Cruising on the Nile/Kom Ombo/Edfu/Locks at Esna - Part 2: Egypt February 2022

Thursday,  February 17, 2022

The Nile cruise begins . . .

Docked for an evening visit to Kom Ombo.   Last time I was here in 2013, it was during the day.  A lot more tourists here this time and we just had a short walk from the boat.

Sometimes, I get rather fixated on columns . . . .

Then other times, I love to look at the scenarios and hieroglyphics on the walls

I think that is the moon peeking out but with so many bright lights to keep us from stumbling over the various obstacles in the way, it was hard to tell at times.   ;-)

Back to the boat for dinner as we started cruising again to Edfu.  There was a galabeya party schedule for 21:30 but for some bizarre reason, I had scheduled a massage at the same time.  I thought I would be finished early enough to attend part of it but   the guy took too long and then he wanted me to schedule another appointment . . . nope, nope, nope, my budget was already over the limit.  

The Concerto photographer probably took all the group photos before I would have gotten there anyway . . .  I borrowed someone's photo from the evening to show you how well everyone else did at getting into their colorful garb.

At least I could hear the music up on the deck from the dark room where I was getting the massage.

Friday, February 18, 2022. 

Sometime during the night we docked at Edfu and it was an early morning rise to get off to see Edfu. . .  5:45 am!

There were lots of carriages waiting to take us to the site.   We were all assigned to a carriage and told we needed to remember to which number carriage we had been assigned.  They didn't want any mixups and this ensured that we all made it back as we  couldn't leave without all of us in the carriage.

For some reason my brain wasn't functioning to take photos of the horse carriages, so I asked some in our group for photos. 

Vickie Ng's photo of back of carriage to remember the number

Photo taken by Kay Taylor

I love this photo taken by Nikki/SeraphineOfScotland.  Below are more of her photos taken at the end of our visit.

Edfu is another site that I visited in December 2013.  So early in the morning it seemed so different. . . .  Particularly approaching the site by carriage.  But it is still the same with many more tourists.

I just had a look at my photos from 2013 . . . because it was later in the day, some of the photos are a bit better with more sunshine and bluer skies.  Each visit is different of course . . . always notice something that was probably overlooked before.

Ahmed trying to gather us for an explanation about Edfu.

The whole group . . . look who has the crabby look, lol.

After Edfu, some of us had a wild ride back to the boat as the drivers really get into the spirit of the race . . . or maybe they just wanted to get back faster to see if there were more tourists to take to the site.  There is a lot of maneuvering of the boats as they are basically stacked up several deep at the docking site.  You had to be careful to get on the right boat as they would be switched around while you are gone.

We were all handed a chit/ticket when we debarked which we had to hand back in when re-boarding.   That helped them to keep track of the count of people leaving so, hopefully, no one gets left behind.  Not like it is possible when you have an organizer and guide counting to keep track of everyone.   But I have a story later about that, lol.

Back on board, we headed to breakfast and the boat started cruising again . . .   going through the locks at Esna while headed to Luxor  . . . 

But first . . .  more towel art!!  They made up the room during breakfast so I found this one when I got back.   Very clever!

Most of us spent a lot of time on the deck just hanging out and watching the Nile go by even if it was a bit windy.  Mostly it was just watching the water as we went along, but after awhile, we began to notice all the cruising boats. It felt like we were in a race and the Concerto seemed determined to get to the head of the queue. . . Blowing its horn as it passed as many boats as it could.

Then there were the enterprising guys in the small boats as we approached the locks.

They even threw their wares up on the deck . . . one landed in the pool!!  They were quite expert at doing this but I imagine it must be quite tiring to do this with so many boats.  And did they actually sell stuff??   If they flung it onto the deck, how did they get their money??

They came so close to the boat that it looked dangerous to me.

As we approached the locks, queued up and went through , there was a lot of activity even if it was a slow process but quite interesting.   Lots of passengers were lining the bow of the boats to observe the whole process.

Our boat passed under a bridge while going through the locks.

I started taking some video at this point.  I wanted to show the different vehicles but it seems not as many interesting ones showed up and by interesting, I mean unique to Egypt.  I do have a lot of photos showing various transportation options from other trips to Egypt

Opening Locks at Esna  . . .  this is a much longer video to watch but it is interesting.  The water levels change, the lock gates open and we cruise through.

Good bye, Esna!!!

On to Luxor . . . .To Be Continued in Part 3.

If interested in joining another adventure with Kay Taylor and Farida Adventures, check here:  Farida Adventures

There just happens to be another trip organized for November 2022.