This post was originally published on 25th March 2020, and updated and re-dated in April 2020 and again in May 2020
While you might think that Egyptian archaeology is a completed book this is a long way from the truth and discoveries are still being made.
During the course of 2019, a new tomb was discovered as Saqqara, and also at Saqqara the Bent Pyramid is now open to the public since 1965, similarly at Dashur a pyramid has been re-opened to the public.
The Valley of The Kings has also revealed new secrets, and there have been new discoveries at Aswan, and also out at Fayoum and Abydos to name but a few. And now more is being discovered about the finds that have already been made such as the fact that Hatshepsut died of cancer and had diabetes!
There is one tomb that would still be one of the greatest finds in Egyptian archaeology, and to the finder will go much fame, but probably little fortune... The whereabouts of the tomb of Cleopatra has yet to be discovered and while perhaps she is not the greatest of Egypt's rulers, she is certainly one of the most romantic!
In October a performance of Verdi's Aida was given in Luxor in front of The Temple Of Hatshepsut, I would dearly loved to have been there as performance of Verdi's greatest (for me anyway), opera in the country where the story was set would be amazing. Many years ago there was a performance done at Giza, maybe some day there will be another and I will be lucky enough to go this time!
The plan for spending my winters in Egypt depended a lot on being able to sell my winter house on Crete, which had in any case been up for sale for some time.
So getting back to Crete I find that the new petrol station next to my house is now complete and indeed open for business. Exactly why anybody in the day and age would even consider building a brand new gas station is beyond me, particularly as there is one about 700 metres along the road.
But this is Greece, and if you own a piece of land you can build on it. So much for town planning, or business planning come to that....
With the exception that this turns out to be the smelliest gas station ever built, mainly because they have leaking pipework and they do not seems to understand that it should not smell.....
Having put up with the steadily worsening fume for 6 months I end up writing to BP in the UK to ask them to do something about it as their sign is outside and as they have licensed the petrol station it is their responsibility, or so I feel....
As it is now impossible to sell my house, any future plans have now been shelved!!
In addition my 6 monthly check up at the hospital showed that the area of fibrosis on my left lung has got larger. My doctor tells me this is more than likely due to pollution or chemicals in the air. As there is only one thing that has changed in my environment.......
Thank you #BP #BPInternational !!!!!
By now we are in the throes of the coronavirus ''pandemic'' which has affected less people than the annual 'flu season but has involved people around the world being incarcerated in their homes, often against their wishes, for long periods of time.
Welcome to 1984! George Orwell would love it!
Up until March I was able to keep in touch with people I met in Egypt who told me that the situation was much as published on various web sites, and like other countries the measures were designed to prevent the spread so to avoid the fact that most countries have ''creaking'' healthcare systems, and there is quite a lot of political mileage in preventing healthcare systems from becoming overloaded.....
The coronavirus outbreak has also caused a further delay in the opening of the New Egyptian Museum in Cairo, I don't think many people were actually holding their breath waiting for it to be opened as there have been so many delays in its construction and opening that we are now used to it not being open!
Back in February WhatsApp announced that they would no longer be supporting my aged Samsung phone and in the process of upgrading to a newer version of Android I lost all my history and contacts on WhatsApp (in spite of having a back up, which like all back ups never actually works when you need it), as a result I am now no longer in contact with anybody for the latest news ''on the ground''.
But I am not finished yet... I still have my blog to complete of my journey to the US and Canada in late 2018, which has never been published as I did not have any photographs... Until last month when finally my hard drive was reclaimed!
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Wednesday, 25 March 2020
Monday, 11 February 2019
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!!
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 can't help thinking that a large bag of hot air accurately describes some people I know...
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!
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!!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)