After a pretty wretched night we’re both exhausted, empty, faint with hunger and feeling rotten. However we make it down to the lobby by 6.30am and try to drink some tea to give us the energy for our early morning excursion. 

Mo greets us and is mildly concerned that we’ve had a bad night, but certain it can’t possibly be the buffet (it absolutely was) and still wants to press on at 90 miles an hour. As it’s just the two of us, with Becky and Terry still snoring in their cabin, we get him to slow down a bit as we disembark and walk along the jetty we arrived at overnight, outside the magnificent temple of Kom Ombo. Having set off ahead of most of the other ships from Aswan, the plan is that we get to see most of the upcoming sites with fewer tourists over the next couple of days. And sure enough, Kom Ombo is pretty empty at 7am. 

The site is dedicated to both the gods Horus and Sobek, the crocodile god, with the ‘good’ god and the ‘evil’ god having the western and eastern sides of the temple respectively. Yet it’s Sobek who is most represented here. As a fearsome predator of the Nile, priests believed that by worshipping Sobek and befriending crocodiles, they would be saving the lives of Egyptians. I’m not sure trapping one in the circular well on display and throwing food into it daily would feel much like worship to a huge reptile, but that’s what they did and in the accompanying museum are displays of mummified crocodiles who were revered as representations of divine Sobek. 

There’s impressive carvings and hieroglyphics on all the walls and pillars, with calendars, representations of surgical instruments, images of childbirth and birthing stools and even representations of rituals to divine whether a pregnancy would produce a boy or a girl, by planting wheat or barley grains and seeing which grew. However, we’re both exhausted and fading fast, so after we’ve slowly dragged ourselves round the main sights we head back to the boat and try to eat some dry toast to settle our stomachs. 

The rest of the morning is spent up on the sun deck as we sail along the Nile, watching fishermen on tiny boats navigate the waters, farmers work their fields amongst cows and buffaloes, and passing little villages and mosques on the banks of the river. Here and there ancient temples, caves and tombs are cut into the rocks and smaller tourist boats on more leisurely itineraries dock at their little jetties to explore these remoter sites. 

Our cruise ship is barely a quarter full so we have lots of room on the deck, and it’s hugely tranquil as we glide along past islands and palm trees, birds and wildlife, desert and fields, every now and again passing a cruise ship heading south towards Aswan. 

At 12.30 we moor at Edfu, and Mo arranges horse-drawn carts to take us through the backstreets of the rundown town out to the imposing temple beyond it. Our little carriage bumps along at quite a pace, as our driver guides the horse through weaving traffic, pot-holed alleyways and straight through markets to arrive ahead of everyone else. An enterprising local has even set up as a freelance photographer and we are presented with a colour photo mounted on an Egyptian souvenir print when we return, which we are duly persuaded to purchase, before being able to get out of the cart. 

Edfu is a hugely impressive monument, dedicated once more to Horus, and we again have it almost to ourselves, having arrived ahead of most of the other tour groups. Mo’s modus operandi of whisking us around everywhere as quickly as possible and giving us all the information in as short a time as possible doesn’t work brilliantly when the two of us are still feeling pretty weak so we have to firmly let him know we want things to run differently today, which he’s not overly happy about. However the tension soon subsides and we’re able to enjoy the wonders on display. 

Like Philae yesterday, Edfu is another example of a Greco-Roman era temple from the time of the New Kingdom, (237BC in this case) where Ptolomite rulers from Greece, who sometimes never even set foot on Egyptian soil, instructed priests to build huge temples depicting themselves as kings being accepted by the Egyptian gods. The massive pylon entrance walls are preceded by a giant plaza and inside lie courtyards, chambers, pillars and lots and lots of carved hieroglyphics and painted ceilings. 

Mo informs us that essentially all the temples have the same inscriptions and carvings on them as they are all ritualistic spaces with the same belief systems on them. Pretty much like mosques, churches and synagogues through the ages, all of which tend to depict the same myths and stories. However one of the unique inscriptions at Edfu he shows us is a depiction of the number one million, thought to be one of the very first examples of its being written down. 

We take the horse-drawn trap back to the boat, pay for our photo and gingerly attempt lunch. Thankfully the chef has made us a special deep fried vegetable cake which is served piping hot, so we shouldn’t have any uncooked buffet to worry about, and Coman takes Antanil, an Egyptian recovery pill we’ve been given. I’m thankfully feeling much better - for now!

We return to the sun deck for the afternoon and pretty much have it to ourselves, while the other guests have a siesta, except for Becky and Terry who are uncorking another couple of bottles by the pool. The sights of the Nile slowly slip by as the sun starts to cast its late afternoon glow, and I watch a train trundling along the railroad tracks that hug the east bank along this stretch of the river, connecting Luxor and Aswan. We’d heard the horns of the trains many times day and night in Aswan, tooting away as they pulled in and out of the station, and it’s vaguely satisfying to see one of the ghostly hooters actually in motion. 

We’re treated to a spectacular sunset once more as we glide on into the evening and head back to our cabin to dress for dinner, thanking the chef and waiting staff as they bring us far too many specially made vegetarian options. They don’t seem to understand that our appetites haven’t yet recovered from last night’s battering, but they are so sweet and kind we do our best to try a bit of whatever they provide. 

And at least tonight, we manage to keep it down!