Egypt Day 12 - Esna - Edfu

Itinerary Day 12:  Esna - Edfu

"Morning Sailing gently en-route to Edfu; enjoy breakfast at your leisure, visit Edfu Temple by horse carriage, one of the largest and most intact of Egypt's monuments. Two beautiful granite statues of the Falcon God Horus flank the entrance. After your visit to the temple, either ride or walk through the bazaar, this is an extensive bazaar where you can barter for souvenirs, spices and perfumes. We will then set sail for our private island "El Fouza" where we will disembark for dinner served to you on the edge of the Nile."

Journal:
The cruise to Edfu is as relaxing as advertised. Edfu Temple is a favored stop for all tour boats cruising the Nile. We count at least half dozen large Nile cruise ships steaming past us as our dahabiya is towed upstream. There are more tied up at port when we get there.

They unloaded a lot of passengers at Edfu, all heading for the same temple. Fortunately Ismael is familiar with their schedule. He planned with the captain to arrive at Edfu around the time they are heading back to the boats. They have a tight schedule. We do not. It worked out pretty much as planned, although there was a bit of a horse carriage traffic jam as we approached the temple. 

The crowds thinned as we entered the temple grounds.

Ismael was doing double duty, providing context and guidance to Sigrid and me in English, then the same to the Egyptian families on board in Egyptian. It's not as easy as it sounds.

At Edfu, the meticulously carved falcon god Horus is a mandatory selfie...

And despite the apparent ancient heiroglyphic WiFi instructions carved into the walls...

 ... I couldn't get better than 2G/3G speeds on my T-Mobile internet connection.

We explore the temple and wall-to-wall carvings. The quality and exquisite state of this 3,000 year old art continues to amaze.

Back to the boat. Without a doubt, this is the best way to see Egypt.

I think there are 6 cabins on the boat in addition to our aft suite. Besides Sigrid and myself we had our guide Ismael, two Egyptian families with a total of 4 or 5 kids, and two French women with their Egyptian guide accompany us as fellow passengers.  We also had a professional photographer on board who was shooting the Amoura - presumably for future promotional materials.

I didn't take a lot of pictures of our passengers, as the photographer on board was like a papparazzi 9he got our permission first). We were told we'd get his pictures at the end of the trip, so I hope to supplement these posts with his pics. 

I am not sure exactly how many crew there are on board. Maybe eight. The captain, a cook, steward, 2 - 3 deckhands, also the manager of the three boat dahabiya fleet who also captains one of the other boats.

After a relaxing afternoon cruising and sailing upstream (plenty of river pics, but will save for future post), we set anchor on a small deserted island with a flat riverfront, and the crew set up a delicious riverside feast of barbecued meats and side dishes.

WORK IN PROGRESS - JOURNAL POST UNDER CONSTRUCTION - MORE PICS COMING

Editors Note: I intend to pre-load and schedule automated blog posts with the daily itinerary for our Egypt and Jordan adventure. For those interested, this may be an easy way to follow along. Internet access is always a crapshoot. My hope is that by pre-loading the itinerary it will be easier to add some pics and journal commentary as time and the internet permits. If there are no pics or commentary, you'll just have to wait until we get back. Further!