April 21, Egypt

Monday 21st April –Luxor

They say there’s no rest for the wicked so I’m sure that someone up there must know that I’m with Rich! It’s a 4am start to watch the sun rise and go hot air ballooning over the Nile. It is breathtaking and despite being 1600ft high, we get to see life for the locals as they start their day. Whilst I was a little nervous about taking off, landing the balloon was an altogether funny experience. As we got lower we had 10 men running after us to try to pull the balloon down. At the same time there was a very perplexed farmer (pictured) concerned about us landing on his crops and negotiating with our Captain for compensation! From here we hop on our ride to the Valley of the Kings, which is by donkey. It’s a lot of fun and Rich gets into the spirit of things (check out the picture) but his donkey won’t listen to a thing he says! We arrive at the Valley and it’s a little more difficult to walk! We visit four tombs, each slightly different and at different stages of preservation. It’s amazing to think that as soon as a new King comes into rule, they start preparing his tomb and valuables to for him to take to the afterlife!
With the combination of the early start and intense heat we are exhausted. We head to our Riverboat which we’ll be spending the next three nights on for a well deserved nap!