There was more relaxation to come as we arrived and made our way to Dahab, and then to Sharm el Sheikh in pursuit of some beach time. After the snorkelling and relaxed backpacker life in Dahab it was difficult to head south to Sharm but we compensated with some more rigorous paperback reading and swimming.
However before long we were back on the early morning routine, starting with a walk up Mt Sinai. The thing everyone does if you're a tourist (or a pilgrim) is to leave the base at midnight, walking up and waiting for the sunrise. We decided to leave at 5am primarily to catch some more sleep, which meant we would catch sunrise enroute and get up there an hour or two after dawn. It turned out to be a great move - not only did we miss sitting around freezing up top for an hour or so, but as hundreds of walkers passed us on their way back down, we arrived at the top completely alone and spent half an hour at the summit taking photos and reflecting on the early morning views.
Leaving Sharm we intended to fly direct to Luxor to start our temple spotting. However Egypt Air had other plans - requiring a detour to Cairo for 4 hours which was just in time to watch the entire Royal Wedding celebrations from start to finish in the airport cafe. Perfect timing, and we all got to see the dress. Finally arriving in Luxor we headed up to our guest house's rooftop restaurant only to see Luxor Temple in the near distance which was exciting - and even better later that evening when we were able to visit up close with it all lit up.
Luxor is temple central so each day we were up bright and early (again!) to see the incredible tombs in the Valley of the Kings (no photos allowed), as well as more temples including Deir-el Bahri, Ramesses III, Karnak and Edfu. The scale of the temples was amazing and as we trooped around in the blazing sun we were pinching ourselves at their size, the intricacy of the carvings and the feeling of being in an open air museum.
Leaving Luxor we headed south via the crocodile temple to Aswan, a sleepier town where we spent our final few days in a guest house on the quiet side of the Nile. We spent some enjoyable afternoons on a felucca (and even doing a spot of fishing!) as well as a quick trip south to see Abu Simbel which was awesome. It was a great way to wind down a fantastic trip from Amman in Jordan to Aswan and very difficult to head back to work!
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