Day 115...Ships of the Desert - 19th October

The boat won't depart till after lunch today, so we reorganised our camel ride. We got up super early so the day wasn't hot, and caught a boat to the other side of the Nile. Our camels were there waiting for us. One camel was yowling and groaning and putting up a right fuss! Nathan laughed and pointed at me "that one's yours!" he said. And it was! I was worried and freaked out when it stood up to the accompaniment of groaning and growling and stuff. They get up with their back legs first so you nearly flip out! But gradually, we got accustomed to these 'ships of the desert' and their slow bouncy gate. I ended up being very attached to mine. Mihiliki I think his name was or something.

There are no stirrups, so my thighs killed me the next day! Nathan ended up with the shit camel - it kept trying to go back home. So they swapped. He didn't know what was going on, but I heard and warned him. Good thing too as they suddenly brought his camel down and he would have flipped out if he hadn't been ready!
As it was, the camels needed lots of cajoling. They threw straw and sand at them, and pulled and tugged. Once, Nate felt his whole camel reverberate as the Nubian guy chucked a rock at his camels ass! I saw it and couldn't stop laughing. I did like the camels. They had odd looking heads. Oh, Nathans new camel was called Rambo. We walked though hot, sandy desert. A few black rocks, but mostly lots and lots and lots of sand. In the distance some Egyptian guys were riding their camels and making them run! I would have fallen off for sure. We passed an ancient monastery, sitting folorn and alone out in the desert. It was hard to take photos when moving up and down, and I nearly stacked it off my camel when they sat it down at the end. It goes front feet first so your hips get thrust really far forward and your head starts so rock forward, before it sits back and you're safe. yay!

We came back to the boat, got changed out of our camel-y clothes and had lunch. then the boat set off. We tried to sit up on the shaded deck, but the heat was unbearable! The winds were hot and whenever your flesh creased, a stream of sweat would come out. We had to 'acclimatise' in the lounge area for a while, before heading back to our colder room. Otherwise we would have got sick. So we rested in our room till the cruiser docked at Kom Ombo temple.GOing down the Nile was eye opening. The Nile was a deep blue, bordered on each side with bright green grass and palm trees. Cows and buffalo grazed, boy swam, families bathed. The green varied in depth - the farthest still only a few dozen metres before abruptly turning into caramel sand, that was swept and piled into hills, plains and cliffs - as far as your eye could see. Just blue, a green fringe, then endless desert. I thought the desert would be further back in a way, not sitting right on the edge of the Nile.

At Kom Ombo we stepped out and saw a snake charmer! He may have wanted money for a show so we had to keep going and pretend not to see him. The temple of Kom Ombo was a similar design to Philae Temple. However a temple is usually made for one god, his wife and kid. This one was for two. Basically, people used to get munched by crocodiles here. Because they were fearful, they made a crocodile god to placate. He was a bad god though (coz he ate people) so they had to balance with a good one, so they dedicated it to Horus as well. So there was Sobek the crocodile god on the left, and Horus the falcon god on the right. It was a cool temple, with a magnificent sunset aiding the mood. It was sandy and orange, and it is hard to picture that it would have been painted with bright colours back then.

As we were going through though, I was standing and listening to Mohamed when I started to feel funny. I freaked that I might have a sudden attack of food poisoning or something and crap myself in the temple! But then I got dizzy and realised I was going to faint. I haven't fainted since I was like, 17! I must have got heatstroke or something from the camels and cruiser deck. I didn't have a headache or anything though. But I was going down nonetheless so I had to lie on my back with my legs in the air. Japanese tourists would laugh at me as they went past, as they thought I had the shits. Mohamed chastised me about not drinking enough water and I felt like a naughty child. Nate was highly amused.

It was a great temple and I didn't want to go back. So I soldiered on for a while. This temple had a calander and everything,but then I nearly carked it again! After a short lie down, we had to head back. The sunset was awesome though - we both agreed we've never seen anything like it before, except for perhaps a picture or movie. It was a glowing red orb, shimmery by heat and dust, and framed with palm trees and ruins.

We had dinner, then went to bed and slept. My thighs started hurting, which I thought was from dehydration - but ended up being from the camels! No headache at all, just that funny spell.

By the waqy : Mohamed's had such an interesting career - from birth to death and everything inbetween! One guy had an 'appointment' up on Mt Sinai. Mohamed was trying to not get him to climb it coz he was old, but the guy went up anyway. They watched the sun rise, and then when they told him it was time to go - he was dead with his eyes open. He had an appointment alright. His wife found later a letter saying that he had a date to do it up there. Amazing. The other one was a fat aussie girl who didn't realise she was 7 months pregnant. She started being sick right out in the middle of the desert and they had to stretcher her through dusty villages till they finally got a ute - and she gave birth at the door to the hospital! He's had crazy guys come on the tour and get chucked out for smashing a guy in the head with an ashtray as he slept. And been hit on by swingers - one guy spent the whole tour trying to get him to sleep with his wife!