We arrived there at 9.10am with our tickets ready for the Guardian - or so we thought. What a performance! The group of men there wouldn't let us go up to the tombs and kept examining our tickets as though they had never seen anything like them before. Our driver got on his phone, the men got on theirs and so it wort on for over twenty minutes! I was becoming very frustrated and we just walked off up the hill to Ankhtifi's tomb. A few minutes later a man came up and eventually they all did, five of them. We all went inside and there are now prominent signs 'no photos'. This is a shame as on all my other visits there's never been a problem with that.
I showed my friends around the tomb, we stayed for about fifteen minutes then we left. All that fuss for such a short visit was ridiculous! They really are not doing much to encourage people to visit these obscure tombs by behaving like this when people have tickets.
We continued off down to Aswan, stopping at Esna, Edfu and after Kom Ombo for the driver to have a smoke! We saw lots of interesting sights on the way down, so many butchers! The hanging meat still had the tails one!
There was a man looking to buy a doll for a little girl and he was going to great lengths to make sure it was what he wanted.
We were losing the will to live when we finally rolled up to the entrance of the wonderful Old Cataract Hotel at 1.45pm. It was a long and tiring journey and we were shattered!
We entered the hotel, taken on a buggy from the entrance, as no cars are allowed near it. We were taken to a lounge area where we were given a cold drink, hibiscus juice, and a cold towel to refresh us. We had to wait a little too long to check in and I had to go and find someone. I later found out that he'd upgraded us to suites to make up for the inconvenience!
We left the hotel and walked down to the public ferry for Elephantine Island. More to follow but it's time for bed!
It was baking hot on Elephantine so I thought it wise for it to be a whistle stop tour, especially has we had a meeting at the 4pm at the hotel. I took them first to th Satet temple to see the very sympathetic way in which the temple had been restored. Whenever a piece of plaster carving had been found, it was placed in situ then any missing parts are drawn on the new plaster, just to show how it would have looked like
We also viewed the early dynastic, old kingdom temple underneath it.
After this, we went to see the Sater Nilometer, the one I hadn't seen before, as there are two on the island.
As it became too hot, we made our way back to the ferry. Once back at the hotel my friends made their way to their room but I waited for the man I had to meet.
Whilst waiting I was admiring the beautiful floral display. The Guest Services man told me they were for Valentine's Day, a mixture of massive amarillys flowers and roses, roses are my favourite. He asked me if I had seem my room yet and when I said I hadn't he said it was very small!
Shortly after my friends joined me and we had a very interesting meeting about places we can see on this trip.
After this I went to see the room. It wasn't a room, it was a suite! It is too lovely to describe so here are some photos. The views from the extended balcony are amazing!
Later, after dinner, I returned to find three roses in the glass in the bathroom!
We had dinner on the terrace, overlooking the Nile and of course, Elephantine Isalnd. It was just perfect! We were too tired to go to the souk, so we went to bed.
What an amazing day!
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