Civil Engineering masterclass - Abu Simbel

The previous post on this series is here..

We slept on the boat overnight and woke up at 3:30 AM. The group including kids were all assembled at 4 in the van and the drive started to Abu Simbel from Aswan docks.

Most of us dozed off in the first hour of the drive as it was still dark outside. A little past 6AM the van slowed down for a tea and restroom stop in the middle of the desert! It was good we had some local currency. Restrooms also need local currency for the two sheets of toilet paper they hand you. The restrooms themselves were well maintained but the cigarette smoke was difficult to deal with. Wanted to come home and check what percent of the population smoked and what lung cancer rates were in Egypt. A healthy population is a good idea for any country. With kids (who looked 10 or under) smoking everywhere, it cannot be a good thing!

Enough with the vent. We came out of the shack, ate a packed breakfast that was given to us at the boat, took pictures of a glorious sunrise and kept driving. 

lens flares on iPhones are tricky. was trying to teach a class to the group on how to avoid them.. this is as good as it got. More lessons are required! 

We went past a small city which was mostly engineers supporting local agriculture in the desert. It was a massive project covering acres growing everything from basic vegetables to maize. 

Eventually after 4 hours we made it to Abu Simbel. We got an explanation of how the temple was going to go underwater with the new dam and it took 10 years to literally cut the original temple block by block and reassemble it above the same hill. 

The original temple was perfectly oriented to have the sun come through and shine on the main shrine on two days of the year. The new moved temple up the hill still had that going for it. The original temple was a marvel. Moving something like that in the 70's within a 10 year span with global support was impressive!

The minute you walk around the hill and come across the gigantic statues, it just takes your breath away!

There was still color in the murals on the walls and ceiling. Given we were close to Dec 21st, the sun was angling in and lighting up the entire temple in a golden glow inside! 

A few pictures of the insides of two temples here..

A video highlight of the Abu Simbel visit.. the video captures both the sunrise and the beauty and scale of the temples! 

We had spent a litle over two hours at the temple including a restroom stop and some time at the gift shop buying magnets. Then it was time to start the 4 hour drive back.

It was a race and there were no stops on the way. We had to be back at the boat before 2. Lunch was at 1:30 but the boat was finally going to start moving at 2PM. 

We made it at 1:30! I had enough time to run to the market across the docks with Walid and grab some more large water bottles before we started sailing.. 

We were surprisingly refreshed and were not as tired as we thought we would be! We were all looking forward to moving in the boat on the Nile!

Amazing boat ride sunset - West Al Khazan

The previous post on this series is here..

We had reached out cruise boat and had a nice lunch. The plan was to take a nap and do an evening activity. It was optional and 4 of us opted to do it. It was 20 USD per person to do a boat ride on the Nile to the other side past Elephanine island to visit a Nubian village.

Our guide Walid, pretty much begged me not to miss it. He said "you are a photographer! the sunset here is just plain amazing! don't miss it!". So off we went. We started at ~4:30. Walid had told us that it will be at least 2-3hours to go, spend time at the village and come back to the boat by the 7:30 dinner time. 

Walid was spot on! This was the most amazing sunset we had seen with the boats, the river and the different types of huts in the villages we crossed. 

Here is a slideshow..

There were lot of pictures on the boat ride to and fro.. some highlights and "people pictures"

We got fantastic photos!

Most of these Nubians (folks from south of Egypt and Sudan) who are generally dark skinned were displaced because of the dam. They had a rich social culture of large families that lived in groups. Their houses always had a central courtyard with rooms being added as folks got married. A modular mud house structure with igloo type roofs. They put sand in the open courtyard.

there were beautiful murals on the walls..

Almost all of them had crocodiles for pets as the crocs were their main god. 

Walid told us that Crocs were their god(Sobek) for a reason. They would watch how high the crocs went to lay their eggs on the sand banks. Higher they went, more the expected flood for the year a few months later. The crocodiles were an early flood warning system for them. They saved lives. They were worth protecting! They are fed "bread"! they were veggie crocs and were mostly docile and played with the kids. We shopped around the market and were welcomed into a home for tea and coffee. The family was nice. Their kids had a 20 year old croc and a 2 year old baby. I was allowed to hold and pet the baby croc which was just wandering around our coffee table! 

it was 1 USD to pet the croc and take pictures. It was free to let it wander around near us! 

After that we were asked to check out the view from the roof.. it was like a west mambalam rooftop per the group! The village roads (sand) and the cute shops and fast running race camels made for some amazing experience.

We said bye to the village and went back to our cruise boat watching the reflected lights from the village in the Nile waters..

(our friends were the reason for this photo.. wife did the art direction, husband took the photo)

It was a spectacular evening! We were glad we went on this. . . 

Video highlights of this "optional" but should have been a compulsory trip!

After this we stopped at the local Aswan market to get some water bottles (the cruise was charging for large water bottles). Later we found out that the two regular bottles in the rooms every day were free. However there was no way to make hot water for tea in the rooms. They did give us hot water at the bar but we had to tip the guys who gave us hot water at the end of the trip(that was okay!). 

We were informed by an apprehensive Walid that we leave the following morning at 4AM and he has set up a wake up call for the group! Again a collective groan went up. There was going to be a long drive in the morning! 

When we went back to the cruise, my head was splitting because of jet lag. I dozed off and skipped dinner.. apparently they had made Dal just for the desi familes who had joined that day on the cruise (it has a 200 people capacity and was pretty much full!). There was 8 of us and a group of 6 from Mumbai and another quiet desi couple. 

It was lights out for me! 

The Grand Canyon's South Rim

The previous post is here..

The cover photo for this post.. (usually it is a "bench photo".. there were no benches on this hike and this was as close as it got)

Here is a video highlight of the entire trip! This time posting the video upfront. . . 

The morning of the hike, we were all ready at 5:15 AM waiting for a ride from the Yavapai lodge to the trailhead. There is a car service that gives large groups rides directly to the trailhead for around 3 to 4 dollars a person. We were 9 of us and it was a full van! It was a 5 minute ride to the trailhead but would have been another 2 plus mile walk! 

Once at the trail head we took photos and started at 6AM. The ground was covered in snow and ice. None of this was in the plan! 

This hike is not for the faint hearted. It is a pretty difficult trail. It is an 18 mile minimum hike starting from the South Kaibab trailhead that goes all the way down to the colorado river.. ~ 8 miles of straight downhill hiking over 5000 feet. The weather goes from cold to warm to hot when we are down at the bottom. 

The portrait format photos are fewer..

The landscape format photos (most of them) are in this slide show! Just amazing views all day..

The first two miles were slow going because it was still dark and the icy ground. We reached Ooh-aah point to catch the sunrise! It was spectacular watching the first rays of the sun hit the canyon!

First photos of us as we went through the hike with some time stamps... just 4 years older than Sangeetha, but when that 4 years is on either side of 50, it seems to make a huge difference when it comes to walking uphill.

6:30 AM : Photos at Ooh_aah point waiting for the sun to come out..

San allowed me to do yoga poses on rocks. Was wondering "is there a catch?" and turns out there was none. She is now a yogi and appreciates me posing with the BYSJ shirt at national parks! 

She did start screaming when I turned to take this selfie on the ledge..there was screaming from multiple ladies!

8:15 AM at Skeleton point

After the first two miles we tried to pick up the pace, but it was hard with all the puddles in the trail. That was an added distraction for me. Have a whole series of photos from puddles which will be posted separately.

We managed to reach Skeleton point after two hours and 15 minutes and Tonto West (Tip off point) at 9 AM. We had made up some distance in the last hour. Then it was time to go through a steeper descent to the river. 

9:00 AM Tip off point

9:30 AM

We can see the colorado river and the green bridge

10:30 AM 

We finally reached the green bridge across the river. At this point the group was split up into two. So two of us went ahead in search of the next restroom which was a mile away! By the time th rest of the group joined it was 10:30. We walked together to Phantom ranch after a break. 

Under side of the green bridge

Then there is a few miles of walking along the river to Phantom ranch. From there it is a crossover the Colorado river again and back to the Bright Angel trailhead at the top. (most folks start at bright angel and end up in South Kaibab).

Hindsight being 20/20 and given we had our own packed food, we should have just got back on the river trail and saved ourselves 2 hours in time and 2 plus miles extra walking. Phantom ranch was overrated. 

Phantom ranch was a let down. There was a canteen there and a few benches to sit and eat lunch. We were told that there is free lemonade for everyone who visits this place. IT IS A MYTH! THERE IS NO FREE LEMONADE! 

There is lemonade for sale at 6$ a cup with 1$ for refills. Some folks in our group were all set on having that lemonade and did! Their verdict? Nothing special ! 

After eating our packed lunches and having lightened our backpacks a bit, we started our hike back. The return was going to be 9 miles with a stop every 1.5 miles.

The silver bridge to get back across the river

The return is longer as it has at least 30+ switchbacks in the last 3 miles of the trail and is just grueling!

12:00 Noon

We see a warning at 2 PM around Tonto East

We walked together as a group for the first 3 miles. We were climbing steadily but slowly. The altitude gain was gradual. Then we split up 4 and 5 and went through the next mile and a half. Once we reached this Indian garden or Havasupai garden (which is a cross point for two trails), three of us decided to move forward as we were already losing steam. 

that is a little too late...

 3:00 PM

We had hot chai and Parle G biscuits and started walking the last 4.5 miles. It was a steep climb and after the first mile it was already sapping.

The stops have a restroom and we can refill water bottles.

4:00 PM

Was taking it literally one step at a time. My legs were burning by then. There was no option but to keep going. The three of us tried to encourage each other with jokes every now and then. 

4:30 PM

The towel came out to keep wiping rain from face.

5:00 PM in bad rain with a Poncho

When there was two miles left, it started drizzling. By then we had climbed up a good deal. We had come up 3500 feet and had 1500 more to go. Then drizzle became rain. The towel around my shoulders had to come off and replaced with a poncho. Was drenched inspite of the poncho. It was also getting colder as we were hiking up. 

5:30 PM Made it back up! Changed clothes and got the jacket back up.. by then the rain had slowed to a drizzle

The idea of hiking up to end a trail is not that great. Usually we hike up mountains and come down to the parking lot. This was brutal to put it mildly.

When we made it back to the top, we were soaked and were not going to wait for the rest of the group. Glad we didn't. They were also hit by the rain and darkness and had to walk with headlamps and ponchos and made it an hour after we did. A 20 minute delay at Indian garden made them an hour late because of the unpredictable weather! We took the cab service and made it back to our rooms a little after 6 PM. Took us a good 30 minutes to sort things out and after a hot shower and some chai, we realized that we had actually made it!

The legs were shaking and sitting down or standing up was a slow process. I had already taken a couple of Ibuprofens every 3 hours all day thanks to my laces jumping the notches in my hiking shoe and hurting my ankle earlier in the day. That still didn't help at the end of the day. 

Once all of us were ready we spent some time at the canteen at the Yavapai lodge. Then it was time to call it a night. 

The next morning we were going to start at 8 AM from the lodge and celebrate!

That and the return back to Phoenix in the next post...