A temple before dawn

Written Tuesday 26th. Happy birthday brother.

After going through a lock about 8 pm on the 19th, the boat travelled down the Nile for another hour then tied up with the others at Esna. We staggered out of bed at 5.15 am and tossed down a cup of hot black coffee. Why? To visit the temple before the boat departed at 7 am. No one was there to open up for us; just a few dogs pottering around. Rami got on his cellphone - I think he has a contact number for every place and person we might need - and a man appeared, bleary and rubbing his eyes.

The temple was close to the river bank, in a deep hole. The reason was that the ground level is now up above the roof of the temple. As a result of being filled with sand for hundreds of years, ithe paintings and etchings are well preserved. One wall has dozens of crocodiles.

On the way back to the boat, a man has opened up his shop front. He offers a big shawl covered with Egyptian pictures for five pounds. I am thinking Egyptian, but he is thinking British. We haggle a bit and I buy two for 80 Egyptian pounds, which is $NZ20. All this on the run, it's just a short trot to catch up with the group. We were back on the boat before the sun rose.