The Return to Egypt 2019 - Further Felucca Fun, An Evening Cruise, And Flight Of Fancy.

In such a rush to get my shipwreck blog completed for all to enjoy I did not find out until later on the Sunday evening that I was not not the only one to have an interesting felucca tale to tell.....

There were two Australians staying in the same apartment block as me and we had had a couple of chats over breakfast although they were only here for less than a week, and returning from an evening cruise with Ahmed and then dinner that evening, they were standing outside waiting for Abdullah to come down and open the front door because ''we have lost our key..'' 

The key, it turns out was, was at the bottom of the Nile, along with the bag containing it..... 

Strangely while we were returning to the West Bank to park Ahmed's boat I did say to Ahmed that there as something odd going on further up stream as suddenly there were several motor boats all converging on a point in the middle of the Nile.

These, it turned out, were rescue ships heading out to rescue the Australians whose felucca had sunk in mid-Nile!

An unusual occurrence but due to the same reason that mine had nearly sunk, executing a tack in still quite strong winds they had shipped some water and listing ''rather more than a bit'' according to the Australians, the next tack had swamped the felucca and down she went!

The police take this sort of thing very seriously and arrested the captain and tested him for alcohol and drugs, and took full statements for the two Australians, the only passengers, who were completely unfazed by it all and refused to file a formal complaint.

As they said, ''It's a boat. Boats sink. It happens all the time when we are at home.''

You would have thought I had had enough of Nile cruises for one day but it was pre-arranged, and an evening cruise, at sunset, on the Nile is an almost magical  experience not to be missed. 


Tomorrow is my last day in Luxor before I fly out early on Tuesday and to finish the holiday off I have booked a completely new experience....

 I am not an early riser at the best of times, but this morning I have to be up at 5 am to be collected by a taxi as I am going on......

Yes, you guessed it a dawn ride in a hot air balloon ride. I have been in helicopters, I have been in light aircraft, I have been on a DC10, indeed I am so old I have been in a DC8, I have even been for a short flight in a Spitfire, but never a hot air balloon.

It is still dark, and I have to wait for a boat to come over from the East Bank bearing the rest of the people going on the balloon I am on. Indeed there are a lot of people milling about because there are a lot of balloons going up!! I was surprised how many...

The take off field is out on the road to King's Valley, there is no landing field because the balloons come down wherever they do.... Arriving there was all rather exciting as some balloons are already airborne, some air being inflated, and some are not inflated at all. And the first thing that happens is that my big camera is taken off me, but everyone has mobile phones these days, indeed all of the people on my ''flight'' come from the sort of countries where they make mobile phones....

Dawn is breaking but the sun is not yet over the horizon.....

Too many photos spoil the fun, so here are just a few.... And a video...

I am not sure of the environmental impact of all these hot air balloons burning all this gas, but this is the first time I have been born aloft by a very large bag of hot air.


I can't help thinking that a large bag of hot air accurately describes some people I know... 

Getting into the gondola requires a certain amount of agility as not all of the balloons have though of providing steps, however there is always somebody on hand to give you a leg up as it were.... 

Dawn breaking on the Temple Of Hotchickensoup 

 Sugar cane...

 What goes up...... Comes down wherever it feels like it......

Tim's Hot Tip of The Day..... Do not do what one Japanese girl had done which was to book a coach transfer from her hotel in Luxor East to the Red Sea leaving at 10.30 am..... Because they don't know exactly when or where the balloon will land there is no set timetable.

Luckily for her we have mobile phones these days and the balloon company were excellent and organised a taxi to take her from the West Bank to meet her coach after it had left Luxor town!

 Those power lines look a bit close....

 Landing in the middle of a cut cane field suddenly people appear to help you out of the gondola.


I must say the whole experience was quite thrilling, and well worth the money!

It took a while for our minibus to arrive to pick us up, time for a wander around on terra firma, and have a look at one of the many irrigation canals.









Don't ask me how the captain does this but her gets the balloon to turn a full circle providing panoramic views, luckily I am quite tall so I can see over everybody else... This is not actually the video I wanted to post but the file I wanted to use is too big it seems!!