Joining the Nile high club

I HAD always believed a cruise would be the ultimate holiday for a sloth.

Lots of lounging and lolling, with nothing more energetic to do than pick up a paperback and a glass of wine or two.

So it came as a shock when our Thomas Cook courier told us we had to be ready for a trip to Karnak at 7am on the first morning of our trip to Egypt. Ouch.

Crumpled, hungry and travel-weary, my heart sank at the thought.

But with lunchtime temperatures at a blistering 46, the early start meant we could sight-see before the heat made any activity unbearable.

We forgot how early it was as we watched oxen dragging ploughs across the fertile fields lining the Nile and donkey carts sharing the roads with coaches and other traffic.

So lush was the scenery it was hard to believe that the desert was only a few miles away.

Luxor — or Thebes — was capital of the Egyptian empire for almost 1,000 years, and a place of incredible riches.

It straddles the Nile, with temples and centres of commerce and government on the east bank, and the legendary Valley Of The Kings and other important burial sites on the west bank.

And so to our first glimpse of ancient Egypt, the Temple of Karnak.

No amount of mugging up from guidebooks prepares you for the sheer scale of the site.

Columns soar like a stone forest, each carved with thousands of hieroglyphs.

Massive statues of pharaohs gaze on impassively as we scurry around insignificantly below, trying to capture something of the ancient grandeur with our cameras.

The following day included a short ride to the Valley of the Kings where the vibrancy and artistry of the tomb paintings banished my slight claustrophobic feelings.

Other trips during the week included the Valley of the Queens, Edfu, Kom Ombu, and Aswan High Dam, with optional excursions including Abu Simbel.

Trips to the temples, tombs and pyramids gave the excellent guides a chance to shine as they injected life into the history of their country, and replaced names and dates with stories of the power and wisdom that underpin this great civilisation.

On a practical note, there is a fair bit of walking on the trips, so wear comfortable shoes, lashings of high-factor sun cream and a hat.

Keep swigging water or you will dehydrate and feel very poorly.

By lunchtime each day we were back at our beautiful boat, with the whole afternoon for sunbathing or snoozing in air-conditioned cabins.

The food was top class and beautifully presented, and included many local dishes, as well as more familiar fare for the less adventurous.

The chef even organised a hot rice pudding for a delighted Jeannie from Belfast one night.