Heading to Luxor

Bit of a rubbish day all round. The staff in this hotel come across as really arrogant and rude - I’ve never experienced it at this level before. So after my wife was conned out of some linen a few days ago at a store, we had a little confrontation with a receptionist who was totally out of order and aggressive. Amazing really. We even experienced a huge argument between staff at the breakfast buffet as well. So we couldn’t wait to leave Cairo and fly down to Luxor. 

Well, we left it quite late and basically make the gate with a just a few minutes to spare and are the last ones to board! That was after traversing 3 (yes 3) X-ray/security machines during the airport fiasco. And so it was that we take off 40 minutes late anyway and after a 1h 40mins flight touch down in Luxor just before 7pm. We meet the Sixt rental agent out in the car park (they don't have an office at the airport) and find out they’ve switched our SUV for a saloon car – an upgrade apparently….. No doubt it’s another scam and judging by the poor state of the roads I really wish we had the SUV I had pre-booked.

We head to the hotel, a good one along the Nile, traversing numerous speed bumps, evading even more horse & carts, motorbikes without their lights on, as well as people randomly walking out in front of us to cross the street. Just a note about Sixt - very rude on WhatsApp messages with constant “hello?” If I didn’t answer them immediately! So you see how it goes in Egypt.

The drive to the hotel only takes 25 minutes and is pretty slow going despite it being a 9km journey. Traffic is relatively light thank goodness and once at the hotel we find the staff to be amazingly friendly, polite, helpful and…. Well, normal. Such a contrast to the Cairo hotel staff.

Not a bad view from the balcony of our hotel room

The following morning I get up late but refreshed and we head over to Karnak Temple after breakfast, during which there were 4 Eurasian Hoopoes feeding on the well manicured lawn right next to us. The temple is pretty cool, despite one of the guards trying to con us out of some money because he pointed out a few things in the ruins around us! I tell you, everyone wants something from you here. On the walk in we are accosted by someone purporting to be a guide and wants to take us around, saying “don’t worry about the money”… and he wouldn’t leave us alone for ages despite repeated “no thank you’s from us”. Oh and let’s not forget the numerous market stall vendors hassling us to buy their tat! 

Karnak Temple

During the morning I get a WhatsApp message from Sixt Rental starting they had a report I’d been speeding at 176kmh yesterday, which apart from being utterly ridiculous there’s nowhere in the 9kms I drove from the airport to our hotel that would have been possible in the narrow, bumpy streets, with numerous speed humps, horse carts and mopeds without lights weeving erratically everywhere! So another scam and one I addressed with strong words and threats of the British Embassy.

After a break back at the hotel I drive 15 minutes downriver to Crocodile Island. Unbeknown to me this is a private island and I shouldn’t be here, but once across the bridge (where I have to leave the car’s driving license at a security checkpoint) I then realise the score here. The island is basically owned by the Jollie Ville (or something like that) Hotel and only for their clients to use. 

No way i'm going to see any snipe here...

Anyway, I walk around it pretending I am staying there and actually have an enjoyable couple of hours in the late afternoon. I am particularly hoping for better views of Greater Painted Snipe but the riversides are covered in tall grass and reeds and I can't find anywhere that a snipe would venture out onto. Still, I see at least 4 Masked Shrikes, many African Green Bee-eaters, 4 Senegal Thick-knees, several White-throated Kingfishers, lots of Pied Kingfishers, Clamorous Reed Warblers, Graceful Prinia, lots of Squacco Herons and a few African Swamphens, plus more commoner species......

 And then I'm escorted off the premises by security staff……!