Wendy is a Chartered Accountant living in Buckinghamshire. She is currently working as a contractor ...
Wendy is a Chartered Accountant living in Buckinghamshire. She is currently working as a contractor - this was undertaken to allow her to take time off between contracts to travel to parts of the world she is longing to see.
Member since:23.02.2001
Reviews:29
Members who trust:7
I travelled to Egypt with a company called Explore Worldwide who specialise in "small group exploratory holidays". They are prefect for anyone travelling alone, as I was, or on a budget or anyone who wants to get "off the beaten track" but still have support from a guide and a group of fellow travellers.
Their website is www.exploreworldwide.com and the trip I went on was the Nile Felucca Sailtrek, this opinion is part 3 of my travelogue covering days 5 to 8 the journey down the Nile on a felucca. If you want to find out about other parts of Egypt please read my other opinions (more coming soon)
I also travelled to Turkey with Explore last year and hope to travel with them to Nepal next year.
One of the main reasons for me picking the particular trip which I did was the opportunity to spend four days travelling down the Nile from Aswan to Edfu on board a traditional Nile felucca. The felucca has been the most popular
vessel on the Nile for centuries and is still widely used. About 11m long and rigged with tall lateen or triangular sails, it has no motor and relies only on the steady North wind. These days the boat is boarded over to allow a wide area for passengers to sit/lie with bags stored under the deck and in the front is a tiny cabin for the crew. A canvas canopy acts as sunshade during the day and keeps off the dew at night, when you sleep on deck. Our group of about 20 split onto three boats - Dolphin, Golden Star and Romance each with two Nubian crew.
Each morning we were awakened at dawn with a glass of tea, after breakfast we set off to enjoy the relaxed pace of life on the river. We spent our days lying on the deck reading, chatting or sunbathing, watching life on the banks drift past us. We made a couple of stops to visit various sites along the way the major of these being Kom Ombo a temple on the banks of the Nile.
Romance was slightly larger than the other two and was used to carry the majority of our food and as the "dining car". At lunch times we generally just tied the three boats together, moved across to Romance to sit and eat as we continued floating downstream. The food was simple but tasty, lunch generally consisted of pitta bread (actually pitta bread was served at every meal and we all began to dream of a thick slice of crusty granary bread!), salad, felafel and feta-style cheese followed by fruit and tea.
One afternoon the wind picked up and we experienced the thrill of racing before it with the boat banked right over and the water lapping over the deck. As we tacked across the stream our captain directed us to swap from one side of the boat to the other to balance it!
At night we would find a spot to moor and get out to stretch our legs whilst the crew prepared our evening meal of vegetable stew or something similar. After our meal we would persuade the crew to bring out their drums and sing round the campfire under the stars.
One of my most vivid memories was of the first night sitting out under the stars, we became aware of a bright light below the horizon of the far bank. We asked our guide if it was a large city and were told that it was the moon and as we watched we saw it rise above the horizon. I had never seen this before, living where I do the moon is already above the horizon by the time it becomes visible each night and it was an inspiring site to see.
I also spent quite a lot of time pointing out constellations to the other passengers on my boat as, of the eight, only three of us were from the Northern hemisphere and so looking at familiar skies. When we had been asked to form ourselves into three groups prior to boarding the boats, I had been invited to join what became dubbed the "young & single" boat. The other seven consisted to sisters from Australia aged 18 and 19, another Australian girl in her mid 20's, a young couple from New Zealand in their early twenties, an English girl around 24 and an English guy of about the same age. I was flattered to discover that they all thought I was about the same age as them, and they were amazed to discover that I was actually in my early 30's! Myself and the only other two Brits on our boat were also horrified to discover that we were all Chartered Accountants (what are the chances of that?)
The rest of the group was very mixed in both age and nationality another 6 Brits between about 25 and 50, a retired couple from New Zealand and another from America, a middle aged woman from Canada, an Irish girl in her 30's and an American woman of around 40. This mix made the trip really interesting and conversations in the boats were fascinating.
Myself and the retired chap from New Zealand, Rod, discovered that we had a mutual interest in the ancient history of Egypt and that this was the reason for our visiting. We quickly became known as the group experts on ancient sites and were quizzed for historical and archaeological information at each stop we made. For ourselves, it was great to have someone else with a similar interest to talk to as we wandered around the temples. This, after all, was my main reason for choosing this type of "group holiday" so that I had someone to turn to and say "wow, isn't this fantastic?"
Our felucca trip ended at a small village just south of Edfu where we said a fond farewell to our crews and their crafts and boarded a small fleet of taxis to take us to the monumental temple of Edfu.
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You travelled all that way on a felucca!! 1 hour on one scared me a bit. A very interesting and detailed op. Next time i go i will definitly try to travel around the country a bit more.
Connoisseur_Haggler 23.02.2001 19:36
ah , a beautiful journey to Egypt! sounds wonderful,,each time I raed such lovely travel op's as yours I feel like travelling back to Asia again!! thank you , a beautiful opinion.
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Advantages: a testament to the genius/talent/skill of the ancient people. Lovely weather Disadvantages: the men are extremely rude, the temples are not given the respect they deserve
sekhmetscat 07.12.2002 ·
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Review of General: Egypt
Advantages: Close to the Egyptian Museum and other interesting places Disadvantages: Compared to the other hotels it was on the expensive side - but well worth it
Steven_Holroyd 07.06.2007 ·
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Review of Nile Hilton, Cairo
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