A Nile Cruise

December 27^th was heralded in with a 04.30 alarm for a drive to the Airport and an 08.30 flight to Aswan. Annie was somewhat disappointed as had been expecting to travel to Aswan on an overnight train which she was looking forward to.

A quick transfer through the Aswan streets saw us arrive at our boat late morning and we settled into our Cabin for the next three nights. The boat was very tired and in need of some serious renovation and updating but we and Sam and Samira (two of our 3 travelling companions, a lovely Iranian couple who now live in Australia) were given the two best cabins right at the front, each with a small deck area. We felt very spoilt as the ship was full and this must have been arranged for us by the Tour company as Sam had complained about the changes that were being made to the itinerary against the one we had all booked.

The afternoon was spent visiting Philae Temple, an island based temple complex dating back to the 4^th century BC and situated in the reservoir area above the Aswan Dam. A short boat trip took us across the water and Anas our guide for the next three days took us around explaining all the hieroglyphics and different rooms in this temple dedicated to the Egyptian Goddess Isis.

Aswan is a much smaller city than Cairo, just over 1 million population as opposed to Cairo’s 22 million, and therefore easy to explore on foot and for Annie to enjoy some short runs beside the Nile River. We enjoyed walking around the city and spent some time absorbing the atmosphere in the Souk and seeing the wonderful spice stalls, bread shops and interesting butchers!

In the afternoon of 28^th December we set sail, cruising downriver to Kom Ombo Temple complex which we visited in the dark and with thousands of other tourists.  It was then back on board for more cruising to Edfu arriving sometime during the night.

The 29^th December started with another early call at 04.30 with a visit to Edfu Temple and yet again hoards of other visitors.  We were back on the boat by 07.15 for breakfast and a planned sailing at 07.30am which didn’t happen until after 9 am as a group of passengers decided not to obey the strict instructions to return by 07.15!

This delay put our whole day’s itinerary out as we then had to queue for over 4 hours to go through the massive Nile lock and arrived in Luxor too late to visit the temple there that evening as planned. However an upside to the day meant we had longer cruising down the river in the sunshine watching the passing scenery and life for people living by the river which was really special and memorable.

However a word of warning to any of you who may have romantic images or be harbouring a wish to cruise the Nile, we were in a Convoy of at least 20 cruise boats of all shapes and sizes and levels of comfort all heading the same way. Our guide Anas explained how disappointed he was that the Egyptian Office of Tourism dictates which temples the cruise passengers can visit as he said there are many other temples en-route which are just as interesting.  This means that every boat borne tourist visits every temple all at the same time after which they are virtually deserted!

The final day of our tour was very full on with visits to five temples; The Colossi of Memnon, Medinat Habu (our favourite), Hatshepsut and Karnack temples.

The highlight of the day was the Valley of the Kings which we had been so looking forward to and it didn’t disappoint. Set on the West bank of the Nile, and in the shadow of the nearby mountains, it has a spectacular setting. We were able to visit four of the 63 Royal tombs (dating back to 1500 BC) and hope some of the photos give a flavour of the ornate decorations of the passages built deep into the hillsides.

We were also taken to a family run alabaster workshop and late afternoon checked into our hotel before a sunset visit to Luxor Temple a short walk away.  

Our last day in Luxor was a free day as Sam, Samira and Shandanna (our third companion, born in Afghanistan, raised in the USA and working in Germany!) took a day trip as an optional extra to Dendara temple, we chilled out in our room, caught up with some admin, did our first blog and explored the lovely city of Luxor on foot and watched the preparations for New Year celebrations. We counted 55 Nile Cruise boats docked in Luxor which we were told was unusual but probably due to tourists wanting to visit over New Year.  Needless to say, we were in bed long before 2024 arrived.

New Years Day dawned and at 6am we were in the move again this time for our 8am flight from Luxor back to Cairo.

Having done some google research on how we were going to fill the 13 hours before our flight to Nairobi we knew that the Meridian hotel was linked by a bridge to our departure terminal and so wandered over and managed to negotiate an hourly rate to use one of the rooms to relax and nap before checking into the daily Egypt Air flight and landing in Kenya at 03.45 with only one of our rucksacks on the luggage belt in arrivals. Annie’s bag clearly hadn’t been put on the plane by Egypt Air and now we are in no doubt that they are the worst airline we have ever flown with!