Day 5; 6 october, armed forces day

Breakfast provided by ibhissam consisted of falafel, corn bread and refried beans.
Visit to Fraser tombs, so named because they were discovered by Gary Frazer. The tombs date back to the 5th and 6th dynasties and are cut into the east bank cliffs which overlook the valley. We were able to enter 3 of the tombs, which were very simple, containing eroded images and hieroglyphs. Maybe they wouldn’t mean much to tourist who had visited Cairo and Luxor but to us they were our first hieroglyphs and will no doubt be remembered,if only for their simplicity.
We climbed back on the minibus and made our way to Deirdre al-Adhra, the monastery of the Virgin, which is situated 130m above the Nile and made for a spectacular view. Coptic tradition claims that the Holy Family rested here for 3 days on their journey through Egypt. There is a cave chapel built on the site in the 4th century AD and is ascribed to Helena, mother of Byzantine Emperor Constantine. A 19th century building encloses the cave, whose icon of the virgin is said to have miraculous powers.
Lunchtime consisted of KFC number 2 (and I’d like to point out that this is not by choice, we’ve clearly sung the pizza hut song too many times) and saw us locked in our room for the second time, this time because we left the key in the outside and need it to open the door from the inside. Fortunately calling reception eventually produced a cleaner to assist us and saved Gemma from having to climb through the bathroom window of the other room from our balcony.
Training was time management. The teacups game gave us a chance to talk to the girls more with having to talk for 30 seconds on a given subject such as Egypt, what we did at the weekend, animals etc. The girls seem to be getting used to us and our training style and the feedback from them through the end of training evaluations has been positive.