DAVE FULLER, QMI Agency
http://www.torontosun.com/2011/10/26/soarin-in-luxor
LUXOR, Egypt -- If, in my next life I'm allowed only one hot-air
balloon ride -- assuming Egypt's pharaohs were correct about this
after-life business -- make it this one.
Another 4 a.m. wake-up call? No problem. Just get us to the balloon
on time. I witnessed several spectacular sunrises over the Nile during
our visit but only one while soaring 500 metres above Egypt's Valley of
the Tombs in a six-passenger, hydrogen fed, hot-air balloon.
Sure, it set me back $100 or so, but the adventure included: Mini-bus
from hotel/cruise ship to Nile River crossing; small ferry boat ride
(with coffee and Hostess Twinkie) to the Egyptian west bank; another
mini-bus ride to the balloon compound; one quick lesson on the do's and
don'ts of ballooning. And then one extraordinary thrill: A
breath-stealing, 45-minute flight over 4,000-year-old temples, tombs and
monuments carved into the limestone hills of the Sahara desert by those
filthy rich pharaohs.
Ours is one of nine hot-air balloons lifting off this early morning. A
sign, says our pilot/captain Tarek Mohamed Khilil, that tourism has
rebounded following the spring ouster of Egypt's president, Hosni
Mubarek.
Khilil has been piloting balloons for eight years and is clearly a
master of the soft landing -- though it's the wind, he says, that
determines the aircraft's direction.
On this day, the wind seems determined to push us into the side of a
tourist police station as we brace for landing. But, with one quick
thrust of the craft's hydrogen-induced flame, we glide over police
headquarters and settle down a few feet away from the highway, where a
standby-crew gathers up our now deflated balloon.
Back on our tour bus, we head to the Valley of the Kings, where King
Tut, Ramses I-through-VI and about 55 other mummified Pharaohs were
buried in their gold-encrusted coffins, along with their thrones,
jewels, perfumes and other earthly possessions in preparation for an
after-life which, who knows, might include one out-of-this world balloon
ride.