Egypt Day 6: all aboard Soobie's Sleep Deprivation Train...

i wake up with a jolt when the Nubian captains tie the feluccas up and cast off so that they can drift us down the Nile a few miles while we sleep. i wake up properly later once we're docked again and as i scramble to get my kit together i can hear the call to prayer and i know in my my water (which a short time later i'm dropping into a dodgy toilet at the docks) that it's going to be another long fucking day.

i'm still groggy from the day before - we're off the feluccas before the sun's high or the chill's burned off but two cups of instant coffee can't burn the haze out of my head. the bus arrives and takes us to Komombo Temple, then Edfu temple. more temples, more carved stone, more photos, but the details don't stick. i'm overwhelmed by pharohs and gods and temples and carvings and paintings, but each temple we go to i charge around taking photos. the tour i'm on is jam-packed and in order to make everything fit sleep is the first thing that gets sacrificed. everyone's feeling it, and everyone's muttering about the string of early starts. sleeping on a sitter-carriage on a train overnight sucks, but we all do that sort of thing when it's expedient. having a 2:30AM start the next night, then shifty sleep on a boat, then a 4AM start directly afterwards is turning into murder.

Komombo and Edfu Temples are beautiful examples of ancient Egyptian architecture and excess in their worship. after seeing the painted engravings at Abu Simbel you start seeing these places in a new light - imagining them as they once must have been - covered in paint and gold-leaf, shining under the clear blue skies and the Egyptian sun. Edfu especially has hidden nooks and crannies, passageways to locked-off rooftops that beg to be explored. when Mike, Louise and i venture up one of them an elderly bedouin points out points of interest on the walls before putting his hand out to receive couple of Egyptian Pounds. up another corridor and a surly local makes way so we can get through. 30 seconds his hand's out too but we make the "we have no money" gesture and he grunts at us. you don't get a handout just for standing there, bucko. i find out that the Cleopatra i saw in the British Museum wasn't actually the famous one - that was Cleopatra VII, last of the Ptolemy line who were Greek rulers, but much loved by the Egyptians because not only did they allow them to continue practicing their religion, they participated, bringing with them new ideas on architecture, art and sanitation.

the last few days are a blur - i had to ask Kate and Andy (Kiwis) what we did afterwards before i could remember. keeping track of everything has been a battle against fatigue and depression, grabbing snatches of sleep whenever we're on a bus or sitting still for more than 10 minutes. getting to Luxor on the bus a few hours later Louise and i collapsed into our room, and i had a desperately needed shower and changed into clean clothes for the first time in days before we hit the street to find the Luxor Museum which Soobie recommended as being like the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, but better organised. a couple of wrong turns walking the streets of the old capital (the capital has changed location a few times over the millenia. Luxor was the capital of Ramses II, although i'll have to check whether it was him who moved it there. when the Alexander of Macedon showed up he moved the capital to the new city of Alexandria - he was a modest lad, after all - and Luxor was renamed "Thebes" for a thousand years or so. now it's Cairo, although that's a story i don't know) we found ourselves in the right place, but with not enough time to really get through it so we save our cash and move on. it was a little disappointing, but what do you do? in the interests of not wasting the last 2 hours we have in free-time i manage to get a free wifi signal for the first time in nearly a week and get online to post some blog entries and let people know i'm not dead (just dead on my feet).

6PM rolls up and my Eee's on the charge again upstairs. the tourists are footing it to the Temple of Luxor to see it all lit in the evening. i've been knocked out of my socks so many times this trip that i'm seriously considering not wearing them anymore and i'm getting sick of typing the words "beautiful" and "magnificent", but here we go again. Soobie's got the biggest grin on his face - he loves his country and he loves his job. ask him just about anything about ancient Egypt and he has the answer and he's getting a kick out of seeing the looks on our faces when he takes us to these places. the Temple of Luxor is one of two which were built in the actual city, and when Egypt was at the height of its glory it was linked to the Temple of Karnak 3km distant by the Avenue of the Sphynxs then the Avenue of the Rams. being the capital, it was the home of the pharoh and since that was a religious as much as a governance role he (or she a few times) needed to be close to the main temples so that he could easily take part in ceremonies.

we grab a feed at a restaurant where Soobie's organised a buffet dinner for us - at the cost of around GBP£4 we stuff ourselves full of good, healthy food before getting some of our devices charged and photos backed up in the hotel and crashing. we've got another early start the next day and it's going to be the long-day to end all long-days...