phenomenon still happens on February 22nd, but in October occurs on 23rd.

We were given free time to explore the inside of the temples. The unrestored friezes showing battle scenes are still in amazing condition. It was mind-blowing to see!! It's a feeling we are getting more and more often on this trip!!

By 8.30am, we were back on the bus and heading back to the ship. Once we arrived in Aswan, the Spanish group were taken to a spice shop. Thank goodness we were allowed to go straight to the ship!

We arrived back at around 12.30 so had time to explore our surroundings a little before our 1.30pm lunch. Our cabin is on the same level as reception and is large and comfortable with a walk-in wardrobe/dressing room and a bathroom with full-sized bath - luxuries which most of our fellow travellers don't have!!

The restaurant is on the lowest level of the ship. On the top deck, there is the lounge bar, plenty of outdoor seating and a small pool. It all seems very nice - it's just a shame we don't get to spend very much time on it!

We went down to lunch at 1.30, only to be turned way and told to come back at 2pm. Disappointing, seeing as we were very hungry after our early start, but not surprising. After all, we're running on Africa Time!

When, we did finally get our lunch, it was buffet style and very good! There was a huge selection of salad starters, several different main dishes, and a table laden with sweets and fruit.

After lunch, we had a meeting with Nabil in the lounge bar. We discussed the different itineraries we are all on and booked a submarine trip for while we are in Hurghada. We are the only ones on the Egypt Highlights trip so we will be in the resort in Hurghada until next Saturday whereas everyone else will leave on Wednesday.

By the time the meeting finished, we had just a couple of hours before our evening visit to Kom Ombo temple. We spent the time freshening up, sorting our stuff out, and watching the sunset 🌇 from the top deck. We were now on the move and it was very pleasant to watch the world go by as we cruised down the Nile. This is what it's all about!

All too soon, we were called downstairs to leave the ship 🚢 for our temple tour. We all congregated in the lobby but I think this was a ploy by the ship's crew to get us off the top deck so they could set the room up for the New Year's Eve party!! We weren't actually moored up yet and had to wait another 90 minutes to leave the ship 😂.

When, we did disembark (at 7.30pm), we had to go through another 5 ships in order to reach shore. The doors to the last one were locked so we were delayed for another 15 minutes while they found the one person who had a key! Some of our group were getting very stressed by this point. For us, it's all part of travelling in Africa!! You just have to be patient and go with the flow! 😀

So, later than planned, we finally got to explore Kom Ombo temple with our guide, Nabil. I have to say, it looked stunning lit up at night. BUT it was heaving!! Too many people to really be able to appreciate what we were seeing! We did get a flavour of the place, though.

Built during the Ptolemaic dynasty (180 - 47 BC), the temple of Kom Ombo is an unusual double temple, meaning that there were courts, halls, sanctuaries and rooms duplicated for two sets of gods. The southern half of the temple was dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek, god of fertility and creator of the world. The northern part of the temple was dedicated to the falcon god, Horus. The temple is atypical because everything is perfectly symmetrical along the main axis.

When the site was being excavated, 300 crocodile mummies were found. A few of these are displayed in the Crocodile 🐊 Museum on site. When we got there, it was really crowded so we didn't go in. Those who did reported that it was very smelly!!

Kom Ombo is also known as a temple of healing with friezes depicting medical instruments used at the time of construction, as well as stone reliefs of childbirth and breastfeeding. The healing powers didn't work too well on one of our group, though. She tripped in the darkness, and fell over, hurting her head and knee. She took it in her stride but several other group members were bemoaning the lack of health and safety and saying we should not have been visiting a temple at night! Welcome to Africa! The safety measures you're used to at home do not apply here!

By the time we finished our temple visit, it was 9.30pm. We were all shattered, especially those of us who'd been up since 1.45am! We made our way back to the ship and headed straight to the restaurant for a long-overdue dinner. However, we were stopped in our tracks by crew members who directed us up to the top deck for pre-dinner cocktails 🍸!! When, we got there, we realised they'd gone to a lot of trouble to decorate the room and produce a table full of finger food. There was also a bench crammed full of glasses of drinks, half of which were allegedly alcoholic and half of which were soft. Our disappointment at not getting dinner dissipated somewhat as we all headed for the alcoholic cocktails.

BUT - we were thwarted again!! We were told we had to wait 30 minutes until all the groups were back on board!! GUTTED!! When everybody was assembled, there was a further delay while we had speeches and applause 👏 by and for the crew! Eventually, we were allowed a drink, but guess what?? No alcohol!! Gutted again!!

So, we had mocktails and nibbles and New Year's Eve or not, I was ready to go to bed. Not allowed!! We were directed downstairs for dinner! Again, they had made huge efforts and provided a fabulous meal, but it was too late for most of us to enjoy it! It was gone 10.30pm and I was just unable to cope with a 6-course meal!! To use one of my Dad's favourite sayings, "I kid you not!!" 😂

6 COURSES!! ABSOLUTELY NOT!!

We were all given a single red rose 🌹 as we entered the restaurant.

The starter was already on our place setting - a large plate of smoked salmon and prawns on a bed of salad garnished with capers. My shellfish allergy got me out of eating this. Mark finished his but didn't want mine as well!

Course 2 - a large bowl of soup with a baked pastry top. We both managed about half of this.

Fish course - Nile perch with hollandaise sauce and a pile of rice. I ate the fish 🐟. Mark ate everything on his plate!

Palate cleanser - lemon 🍋 sorbet. This wasn't really a sorbet - more like a mousse. We both ate it. This is where I called it a day!

Main course - sirloin steak with Roquefort sauce, croquette potatoes and vegetables. I refused mine. Mark attempted his. He said it was very tender but he was done! He couldn't finish it.

Dessert - 'Bombe Surprise'. No, no, no!

We retired before the dessert got to our table. It was about 11.30pm. We were so tired we could barely keep our eyes open. There's no way we could stay until midnight to see the New Year in!! I felt sorry for the crew who had worked so hard, but it was just too much, too late!!

As we left the restaurant, we were handed a massive gift bag each containing a plastic Santa mask, balloons 🎈, a rattle, and other tat. We didn't want to offend anyone, but we couldn't carry them with us (although some of our group did!!) so we were to leave these in our room when we left the ship!

A New Year's Eve we will never forget!!

The photos 📸 attached to this footprint will be of the ship and our room. I will post other pictures of the day in subsequent footprints.Leer más