Valley of the Kings

This morning we got up at 5am. By 6am we had eaten breakfast and caught a ferry across the Nile where we jumped on our donkeys. Well I jumped on and didn't quite make it but on the second attempt I was on. One of the shorter girls on the tour climbed onto a large rock so it wasn't so far to jump. :) We then rode for about 7kms which was fun and tiring. My donkey had no interest in listening to me no matter what i said to motivate him so hung around the back of the pack and would only speed up when one of the guys in charge would make the right noises. Then he'd spring to life and i'd be holding on and trying to keep balance. It got easier fortunately. After about an hour or so we made it to the Valley Of The Kings. I don't reckon the Pharoahs would have been riding into the Valley Of The Kings on a donkey but maybe more like a noble steed or maybe they would have been carried but it was pretty cool. We then checked out the Valley Of The Kings.
This is where a number of pharoahs had their tombs built after they realised that building bloody huge pyramids was like putting up a big sign that said "grave diggers - please dig here!". So far they've found roughly 60 tombs in the hills in the area. In fact it was 62 when our guide first started his talk and was about 68 by the end of the talk so perhaps they had found another 6 during the time we were there! We checked out 3 tombs and they were pretty impressive. Lots of colourful paintings on the walls depicting the passage of the dead through to their equivalent of heaven. By the end of the three tours we were all pretty stuffed. It was hot, there were tourists everywhere and the flies were outnumbering the tourists. The donkeys had left so we caught a bus and then a ferry back to our hotel. Since then I've had a nap and eaten lunch. This arvo is hot and there is a big celebration in Luxor tonight so people are everywhere. The girls have been warned to cover up if they go out after 5pm and travel in groups because they might have trouble (groping etc). Most the celebration revolves around prayers so it's kinda strange to think they should need to worry about their protection. No-one is too worried though because we've got a hotel with a pool!
Tomorrow we leave for Hurghada which is a resort town on the Red Sea. Not much to do apart from snorkel and relax. I think we are all needing it now.
Sounds like our travel agent has got it mostly sorted now although WE have to organise a hotel for one nights stay in Johannesburg because he's had trouble finding anything in the city centre. Of course, if he'd got it right in the first place this wouldn't be a problem. Oh well, we've started planning out what free holiday we can get out of Flight Centre for all of this.
Better go. This internet place is hot, smoky and I have to go swim in a nice pool now.