Thursday 6th October

Oh boy, it's such a hard life!!!  I just had to relax by the pool again and partake of nice cool drinks and fruit kebabs!!

In case anyone is wondering, this is a can of soda water!

Actually, I have just realised that I never took any photos of the fruit kebabs, so I'll just have to have a repeat visit to get one!!  The staff come round with nice cool towels as well and I did manage to get a photo of that!!

Our idea with the rolls and buying fillings from the supermarket worked very well indeed, so we decided to carry that on till the end of the holiday!!

At 3 p.m. that afternoon, the ten of us all set off on a guided tour of Karnak Temple, but this was to be special, this was to see some locked-off areas that members of the public don't normally get to see!!  When we got there, were were guided into the Director's Office where we had a short talk and then we all set off on the dusty trail!!  I was very snap-happy with the camera and here are a few photos that I'd like to share with you.

The Roman Baths

Khonsu Temple

Khonsu Temple

Inside Pylon No. 9

Recent excavations that discovered these superbly carved blocks that had been used in building by Hatshepsut

Statue of Sekhmet

There are loads more photos which can be seen in my albums at http://community.webshots.com/user/marlscat    There are just too many photos to include here!!  I took over 1500 in total!!

The gardens of the Winter Palace at night are also quite spectacular and at certain times of the year, the smell of Jasmine is just heavenly. I was busy with the camera at night as well and took some experimental photos

The shallow pool and pool bar

Pool restaurant

Experimenting with the star filter

As I was getting ready for dinner, my mobile rang and it was Suzie to give me the time for the pick-up in the morning for my long awaited balloon flight.  As expected, it was a stupid-o-clock time - 4.45 a.m. pick up, which meant an ultra early rise!!  My hubby did laugh out loud at that because he wasn't going so therefore would be able just to curl up and go back to sleep as I left the room!!

We went to the Lantern tonight for dinner.  As ever, Debbie was an excellent hostess and we had a really nice dinner. On the way back to the hotel we stopped off at the bakers again to buy rolls for lunch.  I think they must have remembered us from the night before and reckoned we were 'locals' as the price dropped from 4LE for eight rolls, to 2LE for eight rolls!!

It was then back to the hotel for the usual nightcap.  I set out everything that I needed for the morning and remembered to set the alarm for 4 a.m. and sincerely hoped that I would not just go back to sleep when it rang!!