Wednesday 27 January 2010

Off to Abu Simbel - my dream fulfilled

Written 26 Jan. The wakeup call came at 2 am. We had our bags outside the door at 2.15 as we were leaving the boat for good. Stumbled upstairs for a drink. I had lemon tea - I didn't want coffee to keep me awake. Off we marched, over the two boats which were tied between us and the shore, and staggered onto the bus with our breakfast boxes.

Our bus joined the convoy of 40-50 leaving at 3 am. This happens each week on boat day. Each bus has an armed guard. I put on my sleep mask and blew up my neck pillow. Slept with my head on my cabin bag; lucky to have two seats. It was 6.30 am when I woke and the pre-dawn light was in the sky. We munched our breakfast as the sun came up. There were lots of small Nubian pyramids in the desert. When we arrived at 7 am it was beautifully cool.

Rami led us down to the site along with the hundreds of others off the buses. When we were nearing it, he asked us to look to the right or down to the ground until he told us to glance up. Obedient little puppies, we did as we were told. "NOW!" he said. We glanced up and we were right in front of the four great statues of Rameses II. WOW! I could not believe I was really here - the fulfillment of a 55 year dream!

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