Hi folks, Morgan here reporting on our 12 day Egyptian adventure that we went on recently. This has been the longest holiday that Esther and I have had since we have been married (2 years on the 5th Nov) and it was possibly the most memorable holiday I have ever been on.We went on a geckos tour called the Nile Valley & Western Desert if you are looking for a relaxing tour with a lot of lazing around, I would not recommend this tour, it was very full on with quite a few early starts as early as 3:30am. (The Egyptians are very concerned with safety and apparently people that want to kill you can't be bothered to get up early). Our tour started in Cairo with 14 people where we did the mandatory things like Pyramids, Sphynx, Egyptian museum etc.. we then caught an overnight train to Aswan where we visited one of my highlights, Abu Simbel, and then cruised down the Nile on some sort of riverboat for a few days to Luxor where we went on a dawn hot-air balloon ride and then rode donkeys into the Valley of the kings.
We then farewelled the rest of our group as they headed back to Cairo to end their tour and Esther and I and another couple got in a 4x4 and headed for the desert with 2 arabic speaking Bedouin guides and a new egyptian guide (who basically translated between us and the crazy desert people). We spent the next 5 days on this "desert safari" where we basically drove around the Western desert stopping at various sights and Oases all the way back up to Cairo. On this final part of our trip we slept 3 nights under the stars in various deserts and spent one night in some strange mud huts in a Bedouin camp. I have to say it is quite an amazing experience sitting around a campfire with absolutely nothing for 100's of kilometers in any direction - the stars are spectacular.
The trip was quite an experience. One thing that surprised me is how well preserved a lot of the temples and various buildings are in Egypt. I also didn't realise how poor Egypt is, over 60% of people live below the poverty line which is quite confronting when traveling around.
Some of my highlights were, The Tutankhamen exhibit in the Egyptian museum, the pyramids, the sphynx, riding donkeys into the valley of the kings, riding camels to our second desert camp, a dawn hot air balloon ride over Luxor, Abu Simbel, visiting early 2nd century Christian tombs, and seeing the preserved mummies of many Pharaohs including Ramses II and Tutankhamen was quite a surreal experience to see the preserved bodies of people who were around as long as 2,000 years before Christ!.
Anyway - I have said enough, check out some of the pics
