Blogs from Aswan, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa - page 8

For my last few days in Egypt I had arranged to ride a felluca from Aswan (the last town before the Sudanese border), back down the Nile towards Luxor. It's something almost every backpacker seems to do, and yes it's horrifcally toursity and kitch, but it seemed like a good way to while-away a couple of days, and was going to be a guilty pleasure before Sudan. First however, I had a day to kill, and spent it exploring Elephantine Island, a 3 mile island in the Nile facing the town of Aswan (disappointingly home to Nubians not elephants). The day started well, as I drank tea and watched fellucas glide effortlessly past, their triangular sails flapping and flailing in the wind, but as I went to explore yet more ancient ruins, it took a slightly ... read more

It's quite difficult finding a computer that functions adequately and next to impossible to upload any photos. I wish so much you could see the stunning sites I describe but I will have to be patient and hopefully share some of them with you when we get back to Cairo. I really like the travel group I am with...12 people including me, two other Canadians, two Americans, three Brits, three Australians and one Kiwi! Everyone is very personable and have done extensive travelling throughout the world. We are "family"-like already and are very excited as tomorrow we will travel up the Nile on an Egyptian sailing vessel called a "felucca". It will be very primitive living, a simple wooden ship with a sail and no motor...the wind will be our sole guide and we will all ... read more

Cruisin’ the Nile We have been on the Nile for the past two days, stopping periodically to check out the local temples. The ship, The Royal Rhapsody, is lovely, less that 40 guests and a lovely crew to keep us fed and entertained. What a way to travel. The Nile is beautiful, we went thru locks our first night out and then the river became much wider, The Nile runs South to North {we are traveling southward)and there is a large dam near Aswan and locks elsewhere to control the flooding. I am always at home on the water, this water is very mellow, smooth and a deep blue surrounded by the emerald green of the natural oasis that forms on the river date palms grow on the banks providing food, building materials and material to ... read more

Luxor south to Aswan and back to Cairo It was an early start this morning to go over to the West Bank to the Valley of the Kings. Our mode of transport started with a ferry to the other side where we met our donkeys for an hour’s walk to the tombs. The beast I was assigned was playing up at the start, nipping the other donkeys and being pushy, I tried to swap him, but the guide said this was the donkey for me. He turned out to be a great donkey and only nipped at a few of his stable mates on our journey. When donkeys speed up you bounce, it’s not like a gallop, more like a hop. Two people fell off, fortunately not me! We explored three major tombs on the site, ... read more

CONVOY TIME AGAIN We need to leave at 8:30 this morning to join the convoy back to Aswan from Abu Simbel. When we check out of the hotel, the guy in reception tries to give us a crash course in how to write in Arabic, it looks so nice but I think it would take a long time to learn. For the first time ever I am given a true gift. I bought a badge from the shop at the hotel and he gave me a free postcard, it was really nice. Ahmed the guide still isn’t there at 9am so we give him a call (Memphis Tours gave us a mobile phone before we left Cairo in case we needed to call anyone, nice touch) and he tells us the convoy won’t be leaving until ... read more