I light a candle, defusing healing incense into the space around me, and settle with my writing. It feels like I’ve been gone forever. I’ve been busy, things needed doing. A Nile Holiday, a video course, parties to go to, friends to meet, a blog to write, tenant turnover in Ireland, and figuring out (baby steps) how to best manage my fathers’ estate in Norway.
With the big projects and jobs done, for now, I find myself back writing my book. (more…)
Homebound Journey
On our last morning, in the lobby, checking out, a shiny new guide great Shane as ‘Mr Ambassador.’ He doesn’t like formalities much, especially being fussed over. Still, he let a porter take our big suitcase, and as we cross the gangplank I fumble in my handbag for the porter’s tip. Pausing a moment by the car door, just opened for me, I glans back at M/S Amwaj. (more…)
Temples of Karnak
He won’t come with me this afternoon and I invite my new Dutch friend, Wilma, to join me for our final daylight hours at the vast Temples of Karnak and Luxor. Wilma knows her stuff, she’s been here before, and was he still alive she would for sure have a love affair with the legendary Ramesses II.
19 years ago, Wilma longed for a child, she was standing on the same spot she is now, by the Scarab Beetle, by the scared lake.
Valley of the Kings
By 9 the next morning we’re chugging along on the little train that brings us to the tomb of Tutankhamun, but we don’t enter here. According to Ahmed the best place to visit King Tut is in the Museum in Cairo. With many tombs more elaborately decorate in The Valley of the Kings, we follow Ahmed’s advice and visit three of the Rameses burial sites that are open today.
Kom Ombo Temple
An enigmatic ruin, Kom Ombo rises from the banks of the Nile. Once a major pilgrimage site for Ancient Egyptians, she is a dedication to Sobek the crocodile God and Horus, the Falcon God. Surrounded by walls protecting her from the flooding river, the site dates to the Ptolemaic dynasty, some 2,300 years ago. Its history and theology chiselled in the walls include images of surgical instruments and a woman on a birthing chair.