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Friday, December 12

Egypt: Balloon Ride

The tour company offered a sunrise balloon ride over Luxor and the Valley of the Kings for an eye watering EGP600. So, T & E checked out the tour companies lining one of Luxor's streets and found the same package for only EGP250. I wondered what would be missing but was convinced by those 2 to sign up.

We woke at 4:30am and were waiting in the hotel reception at 5am. There were people from the tour group waiting for the official balloon ride pickup there, also. We were picked up about 15 min later and taken on a 1 min bus ride to the Nile, whereupon we had a coffee and a cake for breakfast. Then we had a 1 min crossing across the Nile and got into another bus to get to the balloon launchsite. We arrived around 6am. We were in a patch of earth, surrounded by about 4 other balloons being lit up by orange glows from the gas burners. Each balloon was tied with a rope to a minivan to stop it taking off prematurely. One of them had members of the official tour company booking.

The 4 balloons took off but we were still waiting. We had to get airborne soon as sunrise was at 6:30am. At 6:20am, we climbed into the basket at the bottom of our balloon and it was then inflated. We took off 5 minutes later.

We ascended to 1600 ft and could see the fields and farms of Luxor. We could also see Hatchepsut's Temple and the Valley of the Kings. In the distance, the rising sun illuminated the mountains with a yellow tinge. There were about 10 other balloons around us, both above & below.

The intense heat over the burners singed a passenger's hairspray and I had to shield my camera to protect it. Someone else's ears popped as we drifted higher.

After 45 min, it was time to land. Our pilot told us we might have a soft landing, which would be an Egyptian one or a rough one, which would be an American one. We got into our brace positions by grabbing onto the internal rope handles and squatting.

As we hit the ground, we were dragged along it for a while but slowed as the ground grew grabbed onto the balloon. We clambered out of the balloon just before new passengers got in. We travelled back to the hotel by minivan and boat and got a t-shirt, as well.

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