Luxor to Kom Ombo

This turned out to be a long, gentle run with all the life of the river going on around us.

Along the banks are hills and palms that bring the closeness of the desert to mind.

The river is full of fish and provides a living for many of those who live in the villages along its banks.

There are some very elegant craft on the river

And the domesticated oxen are common

Traditional lateen rigged feluccas are the most elegant

There were lots of happy children and, indeed, everyone we met was happy to see us, in Luxor, Kom Ombo, Philae, Aswan, Abu Simbel, etc. The fall off in tourism has been catastrophic for those who depend, directly or indirectly, on it for a living. Our guide had not worked for a month and his assistant would not work again until March. The revolution, as much as it HAS to happen, has meant great difficulties for those in the South particularly, though they are far from any trouble.

Spearing fish

Nubian houses

Cave dwellings

The river approach to Kom Ombo is supposed to be spectacular, but with so many boats laid up for lack of trade, the view was rather obscured. Kom Ombo's reputation is that of being only an introduction to Edfu, but as we were not stopping there, it would have to do.

Sobek

The hypostyle hall

Thoth, Horus, Ra-Horakhty

Sunset through the pylon

In the event, it was rather good. Its location high above the river though close enough to walk to gives it a more stately setting, especially as the sun starts to set across the river. The carvings are good and the hypostyle hall, though nothing to compare with Karnak, has some great columns and capitals.

As we left to return to the boat, the temple was beautifully lit up in the warm night.

Return of the blog ... Egypt: cruising up the Nile

I know... I've been a bit remiss, but now, I thought I'd bring you EGYPT! Well, not all of it, plainly but just a bit about our cruise up the Nile from Luxor to Aswan.

This is our boat, the MS Hamees. It has capacity for about 140 but we were only 42 on board, a sign of the huge drop off in tourism since the revolution.

It has the sort of elegance one would expect for a 5star boat. So much so that I decided to download Death on the Nile to my Kindle to read while we were on board.

On our first full day, Marea and I decided to take ourselves off to one of the food markets in Luxor (always a sucker for a good market) so we took a taxi and off we went.

The local produce is magnificent - if I said cabbages and cauliflowers like footballs it would be inadequate - they were bigger than medicine balls and the tomatoes were fresh and juicy but not unblemished like those in an English supermarket - all image and no taste.

We were tired after flying from UK so went back to the boat for lunch and then we set off upriver towards Om Kombo. I love the sight of passing villages, palm trees and mountains behind.

Already the traders were out, selling cloths. This looks a dangerous trade to me; they hitched themselves to our boat and were pulled along at about 15knots. I think they must have drifted far downriver during the day's trading so it was getting them home as well.

Then, the sunset and it was the first day (to almost quote another book).

There's lots more to tell, but at least I've made a start.

Why do cows all point the same way?

Autumn dog-walking

This morning’s walk was a bit of a quiet one.

The colours of Autumn were great, particularly the blood-red thorns on this bramble – very appropriate!.

The only real noises were from the crows shouting at each other for no apparent reason, intently watched by Nippy, our local stray cat, who has so many adoptive homes where she gets fed that she never needs to hunt, though I’ve seen her carrying mice along to some hiding place.

Nippy overseeing the crows' argument

Walking past the new allotments with their numbers, just waiting to be occupied, I was struck by the old conundrum – why do cows all graze in the same direction? Apparently Google Earth has confirmed that this is the case though they were unable to distinguish head from tails; it was still apparent that many groups of cows were aligned north/south. I confirmed this myself this morning; all these cows are facing South and presumably when they reach the end of the field, they’ll turn and munch their way north.

Molly enjoyed the walk

Molly the Spaniel enjoyed the walk though I can’t break her of the habit of giving a wide berth to the gateway where Izzy the St Bernard lives.

Passing Izzy's gateway

Unlike New York, our weather is still surprisingly mild and we’ve been suffering a plague of flies. It’s eased off a bit now, but I think we’ll have to wait for the really cold weather to get rid of them completely. We tried a couple of fly sprays but they are immune, unlike the wasps that came in from the nest under our floor. They died within a few minutes but we had to pay to get the nest eradicated.

The warmth is a bit incongruous as the city’s stores put up their Christmas displays.

John Lewis windows

Inside John Lewis - a bit 'Galeries Lafayette'?

The Shires Mall

Inside, there’s snow, Christmas trees and baubles while outside we’ve had a Moroccan market full of hot colours basking in the sunshine.

Leicester's Humberstone Gate

Great fossil sink

The Luggage (Discworld)

Mehndi (Henna)