A Day on the Nile

After ditching on another temple tour in Aswan, where the Alexander family strolled about and ended up eating at, dare I admit it, McDonalds, we rejoined our group and headed out for an afternoon sail on a pair of Feluccas.

A Felucca is a traditional sailing vessel on the Nile, though these were made of steel that have a centerboard, a low-aspect ratio rudder, and a large gaff-rigged sail. They actually sail pretty well – and the traditional sail has a bendy wood mast that when a puff hits, bends and automatically opens the leech and depowers the sail – just like a modern skiff.

Our boat was a little slow so we tried some match-race tactics (or at least I suggest them to the driver that completely ignored me) to try to keep our lead but alas, the other boat was faster and got by. We carried on beating up the river until we beached on an island in the middle of the river and had a walk about. The other Felucca and our support boat were already there and we hopped on the Support boat for lunch, then they carried on up-river towing the Feluccas behind us. The support boat had a huge old Russian diesel in it that was about the noisiest and smokiest we’ve ever seen … after dinner, we tied up alongside an irrigation station and we got ready to bed down for the night. They lay out mattresses (perhaps we are being a bit generous here … some very thin pads) and tried to sleep.

Well, before we tried to sleep we did have a bit of a party – having bought an extra bottle of wine for that purpose). After it was time for bed we lay down under the blankets and tried to sleep. As you might imagine it’s pretty cold here in January and a ½ inch thick mattress over a steel deck covered by a blanket didn’t allow us to sleep too well. The kids and Marina seem to be better at it than me – I reckon two main reasons: I am heavier and a 1 inch mattress can support them better than me; and youth makes you more resilient.

Anyway, we woke up at 7 and took the boat across the way, boarded the bus and started our three hour drive towards Luxor, the home of the Temple of Luxor and The Temple of Karnak.