Abu Simbel

4:00 Wake up, quick coffee and off to Abu Simbel.

Since it is a small bus, we sit only behind one another, as all solo travelers have blocked double seats 😫

The seats with wheel arches are intended for 5-year-olds. Comfortable is definitely something else.

The bus beeps continuously and the drivers actually find seat belts after they told us that the beeping goes away when the engine is warm.

But the beeping is back after half an hour... sleeping is out of the question.

Adventure - Niels and Selfie - Harry are also on board. Silvia and Gerhard luckily, so only 6 people from the ship participate in the excursion.

270 km = 4 hours one way

Stopover in the desert at sunrise. We have already been on the road for 2.5 hours.

I can't remember ever being so cold on a vacation. Everyone here has been wearing the same clothes for a week because no one expected it to be this cold. Apparently, it is unusually cold for this time of year.

Abu Simbel, tomb of Ramses II used to be on the Nile and was moved 65 meters due to Lake Nasser. There is a Ramses temple and one that he built for one of his numerous wives, in this case Nefertari.

We are already going back at 10:45 am, as our ship sets sail towards Esna at 2 pm. Oops... how will that work? Maybe we will be brought back with inflatable boats?

The journey is really long and quite exhausting in a non-air-conditioned bus.

In the desert, there are miles-long queues of trucks waiting for a ferry ticket across Lake Nasser to Sudan.

Jürgen also sees his first mirage.

On the way back to the ship, we set sail towards Edfu, where we will dock tonight.