Floating Along The Nile, Train Rides and Historic Temples

I may be in something close to heaven. Sitting in the shade of a felucca, the sun is radiant but the breeze keeps me cool under the fierce Egyptian sun. I write this floating along the Nile after an, always fun, overnight train ride and visit to historic temples – I’m pretty sure dreams are made of this.

Floating along the Nile

The felucca owner puts on soulful local music and kids attach themselves to the side of our boat. They’re providing us with renditions of western songs in a mixture of languages, presumably in a quest for currency. Train Rides and amazing Historic Temples as well as floating on the Nile-Agatha Christie might have been onto something here, it is a wonderful place to write.

North to South Train Ride

We took the 8.15pm train out of Cairo for the 13-hour trip south to Aswan. Dinner and breakfast were provided by a helpful steward with a penchant for serving bread, in varying forms, but bread all the same. The steward is not alone in his bread fetish; it seems the whole of Egypt is in on it. Luckily I share the same fetish, although my stomach and waistline aren’t happy to join in the united enthusiasm. Luckily, there is also an abundance of feta, cucumber and tomatoes, oh and meat, yes lots of meat.

A sink, mirror, one power point, clean sheets, blanket, foldaway bed, and tables are all provided in the sleeping cabin. The toilets are at the end of the carriage and are well supplied with toilet paper but there didn’t seem to be any way to flush anything away onto the tracks below.

Historic Temple – Philae

On arrival in Aswan at an already warm 8.30am, we headed straight to the Philae Temple on the tiny Agilka Island  12 kilometers south of Aswan in the middle of the Nile. This temple, around 3000 years young, was built or at least started by King Ptolmey II and completed by Roman Emperors for the dedication of the goddess Isis. It’s one of two of the major sites in Egypt to be relocated to higher ground. Both having been submerged as a result of the construction of the Aswan Low Dam in the 1960’s. And prior to the building of the Aswan High Dam. It took 10 years to move every carefully numbered section – an overwhelmingly unbelievable undertaking. Being an open-aired temple the colors have all faded but the carvings depicting the prowess of the King are still very evident.

Pleasant Smelling Herbs and Spices

I bought some herbs here, 1 Egyptian Pound per gram. I’m no cook but when you crush the mixture; oregano, coriander, and cardamom together in your hand the smell is divine. I’ll use it for the rest of my trip whenever my nose gets assaulted with unpleasantries.

Lake Nassar Dam

For a more modern, also amazing, feat of engineering we headed next to the dam on Lake Nassar that provides 85% of Egypt’s water supply. At 1km wide at its base, it’s big but still not in the top 10 of the biggest dams in the world (there are some big suckers out there). The Nile is Egypt’s only source of water as rain is pretty-much nonexistent, and has to supply a population of almost 100 million people.

The Nile incorporates both the Blue and White Nile rivers and is 6,853 km’s long, running north through 11 countries. Starting in Rwanda-White Nile (and potentially Burundi) and Ethiopia-Blue Nile and ending up north in the Mediterranean Sea.

There’s talk of bigger dams being built south of Egypt which is justifiably causing some concern for the Egyptians who have been so reliant on it for 1000’s of years. Thoughts of the Mekong and the poor little countries (Laos and Cambodia) downstream of big countries and their dams spring to mind.

Ramadan-No problem

Ramadan is a religious fasting for Muslims in honor of when the Qur’an was first revealed to Mohammad. It falls in the 9th month of the Islamic calendar and runs for either 29 or 30 days. Followers cannot eat, smoke or drink anything, even water. And they should abstain from pleasures and pray a lot to bring them closer to god, from sunrise until sunset.

My trip was during Ramadan which means food can be harder to find during the day. But this didn’t cause any significant hardship. The odd restaurant can always be sourced and generally, the hotel’s restaurant will be open. Or else there are corner-store type places all over for drinks, bags of crisps, chocolate and ‘Twinkie’ cake type things.