FAREWELL JACQUIE

Sad news from home. Our dear old dog Jacquie had to be put down as she was very poorly. She would have been 16 years old in May this year, and we had hoped that she might survive until we returned, but it was not to be.

We have wonderful memories of her though. She was a great lizard catcher, and we well remember the time she came out of the bush with Hedgehog spikes stuck in her mouth when she thought that she was a hedgehog hunter. And flatulence was one of her occasional contributions!

Known as the "Queen of Groom Street" her morning exercise was to wander up the street to determine who had invaded her territory overnight, cock her leg (this was a female dog?) and overmark the predators. In the early light of day her white bum always gave away where she was.

Lovely memories of you Jacquie and it is good to know that the last few months of your life were spent being loved by Greg and Jeannie and those other Crows Nest residents.

Farewell.

SARAH'S BIRTHDAY

Sarah came over from Norway for her 29th birthday. Baard had booked to come with her, but,surprisingly he was called over to Australia for a Centrebet Conference.

Sarah arrived on Sunday, and with Carol working, she and Dad spent Monday doing some shopping - bought some lovely warm boots for snow walking in Norway, and generally relaxed. Tuesday, Carol was unaccountably struck down with a mysterious stomach wog, and had to ring the school to say she would not be available. And then we al took off for a day in London.

Popped in to St Pauls Cathedral, tubed our way to Leiccester Square, which Len knew was the wrong station as we were really aiming for Picadilly where we knew there was an excellent Japanese restaraunt which was to be Sarah's birthday present. Finally found it and had a really super meal - amazing how much a growing girl can put away!

Went to see the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben and then took a bus towards the Tower of London so that we could catch the train home from Fenchurch Street. Lot's of puffing and huffing - but we made it.

Wednesday we were going to drive down and see Peter and Mary, but Len was suffering from a nasty cold and we did not think it wise to risk giving the infection to Mary who is still recovering from her second hip operation. So we pottered around. Sarah made a lovely casserole and a pleasant day was had.

Thursday morning we haad to get Sarah to Stansted to fly home -BUT when we woke up there had been a heavy fall of snow. We heard on the radio that Stansted was closed -and then that schools were closed -so Carol decided to accompany us to the airport which had predicted it would open later in the day.

Swept snow off the car - and tentatively drove the 40 odd miles to Statsted where we dropped Sarah off. When we got home there was a call from Sarah to tell us that her flight had been cancelled, and that Ryanair (her carrier) could only tell her that their next flight into Stavanger was on Sunday!!

Carol got onto the internet and after some exhaustive tooing and froing managed to book seats on British Airways from Heathrow to Oslo late that day and a Norwegian Air flight from Oslo to Stavanger early the next day! Poor old Sarah - she had to get the Express Coach from Stansted to Heathrow and wait there for 8 hours to get to Oslo, then she sat up in the airport at Oslo until late morning to get home. About 36 hours in transit.

So it was quite a birthday to remember.

EGYPYT -FINAL BLOG

Friday was a relaxing day as we sailed from Edfu back to Luxor passing through the Esna lock. We were fortunate on both occasions with the lock as we were able to transit almost without ddelay. We were told that in peak times, there can be a delay of up to 24 hours in a queue to go through the lock which can only accommodate 2 cruise boats at a time.

The odd looking picture above is a work of art which our cabin steward created each day using the fresh towels! We had a crocodile,cat,bird on various occasions all created by twisting the new towels.

The dining room arrangements were set up on the first day, and we had the same table each day. What a coincidence it was to find that the two dining companions Chris and Michelle were from Upwood which is a village adjoining Ramsey where we had spent our first 12 months.Their two children had attended the school where Carol had taught, and Michelle was a teacher from a primary school.

Arriving in Luxor we relaxed before going off to the Karnak Temple for the sound and light show in the evening. The setting was marvellous and for once there were not too many people walking around. The commentary was excellent and we both thoroughly enjoyed the performance.

Saturday arrive and it was time to pack and ready oursselves for the trip home. As the plane did not leave until 20.30 hours we had all day to potter about. We decided to visit the Luxor Museum and walked along the Esplanade to the ticket office only to find that they would only accept Egyptian currency which we had nearly run out of.We were pointed in the direction of a bank and started off only to be accosted by an Egyptian who said he would guide us to the bank. Walking along he told us he was a language teacher from Aswam and was delighted to be of assistance. Changed some money and then our guide said we MUST visit the Market where there was a Saturday morning sale - it was "just up the road". Ho Hum. The market was a Papyrus shop and we were hounded into buying a couple of pictures (actually quite nice and reasonably priced)then we found our guide back outside ready to take us to another market. I offered him LE10 (a quid) but no he didn't want money??? He escorted us back to the Museum, by which time Carol had tried him out in French and realised he was certainly no French teacher (suprise suprise) and then when we got to the Museum he asked for English money.Stiff chees old son - we had cashed the last visible english currency in front of him at the bank! He accepted LE10 reluctantly!

Luxor Museum was all that we had been led to believe. Absolutely brilliant display of artifacts. Mummies/statues and tablets from antiquity. There was a double bed which had been recovered from the tomb of Tutankhaman -together with other furniture from that tomb. And there was a Chariot which had been reassembled from its stored parts from another tomb.The chariot was 3500 years old, and to look at the perfect wheels and axles made one realise just how advanced these people were all those long years ago. Our own Aborigines were truly insignificant.

Looking back on the trip, I guess the big question is really "how did such an advanced civilisation disappear" and lead to those dark years of the Anno Domini?"
Like the Romans and the Incas and Aztecs they left great chunks of history for us to muse over and wonder.

The flight home was 5 1/2 hours getting us to Gatwick at midnight (2am by Egyptian time) but we found the car without any fuss and tootled off home exhausted but very content with the week.

EGYPT PART THREE

Tuesday morning we visited the Edfu Temple and in the afternoon we went to the temple at Komombo. At this stage we were pretty well "Templed out" and the significance of the various Pharaohs and dynastys was becoming quite confusing, so we were pleased to get back on the boat and find ourselves sailing off to Aswam which is the furthest southernly navigable part of the Nile.

That evening we had the Galabya party which required us to dress up in Egyptian style (see photo above). The "party" was a series of games (pass the bottle etc!) but everyone joined in with good spirits and it was a most enjoyable evening.

Aswam is where the High dam was constructed to form the massive Lake Nasser. It was built with Russian aid as the UK was on the nose with Egypt at the time. The lake covers some 600 square kms and provides hydro electric power to Southern Egypt. The city of Aswam is quite modern (due to the dam works) although we did pass through the old city with it's traditional mud brick buldings when we visited the High Dam.

Our first stop was a visit to the Aswam Quarry where we saw the unfinished obelisk. This obelisk had been cut from the quarry floor and had been almost complete on the top surface and both sides when a large crack appeared which caused the project to be abandoned. The method of completing the obelisk would have been to dig holes along the base of the granite block and insert wooden pegs. This was then soaked with water allowing the pegs to expand and eventually breaking the block away from the quarry floor!! The one just had to lift the 30 metres up, cart it off to the Nile (about a mile away) place it on some barges and float it off to Luxor - simple!

Next we took a small boat to visit the Philae Temple. This smaller temple had originally been in the valley which was flooded by the High Dam. It had been deconstructed and moved to higher land where is was reassembled.

On the way back to the Premier we stopped at the Papyrus Centre where we had a brief demonstration of paper manufacture and were then invited to purchase Papyrus paintings which surrounded the walls.Ho Hum -thank you.

After lunch we paid a visit to a Nubian Village by boat. One was invited to make the trip on a camel - but we passed. Nubians are a much darker coloured race of Egyptians coming from the far south of the country. Their life style is totally different and relies on community based cooperation. Whilst appearing quite poor, they had their TV,Fridge,Washing machines etc but otherwise led very simple lives. Carol took a photo of baby crocodiles which were kept in a bath for the children to play with! They are returned to the Nile when they get bigger (the crocs not the kids) Sadly, the children were all beggars despite a community aversion to the practice and it remains to be seen whether they will be able to hold on to the life style.

There was a Nubian show after dinner that night - but we both felt pretty fagged out and took a rain check as we had to be up and off at 4am the next morning for a visit to Abu Simbel.

Wake up call at 3.30am - a cup of tea - picked up a breakfast box and onto the coach.We didn't get too far before we came to a halt and joined a queue of coaches. It was explained to us that we had to travel in convoy across the 275 kms of desert for security reasons. There would have been some 60 coaches lined up waiting for the start gun. I haven't mentioned before that there was a continual presence of sub macine gun toting security guards everywhere we visited, and each coach was allocated one for this trip. It was dark of course, and whilst some passengers slept,I was fascinated with the slow approach of dawn and the desert landscape. There was a constant jockeying of positions between the coaches, and it was a bit awesome being overtaken on the quite narrow road while travelling at 70 mph!

We arrived at Abu Sembel at7.30 and were told we had two hours to view this magnificent temple before we had to get back on the coach for the return trip! With every coach arriving about the same time, the crowd was annoying and it is something that we found difficult to accept, not only from the point of view of our own ability to properly appreciate the site, but there must be a significant hazard to the preservation of the temples and their surrounds. The temple had originally been in the path of the Lake Nasser flooding, and it was Unesco who organised the moving of this temple and 21 others which were threatened with submerging. It took 10 years to dismantle the buildings, and more remarkably to cut the massive statues from their rock face and to transport and reassemble it all at Abu Simbel.Second top photo shows the size of the statues.

The trip back in daylight was an impressive desert race with overtaking and being overtaken some sort of game. We saw the desert mirage which was dramatic. In the distance it seemed that there was a sea of water with palm trees reflected in the water - but just a mirage.

After lunch we were taken on a Felucca ride across to an island where there was a botanical garden. The Felucca is the traditional Egyptian sailing boat and I was very impressed with the handling characteristics. Everything was pretty worn out, frayed ropes,patched sail - but she went!

EGYPT PART TWO

Monday morning we went to the Luxor Temple which was just across the Esplanade from where we were moored. The Temple covers several acres and is mind boggling in the size of the Pylons,Statues,Obelisks . There was a record of a high water mark where the Nile had flooded many years ago, which must have been a pretty impressive sight. Of course, the temple was partly buried by sand and debris until reclamation work started in the 19th century. It is remarkable that nearly all of the ancient tombs,temples and other ancient features, remained virtually untouched for thousands of years. Nowadays there is continual exploration and digging being carried out by both Egyptian and overseas Universities, which means that there is still a great
deal to be discovered.

The it was on to Karnak Temple.This is the largest temple complex anywhere in the world and represents the work of successive Pharaohs.

One of the outstanding features in Karnak is the Obelisk pictured top left. This monument was commissioned by a Queen Hatshepsut and is hewn in one single piece of Aswam Granite (we later visited the Aswam quarry) and is some 97 feet high weighing 320 tons. It was then floated down the Nile on barges, carried ashore and erected in the Luxor Temple. The hieroglyphics on the base of the Obelisk reveal that it was completed in 7 months from start to finish. I can't help thinking that those guys would have built the Eiffel Tower in a couple of weeks!

The other incredible feature is the Hypostyle Hall which comprises 132 Columns each over 40 feet tall and is absolutely awe- inspiring.

. While this is some three kilometres away from Luxor Temple, it was originally connected by an avenue lined with Lion statues. Parts of this avenue are still visible, but most of it has now built over and whether it will ever be completely restored remains in the lap of the Gods. Karnak is on the original site of Thebes , the ancient City.The Temple is again spread over several acres and contains several large statues of Pharoahs and a lake which was used for entertainment. It was here that we enjoyed a "Sound and Light" show on the last night of our tour.

Back to the boat, lunch and we sailed for Edfu passing through the Esna water lock. While waiting for our turn to enter the lock, several Bum Boats came alongside with shouts of "Hello" and displayed their wares to the passengers. They threw shawls,scarfs,dresses etc up onto the deck of the Viking Premier and bargained their hearts out. Rejected items were simply thrown back!!

That evening there was a "cocktail" party at which the various officials of the crew were introduced. Just as the emcee introduced the Skipper as a qualified Nile skipper, there was an almighty bang as the boat hit the side of the dock. Dinner (more food) was interrupted by a birthday cake celebration with the waiters parading through the dining room banging drums and singing -I'm glad it wasn't my birthday!

EGYPT AND THE NILE

We flew from Gatwick to Luxor in Southern Egypt by MonarchAir, a charter service, which, while somewhat cramped, did at least provide excellent airline food. Five hours passed, and we landed at the lovely Luxor Airport and were quickly guided onto coaches and transferred to the Viking Premiere.
Sunday dawned with an early wakeup call - breakfast and then onto the coach and off to the Valley of the Kings on the West bank of the Nile. This was our first exposure to the only real problem on the whole trip - the number of tourists!! There are some 350 cruise boats on the Nile, and each one seems to have the same itinerary for its guests. So one has to accept that there are crowds.

The valley of the Kings is a Limestone area and was chosen for the construction of tombs for three reasons:- The dryness preserved the mummified bodies.The area was quite remote giving security. The rock was able to be cut. Remembering that these tombs date back some 5000 years in some cases, one can only wonder what sort of tools were used in the major excavations.

We were given tickets to visit any three of the some 80 tombs in the Valley, not all of which are able to be visited. The best known tomb is that of Tutankhamun and it was discovered in 1920 by Howard Carter. This discovery was made after Carter had worked for five years removing debris from the tomb of Ramses V1, and one can imagine the immense amazement on his face when he finally opened a door to find the mummified King surrounded by all of the possessions which had been buried with him to enable him to pass onto the next life.

The tomb of Thutmosis 111 requires a fairly exhausting climb up steps through a narrow defile and then down into the tomb itself. The inscriptions on the walls depict various events in the life of the God and associations with other Gods and Spirits which will enable a successful afterlife. The sarcophagus was empty, the mummified body (as in many of the tombs) having been taken to museums around the world.

Our guide, Gamal, had a degree in Egyptology from Cairo University and was most knowledgeable. I must confess though that after listening to him for some time I was totally confused about the relationship of Rameses,Thutmosis,Sethos11,Amenophis11 et al!! One particular Pharoah stuck in my mind as having reigned for some 65 years, sired 130 sons ans 120 daughters by a number of wives including three of his own daughters!!We know how he spent his time!

The it was off to the Valley of the Queens and a visit to two more tombs. Then we went to the Temple of Hatshepsut. The top left picture shows this incredible temple. It had all the appearance of a recently constructed building, but it was in fact thousands of years old, and had been carved into the side of the mountain behind it!!
There is just no way that one can contemplate the enormous amount of planning and work needed to create this extraordinary building.

Back to the boat, lunch and a rest before a welcome meeting at which we were given sound advice on avoiding "Delhi Belly", told about the market traders' practices (always bargain and bargain again) informed that we would be expected to provide tips for the crew (L2 per person per day) the porters and coach drivers (L1 per day).

After dinner we were entertained by a belly dancer and a Dervish dancer - fascinating.

More to come