Our 40th Anniversary
Sunday 25th March 2007

We started the day extremely early (4.14am!) thanks to our alarm clocks. The reason - we were to be picked up by minibus and taken to the river where we would board a boat. Why? We were crossing the river to the west bank where we were to go up in a hot air balloon. Yes, I had finally persuaded Jeff to have a go. Angie came with us to make sure Jeff wouldn't have a change of heart and Captain Bob was our pilot. Unlike my previous flights when only 8 or 10 of us flew there was a real crowd of us going aloft and Bob had now got a huge balloon and basket that would carry 32!

I think the easiest way to show you what a wonderful time we had is to just show you a series of photographs..............

1. Crossing the river in the early morning.



2. Well, we now have Jeff in the basket!










3. Infact, all 3 of us were there.

4. Bob, an old friend, was our pilot for the trip - but I don't think Jeff and I were the attraction for him.....

5. We were soon flying over the mortuary temple of

Seti I.

6. And peering into the local houses.

7. Bob decides its time to get Angie into his section of the basket in order to learn to fly ..... of course!

8. All too soon it is time to land. We had actually been airborne for almost an hour and when Bob landed the balloon on this narrow track between the sugar cane fields there was hardly a shudder to indicate we were back on terra firma.

9. Of course, a true captain gets his reward!

10. Now it was actions stations for the ground crew to deflate the balloon.

11. Can you believe they get it all into this bag?

12. We were delighted to have enjoyed another successful trip....... and Jeff admitted he'd enjoyed it too.





13. We travelled back across the river, this time sailing past the Winter Palace (which we would visit later in the day) and the cruise boats, to be landed at the jetty for our hotel.

14. Then time to continue the celebrations of our special day with a Bucks Fizz in our room before going for breakfast.






What a great start to a memorable day.

After a lazy breakfast we boarded a caleche and went to Karnak Temple. We explored the Open Air Museum, a place where there are little gems of reliefs and small temples on display. We particularly enjoy looking at Hatshepsut's Red Temple.


















Then on to Jeff's favourite place. the hypostyle hall, where one can literally loose oneself in the enormity of it all.

Once we had seen all that we wished we made our way back to our hotel for lunch and a brief chill-out moment before joining Veronica and co. We climbed on board a caleche and headed for The Winter Palace and 'Afternoon Tea'.







Before going out that evening Jeff and I went to collect a beautiful ruby and diamond ring that he had bought for me to mark our anniversary. It is really lovely and will bring back many of these happy memories each time I look at it.

Later we joined the others as we had decided to try and have a meal over on the West Bank. Our minibus driver we had befriended earlier in the week took us over, it was a bit fraught finding the hotel we had in mind but once there, shall we say the menu and the drinks were a bit limited for such an auspicious evening! So back into the minibus and onto the familiar territory of the east bank where we had a meal at Jems, the restaurant that is part of Cap'n Bob's family business.


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Next morning the RAMASES group joined the convoy out of town again, this time heading for Abydos, another Seti I temple located north of Luxor. This temple has some of the most beautiful reliefs.

As much as we have always enjoyed visiting Abydos it was made even more enjoyable when John Dewey and Jocelyn Gohary, our Egyptologists, took us across the desert behind the temple to a little visited gem of Ramses II. A wonderful temple which gave a home to some wonderful and unusual scenes both inside and outside its walls.

A watchful eye was kept on us during our explorations.

There were many interesting scenes of rural Egyptian life as we made our journey back to Luxor. The use of the little trains to move the sugar cane through the fields gave things a 'Noddy-like' quality.








As if we hadn't enjoyed enough treats on this holiday but the next day we were to have a special opportunity of visiting the tomb of Nefetari, a most exquisite tomb, currently closed to the general public in order to conserve its contents. However, Lynda, on behalf of RAMASES, had applied for us to visit this tomb over a year previously and on payment of sufficient funds per person we had a special permit to do so albeit for only 15 minutes. Even though I had visited this tomb some years previously it is still breathtaking when you see the most beautiful scenes depicted inside.
It was also a good opportunity for a group photograph outside the tomb.



The next stop was the mortuary temple of Seti I that we had previously flown over in the balloon. We were pleased to see all the improvements that were being made to this little visited site.

Then we were left to our own devices, so a lunch stop was the unanimous decision of our group and we headed for the small hotel we had tried the previous evening. They had no difficulty coping with our lunchtime requests and we enjoyed a really great meal in simple surroundings.



A couple of us had a guided tour around the hotel which overlooks Medinet Habu. Clean, simple accommodation which we thought worthy of a try on a future visit to Luxor at £10 per person per night for bed and breakfast.





This picture speaks volumes about how well
Veronica was doing after her ordeal!!!!






After lunch we had one final visit to make before saying goodbye to the West Bank. A visit to Ay's tomb in the Western Valley. The location of the tomb was in an area that looked like a mini Grand Canyon.


The tomb was located deep in the rock and had some interesting features - a very satisfying conclusion to this West Bank visit.






Wednesday 28 March was the final day of the RAMASES tour but as they were not to leave for the airport until late afternoon there was time for a last look at a few favourite places such as Karnak - here are a few farewell shots........

Bottoms up seems to be the theme!

I think you should click on this one in order to see why it amused us so much.

Au revoir... Luxor.

As our friends returned to Kent, Jeff and I headed for the railway station and caught the train down to Aswan where we were to spend a few days before taking a 4-day cruise on Lake Nasser.