C O N T E N T S

 A Hasty Tour of Aswān [Apr 15th 1995]

When I woke up this morning I drew back the curtains of our train compartment and saw scenery not unlike that of Queensland drifting past. This was mainly due to the number of palm trees that followed the route of the train tracks. We had our breakfast and soon arrived at Aswan where another representative from Misr Travel immediately met us. We were whisked off to their offices then taken by car to the Philae Temple. We took a boat out to Philae Island where the temple was located and started our tour. The stone carvings remain incredibly detailed even after all these years. Our guide was a wealth of information making the tour something of an educational visit. We learnt a hell of a lot about the place – or rather Jayne probably did as I must admit I wasn’t paying much attention due to the surroundings being so fascinating. The island became the centre of the cult goddess Isis in the 4^th century with the temple being built in her honour.

The whole day turned into a bit of a whirlwind tourist tour. Once we’d walked round the temple we were taken to the Aswān High Dam. This was a huge feat of engineering! Once its construction was completed in 1968 it also created the world's largest man made lake. As well as supplying a huge amount of power to Egypt it also provides farmers with three growing periods which has effectively doubled agricultural production. However, there are always environmental downsides to dams; in this case one of the major issues was the increase in soil salinity.

In keeping with our whirlwind theme we next went to the Unfinished Obelisk in the Northern Quarry. Now this was one big piece of rock! It’s called the Unfinished Obelisk after the great Pharaoh King Unfinished… er, no… not quite. It is so called because basically it’s unfinished – due to a couple of major flaws being found in the stone. Had they managed to complete the thing it would have been the largest piece of stone ever handled and weighed over 2.3 million pounds. However it remains the obelisk that never was. We also learnt how they managed to split such huge rocks as tools left by the builders have given historians an insight into the process.

A meal at a restaurant was next then all our bags were loaded on the felucca we planned to take down the Nile. It was a very small open boat run by Captain Mustapha and his dark skinned Nubian ship mate, Esau.

Leaving the felucca for a while we took a motor driven boat to the west bank of the river to be shown round the Agha Khan Mausoleum. The mausoleum is for the spiritual leader of the Ismailis, a Shi’ite sect based mainly in India. The one thing about the place that really caught my attention was the number of engravings that had blank spaces ready to insert the date and place of death of his wife. A visual reminder of her imminent death - blimey, I bet she’s looking forward to that.

Very quickly, our next stop was an island where the Botanical Gardens were located. Apparently Kitchener had a house built on the island and I could see why – the gardens were beautiful and contained many plants and flowers imported from India and tropical countries. It smelt wonderful too.

Finally we went back to the felucca and boarded, ready for our journey along the Nile. We got right into it, making ourselves comfortable before lying down and settling into a game of cards. We had to wait a while for the police to check a few things before we were allowed to set off but once we were it was sheer bliss.

I penned my diary entry in the late evening on a cool slightly misty night with all the frogs singing at a full moon while we silently sailed up the Nile – wow.

 Relaxing on The Nile [Apr 16th 1995]

The felucca was moored on the west bank on the Nile when I woke this morning – I’d obviously slept well because I couldn’t remember stopping. I think if I put together a top ten list of the most relaxing things we’ve done during our travels, this journey on the Nile would easily be number one.

Slowly but surely we crawled our way along the splendid river until we came to our first stop, Kôm Ombu, where we visited a temple of the same name. Abdul donned a pair of trousers swapping them for his very Egyptian looking comfortable robe and once again became Tour Guide Man. The temple was located on a high dune overlooking the Nile and had scant remains but there were parts of it that were so well preserved the original paintwork was still in evidence. It was also home to four mummified crocodiles, once again in excellent condition. After we’d been shown round, Abdul left us, promising to meet up again at the end of our journey on Tuesday.

We returned to the felucca for more relaxing and general laziness. We covered quite a few kilometres in the afternoon due to a pretty gusty wind. Throughout the whole time I just sat back, read my book and occasionally glanced at the scenery. It’s quite distinctive and almost strange how on either side of the Nile, for only a few feet, is lush greenery then after that nothing but harsh looking desert.

In the evening we moored on an island and played cards with the captain and his mate. It was a very clear starry night that reminded me of the sky at the Mile Lakes in Australia. I still think the Mile Lakes wins for the best view of the stars but it was made up for during the evening by the number of bugs that decided to keep us company.

 Bog Roll Island [Apr 17th 1995]

An entire day of nothing except pure laziness. We pushed off from our mooring early in the morning and as there was absolutely no wind whatsoever we just went with the current. This meant slow but steady progress throughout the day. We didn’t even stop for lunch as Esau and Mustapha cooked as we went along.

As we drifted I read ample pages of Jane Eyre and also composed a letter to everyone at home. That was about the full extent of my activities for the day, apart from watching the scenery as we passed by.

In the evening we moored on a sandy island, or rather toilet paper island, since it appeared the whole place was used as a public convenience. The four of us passed the time playing cards, with Mustapha teaching us a great drinking game – however, the eventual lack of alcohol meant it ended up being a forfeit game instead which turned rather silly. At one point I found myself jumping on to a felucca moored a few meters from ours and doing a sheep impression much to the amusement (I suspect not) of its New Zealand passengers.

As the evening drew on, Mustapha and Esau drummed up a bit of music and dancing round the campfire and I got chatting to a couple of people from Australia and Venezuela in the boat next door.
 

 Temple in the Sand [Apr 18th 1995]

An early push off from the sandbank saw us arrive at Edfu at about 8:00am. Abdul was there to meet us so we said our goodbyes to Esau and Captain Mustapha; paid them some Baksheesh (although by the looks on their faces not enough) then caught a horse and carriage to a taxi rank.

From here we went to Edfu Temple where Abdul gave us his last tour. When the temple was originally discovered its courtyard and surroundings were completely buried in sand so had to be excavated by a team led by Auguste Mariette. The temple is dedicated to the falcon god Horus and was built over a 180 year period from 237 BC to 57 BC.

A photo was taken of all of us at the entrance after which I took Abdul’s address so we could send him a copy. We said our goodbyes and then taxied all the way to Luxor. At one stage, at a police checkpoint, the driver asked for some cash from us in order to bribe the policeman. Whatever was given to the cop wasn’t enough so the cab driver had to fork out a bit more before we got past. I have no idea what that was all about.

The Wena Hotel that we checked into in Luxor was great – the first thing we both did was to have a shower which felt heavenly. In the evening we wasted a load of cash on what was billed as a spectacular light show at Karnak. The lighting wasn’t exactly brilliant but worst of all was the commentary – absolute bollocks. We couldn’t help laughing at some of the narration piped out through the speakers in a deep booming voice,

“My left eye is the night and from my sandal squirts water!” ???