I woke relatively early (around 6.30) and decided to go outside to enjoy the morning. There was a group of men moving logs on to a boat (we had burned some of them the night before). They had made a fire which I stoked to keep a bit of warmth. At around 7, Aly came out and he was later followed by Guy, then (even later) Lauren and Fiona. The sunrise had been stunning and once again, the kingfishers were diving (camera locked away so spared the embarrassment of missing those photos once again). 
We had a great breakfast of tomatoes, cheese and omelete. After taking down the covers, all too soon it was time to go. The plan was to gluide across the river, but actually there was no wind, so Aly and Mustafa rowed, and then Guy and Lauren rowed. The current was too great so the pros took over again. We eventually got to the other side at around 11am (during the process there were various phone calls to the taxi). 
Soon after we got there, the taxi arrived . It was a run down taxi that looked as if it had just been taken off the streets of Cairo. Fiona got a relatively decent seat, but the rest of us ended up on the pull down seats. Very uncomfortable. The taxi was filled with various people who were on a tour. These included an American (wearing a hat), a Chinese girl, a chinese man, a German woman and a couple of Egyptians. It was good to speak to people who fully understood what you were saying and to compare experiences. Guy struck up a conversation with the American who had some very strange ideas and I spoke to the Canadian. The Chinese girl was sitting next to me and spent her time reading stuff from her i-phone.
First stop ws relatively soon - in Kom Ombo. We had opted to go the tour route, but not to go into the temples in order to save money. While the other passengers went in, we were at first hassled by young boys selling things like bracelets but then after a while we made friends with them. Lauren and Fiona did buy some bracelets. While we sat and took in the fact that our journey was not on its next stage, Guy and Lauren arm wrestled the boys. Of course Lauren was far stronger and some of them were very embarrassed by the fact that they were beaten. Towards the time to go, another of the boys gave Fiona a free necklace. She tried to give him a pencil in return which he refused saying he already had a pencil. The last of the group returned and we got going again to Edfu. It turned out that the Chinese girl had climbed something and got into trouble : 'no photo no down' she had said to the officials. When she returned, the boys mocked her. Once the last of the group returned, we got going again - this time to Edfu. This was a far larger temple and once again we decided that Karnat which we would see in Luxor in the next couple of days would far surpsass everything there.
The Edfu temple was less fun. There were a large number of caleches (horse drawn carriages) there but otherwise the lage parking lot was empty. Even the curio sellers seemed half-hearted. We sat and ate some food waiting the hour for the passengers to return. Once the hour was up, we returned to the taxi where the taxi driver was starting to get tense. The American with the hat had arrived with his Chinese friend and sat down to play on a ukulele. He chased away various vendors with La Shockran or by talking to them in Spanish. 
In the mean time, the taxi driver was getting more and more angry about how long the group were taking. They finally rolled in around 1/2 an hour late and he gave them a piece of his mind before angrily getting in and talking at top volume to various people on his cell phone - while driving like a maniac in the very busy traffic with the grumpy German woman asking if they had speed limits in Egypt. Every now and then, the driver slowed down so that he could take a look at the front tyre which seemed to be problematic. Guy continued to be highly amused by Francis (or is it Stephen) - the American - who had a fixation about kayle bay - apparently a power food - and not liking fruit.
We got to Luxor and the taxi first dropped off the American, Chinese and Canadian and then drove between the high rise apartment blocks to drop off the Egyptians. We were next and when we stopped in a similarly run down area outside the Boomerang Hotel, I was wondering if I shouldn't have taken the German woman's advice to take the ferry to the west bank. 
As is often the case in Egypt, the interior of our hotel was far better than the exterior. Our rooms (and we had separate but connected rooms) were on the second floor and each had its own small balcony. The staff were great and there were all the usual requirements like wi-fi and tv in the rooms. The showers weren't en suite but close enough and for our sole use. They were basically a rose in a fairly large toilet and the water escaped from a hole in the corner of the room - memories of Thailand.
After a drink on the roof top balcony, we freshened up. Guy took so long to shower that there was no hot water left, so the rest of us had cold showers. We went out to a reataurant nearby (after a fair amount of walking) and had huge helpings of 1/2 chicken (Fiona had to be different and had stew) after which we came home for our evening drink (on the rooftop) and bed.
