4/18/07 - Day 8 - Abu Simbel and the Dust Storm

Man, here we go again an early morning to avoid the heat of the day. Today we got our wakeup call at 4am to leave at 5 to fly at 6 from Aswan to Abu Simbel. We got breakfast boxes which were filled with pastries, orange, banana, and juice. It was a 30 min flight enough for a quick cat nap. Upon arrival we boarded the shuttle to the site. There were tons of people there. This another of the amazing sites that you see in movies. A temple for Ramses and Nefeteri. We started back to the airport by 930 am to be back at the hotel in time for lunch. Welllllllll, guess what....... A hugh dust storm in Aswan has all the flights grounded. They moved us to a hotel from 10 until 3 pm. A lloooonnnnggggg boring HOT day. Everyone is hot, tired, and a little irritated. And it wasn't just our group of 15 people, there were 5 tour guides from many different tour companies in the same boat. Needless to say, they were stressing. Many people asked about chartering a bus and just drive the 3 hours back to Aswan but that was nixed. You see we eould need an escort to be with us the whole way and there was no one there (escort is our undercover police guard) secondly they didn't want the responsibility of a possibility of getting hijacked. Lastly, if we were going and ran into the sand storm we would not be able to see and therefore stuck. So, we waited and many slept any where they could find a seat. We are finally back at the hotel and many are taking naps before dinner at 630 pm. We have another early one tomorrow as we fly back to Cairo. Till tomorrow, my last day in Egypt. G'night
Anna