My first morning in Luxor saw me rise at the ungodly hour of 4.20am and head across the Nile for my first ever hot air balloon ride. 8 out of the group went and we were in the air for sunrise. We could see the Valley of the Kings in the distance, however the wind decided we were destined to cross the Nile again and go over Luxor. What an amazing experience. So calm and gentle, although too much longer than our 45 minute flight and we might have had to request...

After another unsuccessful morning at the Sudanese embassy Ruth decided that we should leave our passports and money with her for our visas and go and catch our Felucca's for a few nights sailing on the Nile. Originally we were going to spend 3 nights onboard, however with visa delays this got cut down to 2.We boarded the Felucca's just down from our hotel in Aswan and set sail on the Nile. We had 2 Felucca's with one boat having 11 people and the other 7 peopl...

We have now arrived in Aswan and are going to try to get our Sudanese visa's. We are assured that this is the place to do it, however in the last day or so Ruth has had word that there has been a rule change - so all plans are on hold until we have our visas. We all went to the Sudan Embassy this morning at 10am and by 1pm we were still waiting for news. Poor Ruth spent the morning drinking endless cups of tea being told ten different things. We all sat on th...

We finally left Cairo and started on our adventure. We caught a bus through Cairo traffic - which is horrendous and went to the truck -we were all rather excited and not shy to admit it. After arriving at the truck we got acquainted with our new home and stored our goods. I chose a locker at the front of the truck which is a little smaller than some other lockers however as we are not a full truck, I could have it to myself and it is also not as deep as the ot...

Am finally coming out of the exhaustion that followed the adrenalin high of leaving London. Woke at the sensible time of 7am this morning finally feeling rested. Breakfast in Cairo is an interesting smorgasboard of things that I would not necessarily think would go together. Egypt so far is a carbohydrate high, which for those who know me can sympathise that yes, I am struggling! We decided to go today to explore the Old Islamic and Coptic region of Cairo. ...