Hello everyone!

So I last left you in Aswan, on our way to Abu Simbel. We went there in the middle of the night to see sun rise on the statues inside - after a 3 hour ride in military convoy, we finally arrived. The actual experience of seeing the statues at sunrise was really disappointing, but I actually managed to extract an apology from an Egyptian man (no mean feat I must add!). The actual statue itself was beautiful, as was the artwork inside and as it was a special occasion, there were loads of local people dressed up singing and dancing - I joined in the dancing and was obviously a complete natural!

After Abu Simbel, we went for a meal in a traditional Nubian village - Nubian are a tribe that are in both Egypt and Sudan. The food was amazing, so well worth the little trip!

We then spent another exciting few hours at the Sudanese consulate, again trying to get our visas. After another few games of uno, we left again unsuccessfully to catch our felucca. The felucca ride up the Nile was very chilled, and despite feeling ill, it was cool. We even swam in the Nile and nearly got entangled in all the weeds, but it all ended ok! Feluccas are fun, but not the most efficient way to travel, as after two days, we were barely half way to Luxor!

In Luxor, we visited all the main sites - Valley of the Kings, Luxor temple, Karnak temple and Valley of the Workers. All were pretty cool, though I enjoyed Luxor temple and the Valley of the Kings most, its just amazing how much of the original artwork is still in tact, but I'm now feeling a bit artwork and templed out. From the sounds of it, there is nothing in Sudan apart from desert, so we should get a good break, before going to Ethiopia.

After all our historical visits, we held our Halloween party last night. Everyone managed to find a variety of outfits in the local market and made a massive effort to dress up, which was good and a lot of fun!

We've found a classy KFC and MacDonalds on the banks of the Nile (its actually the nicest located fast food restaurants I've ever seen!), so we're off there in a minute to have our last decent food for a while. We're travelling on the ferry on Lake Nasser tomorrow to Sudan - apparently the ferry takes about 16 hours, but we'll have to wait at least 4 hours either side, so we have our sleeping bags and lots of snacks and a lot of hope!

We're (hopefully) in Sudan for just over a week, mainly rough camping through the desert before reaching Khartoum, so will be out of reach for a little while! Hope everyone is good, and you're not suffering too much from the cold hehe!

Love Claire