From Cairo we took a short flight to Aswan for the beginning of our Nile cruise. We started in the south because the Nile flows north! The southern geography is higher than the north and is therefore known as Upper Egypt even though it is farther south. Once we arrived in Aswan, we went to the Philae Temple. It sits on an island and is accessible only by boat. It had actual been moved there after the building of a dam on the Nile because flooding threatened to destroy the original location.

The next day we started early, four AM so we could be first in line when the road opened to Abu Simbel. The tourist vans all traveled in a convoy for safety as the temple was only 50 km from the Sudan border. It was another near-victim of the Nile flooding and so, had been painstakingly taken apart and rebuilt to avoid destruction by the manmade lake created by the dam. Driving back, we git hit by the front end of a big sandstorm. By the time we were back at the boat, the sky had an eerie yellow tint from the sand in the air as the storm blew through.

Finally on this busy day, we made a night visit to the temple of Kom Ombo.

Our ship was nice. Our crew had some fun with towels to keep us laughing during the sailing.