Nile Cruise

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After a tiring few days of seeing sights at a hectic pace, combined with early morning departures, it was a welcome relief to board our cruise boat that would be our home for the next few days. In a stroke of good fortune, we were upgraded to a five star cruise boat, so I felt very spoilt by the magnificent food and facilities, as they are certainly not what I have been accustomed to throughout my travels this year.

Our first main stop was the temple at Kom Ombo at night, which looked splendid due to the flood lighting and the full moon which was rising behind it. I really enjoyed being able to wander through a temple at night, as it was quite peaceful and relaxing. Whilst there I learnt that the Ancient Egyptians always designed their temples in a certain way, with the pylons taking the form of papyrus or lotus plants and the ceilings being painted with stars upon a blue background, or with birds in flight upon a blue background. Obviously this was to symbolise the connection between these holy temples of the heavenly gods and the earth. This point was further emphasised by the floor of the central corridor gradually rising until it reached the innermost and sacred chamber, with the ceiling gradually sloping downwards towards the same point, symbolising that this is where the high priest and the pharaoh had their connection to both the gods and the earth.

The following morning we made a stop at Edfu to wander through the Temple of Horus, which is the most completely preserved temple in Egypt, due to most of it being covered by desert sands for many years. I spent some time examining the artwork within some of the inner chambers of this temple, as well as having a look at an ancient Nilometer, which was used by the ancient Egyptians to measure the rise and fall of the Nile, thus determing how good the annual harvest would be, which then enabled the taxes to be set accordingly (of course).

Much of our time upon the boat was spent either eating or playing cards to leisurely pass the time as we took in the views of the surrounding villages and crops. One thing that stopped all activities, however, was when we passed through an enormous lock, which seemed to captivate the attention of all aboard until we surged off into the lower section of the Nile, which must have been a difference of about twenty metres. Who would have thought?

The best night on the boat was our fancy dress party. This involved buying an outfit from one of the markets along the way, so I bought an entire arabic outfit in Aswan, successfully haggling for a good price. The crew had many activities organised, one of which I had to participate in as the solo representative from my group. This 'game' involved me having to whack a potato the length of the dancefloor before my competitor did. The catch was that we had to achieve this by using another potato which was hanging from a piece of string around our waist, without using our hands! Therefore, the only way to achieve the desired result was to swing my hips whilst in a squatting position. This left everyone else in hysterical fits of laughter, including myself (remember my outfit - think Yasser Arafat). I managed to beat my opponent after a little jostling for position, but I really think the only reason he didn't beat me was because he may have been laughing even more than I was and his Bedouin outfit could have been even more restrictive than mine.

By the following morning we were docked in Luxor, which was our final stop and the end point of our cruise, so I'll save describing the wondrous Karnak Temple until my next entry.

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