Next day we flew back to Cairo and stayed in a hotel near the airport. We had one last dinner with our group and left for Abu Dhabi next morning, pushing a wheelchair!

We flew back to Aswan that afternoon. In the evening we took a boat to Philae for a sound and light show. Debbie slipped on the rock pavers and severely sprained her ankle. I carried her on my back for several kilometers; I mean meters, to the next event. Later Mohamed piggy-backed her to the boat. From then on she got the royal treatment, special boats, wheelchairs, private cars, you name it.

Next morning we went to Aswan Airport to fly to Abu Simbal to see the great monuments of Rameses II. He was the Pharaoh who drowned in the Gulf of Acuba in the Red Sea with 277,000 soldiers. He was the only Pharaoh that built temples for the worship of himself, claiming to be a god. At Abu Simbal he built two temples, for himself and his wife. He built four huge statues of himself at the entrance to his temple. The temples went deep into the mountain and were decorated with hieroglyphics, pictures and statues. On certain days of the year the sun would penetrate the temple and light up more statues of Rameses. When Egypt built the dam in 1973 they employed experts from 51 countries to dismantle the entire structures and move them to a position above the new water level. They meticulously numbered and shifted 49,000 pieces and built two mountains. Abu Simbal was very hot!

That night some of the group sat in on a belly dancer. After the Cairo belly dancer experience I thought it more prudent to do something else. I took a ferry across the river to find an ATM. Debbie went to bed. The city was abuzz with life. Everyone was friendly, greeting me with smiles and hellos, etc. I tried seven ATM’s before I got some money out. Each had a long queue of men. Whenever a woman approached, she was given first place at the head of the queue. Accordingly some of these queues never got anywhere. Each ATM had a resident police officer with a machine gun. The ATM that finally worked for me was a long way from the hub. As I took my money the officer was looking over my shoulder. He wanted to know how much I had withdrawn. I shook his sweaty hand and took off quickly. He was up to something and I wasn’t waiting around to find out what it was. While waiting for the ferry to go back to the island I saw a snake in the river.

After a very late lunch we all boarded a genuine felucca to sail around the island to another island named after Lord William Kitchener, who built a house there and developed beautiful botanical gardens. Before sailing on I was accosted by vendors shouting, “Hey Moustache, buy from me”. My Moe has become very thick and white. The Arabs love it.

Late that night we docked at Aswan. In the morning we took a bus to see the unfinished obelisk and ancient quarry. We went to the high dam that was built across the Nile in 1973. It created a lake 550km x 20km, and 160 meters deep. Then we took a boat to the island of Philae to visit more ancient sites and learn more history. Then we were taken to the oil palaces of Mohamed El Fayed (Dodi’s father). He farms flowers, near Aswan, to produce essential oils. He supplies the oils to all the big perfume companies around the world. They just add alcohol to make perfume. His oils are organic and of a very high quality, so we purchased a range of medicinal essential oils to use in our treatment programs. The prices were so good that we may look at importing these oils to sell under our label. Finally we were taken back to the river, then transferred in small boats to a five star hotel on an island in the middle of the Nile.

In the late afternoon we docked at Kom Ombo to visit more sites and learn a lot more about Egyptian history. Later we came to a lock. While waiting to go through, our ship was surrounded by traders in small boats. It was so entertaining, as these desperate vendors made the most of every second to sell clothes to the passengers. We all gathered on the fourth floor deck as plastic bags of clothes were thrown at us from the small boats below. If we liked them, we negotiated our price with loud shouts, then put the money in the bag and threw it back down to the boats.

Early in the morning we docked at Edfu where about 20 horse-drawn carriages were waiting to transport us to the Edfu temple and ancient monuments, several kilometers away. Our guide, Mohamed, told us not to tip the drivers, but to give him $2 per person and he would make sure that there was even distribution. Our driver begged for money all the way there and back. We gave him $2 for taking a photo but he wanted more. We told him that Mohamed would look after him. He though we meant the prophet Mohamed, so he respectfully backed off and bid us farewell.

We arrived at the Royal Lotus Cruise Boat in the late morning. I struggled to our room and slept in between drinking litres of electrolyte drinks and many visits to the bathroom. I had a high fever and rapid pulse all night. In the morning I ate two bananas and took it easy for a few days. Many of the group were sick for many days.

The boat was absolutely fantastic. We had a large room on the third floor, with a wall to wall window. There were Arabic-style lounges on the top deck and on the first floor. The dining room is just below water level. The value for money on this tour has been exceptional.

I don’t remember too much about this valley, except the light pole in the car park that was fertilised many times with my vomit. A local Egyptian seized the opportunity to try to sell me some medicine, which I refused. I got back on the bus and curled up in a foetal position, shivering. Fortunately there was a doctor and two nurses on board. The tour guide gave me three tablets that did nothing. The doctor gave me an injection in the butt, but that did nothing either. He also gave me a powerful antibiotic. All these drugs just seemed to make things a lot worse. While the group was exploring the Valley of the Queens I found someone’s pillow and blanket and curled up on the back seat, where I stayed for several hours, while the group visited more sites.