You must be joking - 2.30am wake-up call. We have to be across the river by 3.00am to meet Mervat and our drivers for the long drive to Abu Simbel. We stumble out of bed, and down the elevator, collect our breakfast parcels from reception, down the long drive to the boat, and make it across on time to find them waiting for us. We drive to a meeting point were all the tourists are taken in a convoy with police guard to the site. We were expecting to ge...

Time to chill out and relax this afternoon before heading across the water to visit the Nubian Museum. We decided we would walk as Leader Linda said it was about a ten minute walk. Well she can obviously walk faster than us because it took a lot longer than that, and by the time we wandered around the museum for a couple of hours, my feet were killing me. But what an amazing museum. We spent a long time in the part of the museum dedicated to the relo...

Just wanting to let you all know that we are safe and sound in Aswan,on the river Nile , miles away from Sharm el sheikh airport on the Sinai peninsula. There have been news reports of tourists being stranded as flights in and out of Sharm el Sheikh have been suspended. Our itinerary has been changed again as tourist police have banned trips to Fayoum and we are now spending an extra day in Luxor then going to Hurghada but we all feel very comfortable here and ...

After a leisurely buffet breakfast at the hotel we met with our new local, guide, Mervat, and boarded a boat for our trip along the Nile to visit a Nubian village. We arrived, scrambled up the bank and made our way through this lovely village to meet with a family who welcomed us into their home. We were made comfortable and immediately offered a 'hospitality drink' before being introduced to Nubian life. It was lovely and cool inside this sandstone house, and ...

We arrived at Aswan sometime just after 8am. I was really pleased to arrive as I had had a bit of an uncomforrtable night - a hard bed and frequent bathroom calls. We were transported by van to catch a ferry over to our luxurious hotel on the Nile - The Movenpick. We were greeted in the foyer with a tray of 'hospitality drinks' and we all enjoyed another glass of the hibiscus. Here it was served ice cold and quite sweet - in other places it has been...