20250305 Wednesday, March 5, 2025 Hot Air Balloon ride over Western Thebes, Nile River Cruising to Qena

20250305 Wednesday, March 5, 2025 Hot Air Balloon ride over Western Thebes, Nile River Cruising to Qena, Dandarah Temple of Hathor, Cruising back to Luxor

Although we have been getting up spontaneously between 3-4:30am because of our jet lag, when you have to get up for a specific reason, it seems harder to convince ourselves to actually pop up out of bed and get dressed.  We’re were in the lobby at 4:15am for coffee and pastries before being bundled into the buses to do our hot air balloon ride on the West Bank of the Nile.  The bus took us to a water taxi pier where we all got shuttled over to the West Bank of the Nile.  There, we got further divided up into minivans which then drove us to a large field in the dark.  

We had no idea what to expect but from out of nowhere, children could be seen through the minivan windows with trinkets to sell or birds to take pictures with.  These kids had to get up before sunrise to try to make a little money before school, apparently.  As the sun rose, we could begin to see that there were dozens of balloons laid out around this very large open area, and dozens of minivans full of tourists who were going for balloon rides.  

We had to wait a long time for authorities to signal that it was safe to go aloft.  They initially sent a pair of helium balloons aloft and we curiously watched them first float to the west, and then turn around and head back eastward overhead.  Then all of a sudden, all the balloon handlers sprung into action, firing up really loud gas powered fans to begin inflating the balloons.  Once they began to fill up, they would shoot huge gas flames into the balloons.  The baskets attached to the balloons were each about the same size as the minivans we arrived in, and were laying on their sides.  Once the balloons started to transition from horizontal to vertical, this pulled the baskets upright and a dozen or so balloon handlers then manned tethered lines and assisted passengers into the baskets.  

The baskets were divided up into compartments that were about 45” square, and into each basket, they had 3 passengers climb in.  It was tight but not uncomfortable.  In total, each balloon carried 24 passengers aloft. Janet and Ben ended up in compartments on opposite sides of the balloon, but this allowed us to see out of both sides of the balloon basket.  

The balloon handler sat in a central compartment surrounded by huge propane gas cylinders and 4 large overhead burners that created the hot air for lift.  The flames from these burners shoot 6-10’ high into the balloons.  When the burners are fired up, we really appreciated the fact that there was a sheet of metal above our heads so our hair wouldn’t get singed.  The roar of the flames is really something to be experienced.  

The sensation of lifting in the balloons is quite gentle and it was fascinating to see how the balloon operators had figured out the air currents in this area allowed them to basically circle around several temples on the West Bank of the Nile including the Ramesseum, which is a ruin which is being actively excavated, and the highly recognizable temple of Hatshepsut at the foot of the mountains that form the Valley of the Kings.  We didn’t actually fly over the Valley of the Kings or get high enough to see into it, but mostly hovered and circled around the complex of temples between the Nile and the Valley of the kings.  

When the balloons gain elevation, the balloons drift to the west and south, but when they descend, they head east and north, so it is possible to drive the balloons with some precision.  In addition, the balloonist can open some panels in the dome of the balloon to vent hot air and spin the balloon around.  The views of the tombs below were unique, and it was quite an experience seeing all these balloons doing their aerial ballet.  

At the end of the ride, the balloonist was able to put the balloon down right where his ground crew was waiting.  There were long tether lines that the ground crews grabbed and used to control the ballon in the final 20’ or so of its descent, and the landing was extremely gentle and controlled.  It was nice not to have our basket tip over and have us dragged through a field of cows or power lines.  

Heading back to the ship, we ended up transferring from the minivans to another water taxi which took us back across the river an deposited us right behind our ship.  That supposedly saved about 2 hours that it would have taken to drive the minivans across the nearest cross Nile bridge to get back to the ship.

We had breakfast in the Aquavit terrace, which is topside and aft on the ship as it pushed off from shore and then began sailing downstream from Luxor to Qena.  The Nile sailing was very pleasant.  The outside temperature as in the mid to upper 70’s and it wasn’t too windy so you could very comfortably relax on the outdoor upper deck and enjoy the scenes. There are areas were it appears that locals in very small row boats ferry people across the river.  Surprisingly there are also small herds of cattle, donkeys and horses that seem to be feeding on tiny sand bars and islands along the periphery of the Nile. We saw a couple of people doing their laundry in the river, and also saw men fishing from small row boats using nets.  

At 10:30am there was a lecture by Minai on some of the geography and history of the Nile River.  Since we had been up since before 4am, it was a bit of a struggle to stay awake for the entire lecture, but we were rewarded with some downtime afterwards to nap until lunch.  

When we awoke from our nap, we noticed that the ship was nearly at a standstill with no noticeable wake outside our window.  When we went up to lunch, we discovered that the ship had already docked alongside another ship, an Amawater Ways Nile River cruise ship.  This had obstructed any sort of view out the port side of the ship, so we were fortunate to have been on the starboard side.  

Lunch featured a tasty carrot ginger soup starter.  Ben opted for a good ole fashioned cheeseburger but with avocado added.  It also came garnished with lettuce and caramelized onions.  Janet opted for chicken shawarma in a pita with fries.  Dessert was something called Egyptian corn flake ice cream.  This turned out to be vanilla ice cream served with what can best be described as corn flakes coated with almond bark.  It had an interesting texture and tasted good, although not quite like Tony the Tiger’s Sugar Frosted Flakes.

After lunch, we barely had time to grab out excursion kit and head off the ship for a tour of the Dandarah Temple in Qena.  This is a temple dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Hathor.  In the temple there are depictions of several interesting things including the symbols of the Zodiac.  This temple was erected in the latter years of the period of the Pharaohs after Alexander the Great had conquered Egypt and declared himself to be Pharaoh.  On the back side of the temple is a large carving depicting Cleopatra VII, who reined as the last Pharaoh of Egypt.  She is depicted as a Pharaoh while Julius Caesar is depicted as a god.  

This temple has some remarkable colorful artwork on the ceiling. This had been hidden for centuries until someone decided to clean off the layers of soot and uncovered what we now see.  There are references to astronomy including phases of the moon, a calendar, and the symbols of the Zodiac.  There is a staircase leading up to the roof of the temple where a small crypt houses hieroglyphs depicting the story of Osiris being murdered by Seth and dismembered into 14 parts.  Hathor, his wife, took it upon herself to reassemble him and mummify him properly.  Unfortunately, she could only recover 13 of the 14 pieces.  That missing piece could best be described as his manhood.  So she crafted a prosthesis of clay to finish the reconstructed mummy.  She then descended upon him in the form of a falcon, landing on his prosthesis to conceive Horus.  Who knew there was so much smut in Egyptian mythology.  But then again, the Greeks weren’t any less obscene.  

After returning to the ship, we cruised back upstream to Luxor.  Ben checked out the “pool”, which is really just a bench you can sit on in the water, which is just knee deep. But it would be nicely cooling and it was very pleasant to sit there and look out beyond the infinity edge of the pool at the boat’s wake and Nile valley as we motored back upstream.

We got to watch some in room TV which included videos on more details of the various temples and Pharaohs, as well as nap before the evening’s daily briefing.
The ship’s officers and Egyptologists were introduced with a champagne toast at the daily briefing. Tomorrow will be a long and strenuous day to visit the Valley of the Kings.  We will be visiting the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, which we saw from the hot air balloon ride today, as well as the tombs of King Tut, SETI I and the Howard Carter House.  But at least we won’t have to get up at 4am.