After giving us the indication we would be taking an early bus from Sohag for today’s tours while at the same time they move the boat down river later without us onboard so to make things work a little swifter, I was surprised to see and hear it set off from Sohag at just after 4:00 this morning. Yet more lack of communication by all concerned! By all accounts we had to wait to go through a swing bridge which didn’t open until 4:00. This then impacted our tour timing and we didn’t actually get off the boat until we reached Al Balyana at 10:00.
We were very quickly on the road to the Temple at Abydos which took around 40 minutes. Once again we are accompanied by armed security and police all the while we were travelling and I am beginning to think is way over the top and more for show. Everyone we see just stops what they are doing and wave and smile, they all look as threatening as a gold fish!
The Temple at Abydos is quite simply amazing, lots of amazing preservation and colours, so rather than trying to explain I will just show a selection of photos.
Once we had finished our tour it was back on the road, this time to Dendara and another temple, the journey being somewhat longer at 1¾ hours across the desert highway. It was this one that I had been waiting to see from our middle section of the cruise and I wasn’t disappointed. The outside is amazing but the inside is out of this world with the quality of colours and preservation outstanding. Many areas of the inside have been cleaned and the colours are absolutely incredible, the ceiling being the stand out item. Rather than trying to explain once again I think photos will say more.
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It has been a very memorable day even with more road time than we have done so far, as a result we eventually arrived back to the boat at 6:00 which evidently had still moved anyway to Nagaa Hammadi. So after a swift beer, it was then a quick shower before dinner. The trouble with busy days is it then doesn’t allow me much time to make a decent post.
We didn’t sail until gone 11:00 having to wait for another swing bridge to open and allow us through.
Don’t put yourself down, you always leave a decent post… Loving this blog as always.. Keep it coming 🙂