Wed, 7th Sep.: Revisiting Karnak, Departure

This was our departure day, with friends leaving on different flights through out the afternoon. We were going to be the last with collection at 6pm. I used the opportunity to take an early taxi to Karnak, to revisit the temple complex now that I was acclimatised to the heat. Mahmoud, my driver agreed to pick me up in two and a half hours time, at 11am.

Having purchased a ticket, I went straight to the very first gate of the complex, intending to work my way through from there to the exit, photographing along the way. Karnak was relatively deserted at 08:30am apart from the armed guards and the opportunistic guides. I could see little buildings along the outer wall with another soldier's curious head popping out.

The guide approached offering to help and I adopted a different strategy. I smiled and gave an “as salaam aleikum” and apologised for not speaking Egyptian. I made it clear I had been here before and was here just to get some photos. Then thanked him with a shake of the hand for wanting to help. A toothy grin, wave of the hand and I was left alone. I wandered systematically from the oldest gate, through the millennia towards the entrance. Any time I was approached by a guide, I used the same approach as before and was courteously left alone.

 Halfway in, I came across two men in Galabeyas, lying head to head on a wall in the shade. They sat up when I arrived but with sign language I persuaded them to pose again, giving them a small tip and then engaging in a bit of banter about the older one's good looks, raising a good laugh before moving on.

By the time I reached the Hypostyle hall, it was about ten and the bus-loads of other tourists had arrived. It was a case of accepting that they were a part of the view and continuing with the photography.

With five minutes to eleven, I came our of the temple and rushed across the large plaza to get to the car and bus park. A large group of local school children passed in animated chatter in the opposite direction, herded to the temple by their teachers. I accelerated past the hawkers who recognised a lost cause as it zoomed past and arrived at the main bus park with Mahmoud pulling up.

A family man, Mahmoud was proud of his new taxi, a Ford, and had already covered his dashboard with a fabric and plastic cover to protect it from the dust. We exchanged basic family information (children etc.) with our limited vocabularies as we sped out of Luxor to the dock sited a couple of kilometres to the South of the city on the East bank.

I arrived in time for a quick shower before the early lunch, the last opportunity to chat to Angie and Tony before they departed for their Luxor hotel for a further week's stay. Louise and I packed our bags, filled the Nile Cruise envelope with the tip for all the staff and posted it in the collection box, before migrating upstairs to hang over the balcony to wave to the successive groups departing, including Myra and her two daughters and Zoe and Dan.

Liz and I continued to sip drinks whilst Louise and Jenna were the centre of male attention for the last few hours before Egypt gave us a glorious farewell sunset. The bus took us back to the airport where, now experienced, we firmly took control of our suitcases and entered the building – to be greeted by a smile and comment of recognition of one of the representatives I had talked too aeons ago upon our arrival.

Most impertinent scrounger of the day was the person putting our luggage into the X-ray screener, begging for a tip.

Luxor airport passport control was done with a sense of humour and a smile by the official as he checked our passport pictures and then we were through to the area beyond, before the gates. A restaurant promised food, which turned out to be trashy fare, not kept properly warm, at airport prices.

Boarding, Jenna and Louise sat together whilst Liz and I sat on opposite sides of an aisle at the back.

With my knees jammed against the seat in front, I was relieved when the couple sitting split seats in front of me asked if they could move to the empty seats on my side. However, the relief was short lived when an insensitive old goat sat in front of me slamming himself into the seat and nearly kneecapping me. Apologies at my yelp of pain? Not a bit of it.

The Thomson staff were equally unsympathetic, not permitting me to move to the visibly empty seats with more leg room up front. By stretching sideways into the aisle, I survived the flight whilst the old goat snorted, farted and bounced in his seat for the next 3000 miles.