Sailing down The Nile

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We spent Monday sailing down The Nile on a felucca. It lived up to the romance of bygone eras, and it was one of those rare oppurtunities to do absolutely nothing. It was bliss! We sat on a huge mattress under a canopy as the sail blew in the breeze above us and directed our meanderings. Every few hours we'd be offered tea or coffee and all we did was read, play cards, eat, drink, kip and talk. The water was blue and calm and glassy and indigo. The sky above was a deep blue and the contrast with the swaying palms on the bank and the golden sand dunes was magical.
Spending a day on a felucca also meant spending a night, which admittedly was less enjoyable. The boat moored on the riverbank alongside two other feluccas, and there were quite a few local people and animals wandering around, including some festy stray dogs. A farmer wandered up and there was a heated discussion between him and the captain, which we later found out was over the location of our camp toilet as we'd positioned it in his field. Hardly responsible tourism! Something about the whole situation felt a bit unsafe and when the captain of our felucca built a camp fire and invited us to join in with some Nubian singing, only the guys went - the girls stayed on the boat. Nubian singing turned out to be 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight'!
The sun rose, and sleepy-eyed, after not much sleep, we sailed on and docked ready to board a mini-van to Luxor. The drive took three hours and we saw some spectacular sights - women carrying boxes on their heads, a man in traditional robes and turban standing in a dusty street with an SLR camera, men in boats with fishing nets trailing them, families with small children strolling among mud-brick houses.
Luxor is by far the hottest place we've been yet. On arrival we all jumped in the hotel pool, which was cooling and refreshing and much-needed. One of the guys on the trip suggested a word association game, which started around the camp fire the other night and has continued with each pool trip. It's naming famous people and then the next person has to follow with someone beginning with the letter of the surname e.g. Angelina Jolie, Jeremy Irons, Iggy Pop etc. It's great in that the whole group, including our guide, gets involved and has a laugh. Of course everyone's trying to come up with alliteration like Jade Jagger or Courtney Cox. Sounds daggy, I know, but it's good bonding!
Yesterday afternoon we visited Karnak Temple, which has an extraordinary hall of colossal sandstone columns dwarfing us and making us feel very insignificant. There were also some obelisks, which our guide said couldn't even be moved with a modern crane. If I didn't know better, I'd wonder whether the ancient Egyptian gods had a hand in creating these magnificent and gigantic monuments.
Today we rose early to travel to the famed Valley of the Kings. It was scorching before we even arrived there at 8 a.m. and later we were told that it reached 42 degrees. The Valley of the Kings is another ancient marvel, with approximately 62 royal tombs carved into the cliffs including many Ramses' and Tutankhamen's tombs. We went inside four tombs, all of which were richly decorated with wall paintings and friezes depicting the afterlife. They showed boats, snakes, ducks, gods, royals, prisoners, scarabs and many scenes. The thing that struck me was the depth of colour still evident in the paintings. All the paints were mineral-based and they set them using eggs and ochre. It was like seeing the frescos in Italian churches and marvelling at their detail and beauty and longevity, but these ones are thousands of years older.
This afternoon we had lunch in a local house and had a banquet of traditional dishes - eggplant bake, tabouli, lentil soup, deep-fried eggplant, courgette casserole, chicken, kofta and hibiscus juice.
Following lunch, in the heat of the day, we drove to Hatshepsut's Temple. The locals call it Hot Chicken Soup Temple to help the tourists remember it! Spectacularly carved into the rock, it's four tiers of stone set against a backdrop of limestone cliffs. Wilting from the heat, we then ventured back into the min-van and have spent the afternoon in the pool again. I'd say we're now all looking a little sun-blushed. Dan is a deep brown already, and falling asleep next to me as I write.
Funnily enough, as we sit in this internet cafe, Celine Dion is playing again! She must be well-loved among Egyptians because we're hearing her everywhere we go!
Now it's back on the overnight train to Cairo, ready to breathe in smog and skip a heartbeat everytime we cross roads.

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Comments

[Claire]

Wow
What an amazing sensory tour; sights, smells, heat, tastes. I can't wait to see the pictures xx Clarrie