Monday, 16 April (continued). We finally got back to the buses at 11:30. We had elected to take the bus to the Manacare Center, rather than go to an animal hospital or a perfumery. The Manacare Center is a free physiotherapy clinic for children with severe disabilities, mainly those with cerebral palsy. The clinic not only provides treatments for the children, but also teaches the mothers how to do some of the treatments at home. We were impressed with how well some of the children were doing.

As the bus was returning to the ship, the driver found that the streets of Luxor were blocked off because of a visiting diplomat. After several tries on alternate routes, he managed to get us within a block of the ship, and we walked the rest of the way. The Anuket sailed south for Esna shortly after we boarded.

After lunch at 13:00, we sat on the sun deck for an hour or so, but it was very hot, even in the shade. At 15:00 Jane went to the lounge for a class on folding napkins and carving vegetables while I read in the library. At 17:00 there was a lecture on life in modern Egypt. Just as that finished, the ship reached the lock at Esna. The lock is part of a dam completed in 1994 (replacing an earlier, smaller structure). The lock has a 50-foot rise and, at about 490 feet long, can take two cruise ships at once (end-to-end). Because a complete cycle takes about an hour and there are hundreds of ships on this part of the Nile, there is often a long queue to enter the lock. We were very lucky, though, and were in the lock in less than an hour.