Following our two nights on the Felucca we visited two more amazing sites, Kom Ombo and Edfu, after which we checked into a hotel and then it was right back into the whole temple sight seeing thing, with Luxor and Karnak temples.Karnak is much more than just a temple - it is a mind-boggling spectacular complex of buildings, obelisks, sanctuaries and Pylons. It has been added to, used and decorated by different Pharaoh's and cultures and covers a massive ar...

 After a long, long train journey of 18 hours, which threw out our schedule of sight seeing, we finally arrived at our hotel for the night and following very quick showers we all met downstairs to go off to a restaurant for a combined lunch and dinner. It was a beautiful meal of Egyptian food on a floating restaurant on the Nile. The long hours on the train were quickly forgotten - well until Hany our guide advised that those who had taken up the option to go t...

Our eagerly awaited Busabout tour began at 8.00am. We had used Busabout for Europe in 1999 and 2005 and when we discovered they had an Egypt tour planned that suited our holiday timing we were in! The group of seventeen consisted of two New Zealanders, two from USA and thirteen Aussies, all different age groups. A fantastic group who bonded immediately and particularly with our 18th person, our passionate and charismatic Egyptian tour guide, Hany. We had an early...

 We gained two very different images of Egyptians in the first hour.The mad cacophony that is Cairo traffic surrounds you at every moment you are outside. After a stress free  pre- organised airport pickup (essential when you have been 25 hours in airports and in the air) we had breakfast then went out walking to orientate ourselves. Our room would not be ready for a couple of hours so we would take in the sights and sounds in the meantime. The least said the...

CYCLONE AND FLOODING The cyclone season had been fairly uneventful when at 9am on Wednesday 13th Feb a small tropical low off the West Kimberly coast was named as Nicholas a CAT 1 tropical cyclone. No problem mate, its a baby and a long way away. Even when at 6am on the 14th Feb, it intensified to a CAT 2 little heed was paid.However at midday on 16th Feb, off Port Hedland, Nicholas again intensified to a CAT 3 severe tropical cyclone. Now it was getting some a...