RIGHT Me attempting to rig up a not very good mosquito net

BELOW Side façade of Temple of Horus

From Aswan, we moved on to Edfu by train. The ticket office wouldn't sell us tickets, telling us to buy them on the train - apparently foreigners are only supposed to travel on specific trains, but won't throw us off if we're already on it!

We spent the next couple of hours entertaining ourselves by comparing the Arabic scripts on the signs at passing stations, to what was in our travel guides, to find out where we were. We were ultra excited when we managed to recognise most of the station names!

Outside Edfu station, after consulting our travel guides again, we found we were supposed to take either kalishes (carriages), private taxis, or a pickup truck to the town centre on the other side of the Nile. Taking the plunge, we haggled with a pickup driver to take us there, and en route had a beautiful view of the benefits that the High Dam had had on the region... lush greenery alongside the river Nile.

There aren't many hotels in Edfu, and the one we ended up at, was grotty. The ceiling was peeling, the walls crumbling, there was no hot water unless you remembered to run downstairs first to switch the heating on, not that the shower/bathroom was in any state that you'd want to use. The toilet barely flushed, and the room was infested with various flying insects... including one extra big wasp that had managed to get caught between the window and mosquito mesh. Both me and Stef promptly set up our mosquito nets! And compared to the hotel we'd stayed in Aswan, it was not cheap.

However, the owner was jovial and wonderfully hospitable, chatting about his vast family and world news, particularly how bad George Bush and Tony Blair were (the US had just recently started its second war against Iraq,) and about the anti-war protests that were happening around the world at the time. He also provided the most amazing breakfast possible - plenty of oranges and bananas, then pitta filled with a selection of fuul, honey, ta'amiya, scrambled eggs, cheese and salad. It would almost have been worth staying another night for, were the rooms not so bad!

RIGHT Entrance to the Temple of Horus

Stuffed full on this feast, we made our way to the Temple of Horus. We had to walk past a market area in order to get to the entrance to the site, but luckily as it was before 9am, the stall holders were still sleepy and setting up, so we were ignored. Coming back out would be a different matter, as sellers would immediately thrust things into Stefan's hands as soon as he put something else down, in order to maintain his attention. I'm not sure how I managed to avoid all that...

Inside the temple, we found an almost peaceful and cool sanctuary... appreciating it not only for the archaeology, but also for receiving so little hassle inside the building. I spent a good while in one of the enclosures chatting to another tourist, about what a relief it was to find somewhere where we weren't being constantly bothered!

LEFT Stefan inside an enclosure with engraved walls - the likeliest areas to find some peace!

RIGHT Statue of Horus in his bird form

ABOVE Great Hypostyle Hall

ABOVE RIGHT Stefan walking away from Temple of Horus entrance

LEFT Stefan walking down the ambulatory, a passageway running between the temple and its protective wall

RIGHT Two locals ask me to take a photo of them. Though I had no interest in doing so, I took one anyway out of politeness. They then had the cheek to ask me for baksheesh!

Back at the train station, the loveliest possible policemen and a station attendant noticed we were sitting alone waiting for the train to Luxor, and came to keep us company.

We held a completely incomphrehensible conversation, them speaking to us cheerfully in Arabic, and us to them in English! Probably the only parts that were understandable, was when one of them noticed a flyer I used as a bookmark in my travel guide, and indicated that i explain how to pronounce the letters. That and to tell us our train had arrived!

RIGHT Two policemen and a station attendant at Edfu station