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Drifting down the Nile at water level is a great way to experience Africa's mightiest river. But to drift a few hundred feet above the river at the point where it passes the world's greatest concentration of antiquity is an unqualified joy.
The great, good and average of Britain's tourism industry are meeting this weekend in Egypt. But relatively few members of the Association of British Travel Agents will wander south from the convention venue, Cairo, to Luxor. And only a tiny minority will enjoy a dawn flight across the Nile Valley.
A balloon flight in Luxor begins with a pre-dawn felucca ride across the Nile from a pier near the Winter Palace Hotel, with tea supplied to perk up drowsy passengers and take the edge off the night chill. From the West Bank you are taken by bus down a road with sugar-cane fields on either side, and past the Colossi of Memnon. The huge statues look eerie in the early light.
The launch site is alongside the Ramesseum, the monumental complex built by Ramses II. Labour is cheap in Egypt, so passengers are not required to help and even the pilot will stand back until the balloon has been fully inflated with cold air. He then does last- minute safety checks...