Today was a perfect way to spend one's birthday, in fact, it might even make some of you reading this a bit jealous...the entire day was dedicated to sailing along the Nile.
After eating the continental breakfast at the hotel (which was very nice), we checked out and met with our fellow tour members to board the felucca. A felucca is a small sailing vessel without a motor, and with only a rudder to steer – they are extremely common along the Nile and people use them to travel great distances as well as travel short distances going from the East bank to the West bank. There were 2 feluccas, one named “Queen Habiba” and the other “Qamar.” We both boarded Qamar, simply because it was easier to get into. (In retrospect, we were very lucky we boarded the boat we did...)
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| Our feluccas a few minutes before we set sail. |
It was a beautiful day, as are most days here in Egypt. It is currently the winter season, and the average temperature is about 80-85 degrees Farenheit. There are no clouds and no rain – just miles of desert sun. The felucca had a nice cover over top of it, so we were able to relax in the shade while we sailed along the Nile. We were traveling North in the Nile, as we were leaving Aswan and heading downstream toward Kom Ombo.
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| The Nile was crystal clear when you looked down from the boat! |
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| Tabitha catching some sun on the nile. |
For the first 2 hours of the journey, our tour group had some engaging conversations. We discussed our jobs, our travel, our families, and even our reading habits. Our Nubian crew made a pit-stop for lunch on a small nearby island. The island was lacking people; however, it made up for this with animals. (We saw cows, goats, camel, and even a fox!). While we were stopped on the island, we were greeted by the “comfort boat,” which had bathrooms on board, a bar, and a crew that served us our vegetarian lunch. After our lunch break, a few people in our group decided to go swimming in the Nile. While this sounded like fun to both of us, we had been warned that the Nile isn't the safest place to go swimming because of rough currents and contaminated portions of water. So, we just watched our new friends swim and splash around.
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| A view of the other half of our tour group in their felucca (sponsored by McDonald's?). |
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| We saw some beautiful sights along the Nile - both on land and sea. |
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| Erin and James on the island where we stopped for lunch. |
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| Our very high-carb lunch prepared for us by the Nubian crew. |
We boarded our felucca one more time to travel further down the river. This time, our group relaxed a bit and several people read for a while. Eventually, we decided to play cards – and, James, being the Euchre fan that he is, convinced some of the others to play - after explaining the rules. After two full games, it was nearly 5pm, and the sun was beginning to set. Our boat was not able to sail in the dark because it did not have a motor or any form of headlights. So, we pulled ashore, where we met up once again with the comfort boat. The other felucca also pulled ashore, but in a much more dramatic fashion. As they approached, they bumped into the comfort boat and water splashed inside their boat getting many of the people on board wet as well as their luggage. However, they were good sports about it and just “went with the flow.”
Once on the comfort boat, we headed to the top deck to have a candle-lit dinner. A few minutes after our dinner began, another group of people came aboard – this group was from another tour of Egypt provided by our same tour company. We didn't interact too much with this group of people, but their presence was loud and clear as they had been drinking plenty of - well, not water - throughout the day. Once our dinner was complete, it was time to celebrate James's birthday! Our tour guide brought a small cake on board and we all sang Happy Birthday to James! One very nice woman on the tour even purchased a gift for James! We all laughed about the wonderfully thoughtful gift and enjoyed the cake before heading back downstairs and allowing the other tour group to enjoy their dinner.
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| The birthday cake we enjoyed in honor of James's birthday! |
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| The best gift ever - King Tut! |
Interestingly enough, we were also going to be sleeping on our feluccas. We were lucky that our felucca had attachable (and detachable) walls surrounding it. This helped prevent bugs from getting in and shut out some of the sound and light. The other felucca did not have walls, which was unfortunate for those members in our group that were in that boat.
Instead of going directly to sleep after dinner, we decided to hangout on the comfort boat for bit longer. We eventually began a game of charades – which was very entertaining. Soon we heard our Nubian crew upstairs beginning to play loud music. We headed to the top deck to listen to the Nubian crew and watch as the other tour group engaged in some very active, if not coordinated, dancing. Once the music ended, we decided it was probably time for bed. We had to wake up the next morning at 5:45am for the next day's activities.
We slept in our sleep sacks (small silk sheet sets), and were extremely grateful that we actually had them to use because the boat didn't actually have any sheets, only blankets. We were also lucky that our boat was the furthest away from the others, because it was much quieter. The other felucca was right next to the comfort boat, where the people from the other tour group were up very late partying. The other people in our group had a really difficult time falling asleep because of all of the activity still taking place on-board the comfort boat.
All in all, it was a unique and relaxing day – and a great birthday for James! We send a nice thank you to the students who made a birthday poster and a video for James. We appreciate your thoughtfulness!
