The Nile

 Thursday 30th - PM

We arrived at the boat for our Nile cruise around 3:30pm and went straight to the dining room for a buffet lunch - all very hungry. There was a very nice selection of veal, beef, chicken and fish along with many vegetables both fresh and cooked. Desserts were also plentiful.
After lunch we had free time to go in the pool, lounge on the sundeck or stay in our air-conditioned room. We mostly stayed in our room writing diaries and blogs.
Dinner was at eight and was similar food to lunch. Going to have to get used to eating late I think!

Friday 31st May
More of the same today and while it was nice having some quiet time after a hectic couple of days, we were pleased when the boat eventually left Port, at 2:00pm. The cruise is very leisurely and we are passing rice paddies and fields of banana and mango trees. We passed through the Esna lock, which was quite fascinating to watch as the water level slowly rose, taking us with it, but took over an hour to get through.






 Thoughout the cruise we had about 10 small row boats that came alongside trying to sell things. The people on them would yell Hello and if you responded - or even if you didn't  - they would throw things up wanting us to buy them. On occasion, someone expressed some interest and the article in question - shirt, towel or dress - would be thown up in a plastic bag.  Quite a feat given we were on the top deck.  Haggling would be done and - usually - the bag dropped back down.  It was amusing but I didn't see anyone actually buy anything.

Saturday 1st June
Another lazy morning on The Nile today. Sounds boring but it was pleasant looking at the trees, villages and people - many of whom wave as we go past. After another lovely buffet lunch we had a meeting with our tour guide. There had been discussions about returning to Cairo by plane on Monday instead of a 13 hour overnight train ride. Though it meant paying for the flight and an extra nights accommodation in Cairo we unanimously voted to do that at a cost of $210 AUD each. 2 of our party are going to the Red Sea after Aswan so also chose to fly instead of 9 hours on the road.
The meeting also talked about our next temple Kom Ombo. Kom Ombo is unique as it has two entrance doors and is built to honor 2 different gods, Sobek (Crocodile God) the evil one, and Horus, the good, Falcon God.  There are many amazing carvings here, but two in particular were interesting.  One was a calendar, showing 3 seasons (inundation or flood, emergence and harvest) and 12 months, the months consisting of 3 10 day weeks.  The other carving showed numerous surgical instruments, most recognisable.  Given that Ancient Egyptians did the mummification thing it's not surprising they had these instruments. 










Because this Temple worshipped crocodiles, there was a museum displaying around 15 Mummified crocs. Some were around 5 metres long.





Today was around 42 degrees and the museum was air-conditioned so we were very pleased to go in there.
We will be happy to leave the cruise and get back to normal eating habits as it's so hard to not fill your plate when every meal is a buffet. We have dessert at lunch and then try and keep dinner to meat and salad only. Eating so late is not great either.

Comments

  1. Anonymous12 June 2024 at 02:22

    Interesting the neat cut holes in the rock face along the riverside. Curious to know how they did it. Assuming it was the ancients who didn't have access to cheap Chinese angle grinders from Bunnings. Stuart

    ReplyDelete

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