Lock – Edfu - Kom Ombo Temple - Philae Temple – High Dam – Felucca Ride
Internet is not crash hot on this boat. So probably a long post covering a couple of days until we get some better access. Get a bit frustrated uploading the last post – hope the photos worked but it’s still pretty impressive I can access the internet, hear from friends and let people know what’s going on from a boat on the Nile half way round the world.
Lock
The Nile puts our rivers to shame – and with the amount of tourist boats travelling up and down it’s like a green highway traversing Egypt. Haven’t worked out the river rules yet –we pass boats on both sides, do quite a few fishtails and luckily manage to avoid running into any feluccas. It got all very exciting when we arrived at Esna where we had to cross a lock. For those nautically challenged a lock is how a boat gets past a dam without letting all the water out. Since we are heading south or downstream to Upper Egypt we had to go from low to a high water level. These locks are massive with two cruise boats fitting and it’s like a bath filling with water.
As we arrived and slowed down, there were some row boats waiting. I thought they may be pilots similar to the pilots to get into Sydney Harbour. Instead they were floating salesman. And obviously they haven’t studied contract law to enter into a binding agreement. Their tactic was instead to throw up the clothes to the boat and then expect payment. Was very interesting when saying no and throwing the clothes back. A few ended up in the water. But you’ve got to give them marks for ingenuity!
After that excitement, we had a cocktail party (very scary with the oldies), tea where one waiter performed some magic tricks, and then managed to avoid bingo. Headed to bed while we were still cruising to our next destination.
9th of April
Edfu
We awoke, opened our windows and were greeted with another boat pulled up beside. Heading to the top deck I could easily count about 10 other boats all ready to disembark their hordes of tourists to visit the sites. And as our guide keeps telling us we are incredibly lucky that it’s not very busy or hot. If there is one proviso I would place on a holiday to Egypt it would be to make sure you aren’t travelling in the summer or peak time.
Our destination this morning was a temple built by the Greeks who appropriated a lot of the Egyptian gods and architecture when they were in control of Egypt. While the temple at Edfu is smaller than Karnak it has a complete roof and Holy of Holies central part. It’s still so hard to imagine the fact that there is no wasted space on the walls – and most of the hieroglyphics have lasted. However the later invaders tragically defaced so many of the depictions of the gods which mars the impressiveness of the temple.
Probably the worst part of the whole trip, the part I’m beginning to dread due to its inevitability and discomfort caused is the walk out of a tourist location. Every place so far has a market which forces you to hunker down and batter your way through the merchants. They try to grab your attention with offers of 1 Egyptian pound, but as our guide says, once they have your attention it becomes 1 Sterling, than 10 Sterling... and so on. Talking to some Egyptians tourists on the boat they also find it awkward. I wouldn’t mind haggling but I don’t really want to buy any of their junk.
Kom Ombo Temple
Try saying Kom Ombo 10 times fast. Another Greek/Egyptian temple which was within walking distance of the dock. Lots of tourists but still fantastic, especially seeing some colours still on the column hieroglyphics. Even managed to see one of their old calendars with Egyptian numbers – just like I taught Year 7 students in Maths. Took some photos but don’t think it will be very obvious what they’re depicting.
Another part of this tourist experience that keeps cropping up is the huge numbers of metal detectors everywhere. One to get on the boat, in every tourist site you visit and sometimes you have to go through 3 to get into visual range. That’s all well and good but the funniest part is that they mean nothing. Tourists just waltz right in (I think I’ve been checked/frisked once besides airport when I left iPod in pocket). After the first couple of times getting everything out of my pockets we now just laugh as we walk through the detectors and they impotently screech.
We set sail from Kom Ombo as the sun was setting. And I think our boat driver believes he’s in the Formula 1 on the Nile. We haven’t had any boat overtake us but have overtaken quite a few. It’s pretty interesting when there are 5 of these behemoths abreast.
Tonight was also our Egyptian dress up evening. We invested in a couple of outfits and can’t remember the last time I wore a dress. (don’t tell the Egyptians I called it that – proper name is a galabya) Food was all traditional Egyptian food – don’t know exactly what I ate but it was all pretty good. There’s quite a Greek influence on the cuisine.
10th of April
Philae Temple
Guess what, a new temple to visit. Arriving at Aswan overnight we awoke to a floating parking lot on the river. With an early start we headed to a temple you can only reach by boat. With the creation of the dams around Aswan, a lot of temples were flooded. Egypt got assistance from outside countries and managed to relocate some, such as this one. So while not as authentic it is still impressive considering the amount of effort that has been put into moving and reconstructing this enormous temple. A lifetime’s amount of information is available to be gleaned from these sites.
[on boat to temple - just before I got hit in the back by another boat when we arrived at the dock]
High Dam
Onto a more modern wonder, the Aswan High Dam which created the largest man-made lake in the world, Lake Nasser. Built with Soviet assistance, this dam managed to displace a whole society of people called the Nubians. With significant advantages to building this dam to Egyptians, some of the ecological disadvantages are beginning to be felt. It’s an impressive engineering feat but you weren’t allowed to use video cameras or zoom. Managed to do both with my camera just to break the rules...
Felucca Ride
The final adventure for the day was a short trip in a small felucca. Dwarfed by the cruise ships we crammed onto one and headed off to the myriad of islands around Aswan. Surprisingly they moved pretty quickly in the wind and were very relaxing with their quietness and absence of fumes. Again it was nice to get a taste of traditional Egyptian life but I think I’m too much in love with modern conveniences to catch one for a few days.
There’s so much more to talk about – the interesting characters on the boat, the educational information that is being talked about and the beauty of the Nile and landscapes. (there’s a massive sand dune mountain that would be quite a ride to sand surf down – but huge walk back up) I’m going to give up apologising for the length – a trip this interesting can’t be fully contained.
[Update]
Quickly uploading this while at Cairo Airport between transfers. Actually found free internet! It's like gold. Sitting outside a business class lounge so bit dodgy but its amazingly fast for Egypt.
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