Last day in Luxor

Yesterday was a total relaxathon. I took myself up to the sundeck of the Royal Esadora, helped myself from the stacks of yellow and white towels, and found a lounger at the very front. What was I going to do? Watch the Nile world go by. It never gets boring.

Things I’ve discovered I love: water buffalos, who come in a shade of grey moleskin that makes them look almost cuddly. Donkey carts and especially donkey carts where the donkey colt trots alongside its mother, learning the ropes. Also, mule carts. Why? Because they’re everyday, ordinary sights here that the Egyptians don’t even look at twice but I’ve never seen before and they seem like a piece of life that hasn’t changed for generations. Then there are the colours: blue for the Nile, green for the land, sand for the mountains and blue again for the sky.

Today, though, is a different story. Being in Luxor means you’re in ‘the world’s largest outdoor museum’. What that means is Karnak, which is a vast area – think maybe four football pitches – full of statues, columns, pylons (that means high entrances) and even a sacred lake.

What makes this place so fascinating is that some of the bas reliefs still have their original colours on them, giving you a hint of just how bright and spectacularly painted this place once was; and that it’s still in the process of being restored, a process that’s been going on since the 1800s. In fact, while we were there, we watched a group of men, with the help of a crane, position a giant block back in place.

We also learned, by visiting the Isis 2 Papyrus Museum (on Hilton Road in Luxor) how papyrus was – and still is – made into paper and that it’s a roughly three-week process. The ancient crafts clearly take patience.

And now… Well, now we prepare to leave tomorrow. Ugh. Talk about that Sunday-night feeling. All I really want to do is go on, maybe to Hurghada or Sharm for a few days snorkelling and then…?Well, everywhere seems to be calling my name.

Going away is a bit like going to Narnia, the CS Lewis made-up land where whole lives can be lived, but when the people return, not even a minute has passed in Earth time. Us travellers also feel that: we see so much, have so many new experiences, make connections with people we meet along the way and when we return, it feels as if we’ve been away months, even if it’s only been a week or two. Then, when we go home, people say, “Oh, have you been away? I didn’t realise…”






Some folks are never bitten by the travel bug and, yes, there’s a little bit of envy there. After all, they don’t suffer from that almost-constant craving to go somewhere new, see something they’ve never seen before, meet people they might never have met and find out how they live. But if you have that itch to go see what’s over the next mountain, round the next bend, on the other side of the river, lake or ocean and you can see a way to scratch it, well, life becomes incredibly rich. After all, if travel makes one day away feels like a stay-at-home four or five, it’s almost like living forever…