Day 13

Up at 04.00 (!!!) to take the dawn balloon flight over Luxor and the Nile - I missed this last time I was here so a really new experience, and one well worth the early start. You can certainly see where the cultivated area ends and the desert begins.

Then off to the Valley of the Kings, where we were able to go into four (including King Tut's) of the so far 63 tombs discovered here. (I say "so far 63" as only six years ago they found one - the first since King Tut in 1922 - only a few metres away from KT himself). Although much of course has - in one way or another - disappeared / deteriorated, some of what remains is quite incredible. And the size of the granite sarcophagus of Rameses III is just !!!! I think we were told it weighs 220 tons - brought up all the way from Aswan and then dragged deep underground. (NB no photos - cameras taken off you at the entrance)

Then off to the tomb of Queen Hatshepsut (the woman I think of as the Mrs Thatcher of ancient Egypt) - the only woman to be pharaoh, and a mighty one at that. The scale is awe inspiring, and from its terraces you look right across the Nile back to Karnak. As we drove back into Luxor we stopped by the Collossi of Memnon.

Then, I am somewhat ashamed to say that I had two (yes two) MacDonald caramel sundaes. Absolutely delicious - I am a convert.

By this time, we were all (not just me) absolutely whacked - the early start?, the heat? - and we all retreated back for a long siesta. (This does not augur well for when we get to the heat of the Sudan).

Went out for an excellent meal in the evening at an old, rather upmarket, restaurant.