You are back on your vessel, so settle yourself down on the upper deck and just watch Egypt’s panorama unfold before your eyes!
Endlessly on both banks daily life shows itself to you and seems much as it has been over the past hundreds of years. Agriculture, of course, predominates and that still requires all the efforts of man and animal to take full advantage of the rich alluvial soil on either side of the river. With the advent of the dams at Aswan, the seasonal floods are now a thing of the past but it is clear to see the dramatic and sharp divide between green cultivation and stark desert within 500m of the river bank – and that contrast is stark!
Past other cruise ships, darting Kingfishers, triangular sailed feluccas with patched and grubby sails, bizarrely flaming palm trees, the quarries and tombs of the quarry masons and the communal tricycle delivery cart washing places, the whole of life unfolds before you. And then you arrive at another river side temple…
(to be continued)
Your pictures really bring out what I learned—and taught—in school: how narrow a margin of arable soil along the river was able to feed a great civilization, and how close desert and disaster were if the flood and the crop failed. But where it is lush…I had no idea how lush!
I want to go on a Nile River cruise!!!
Mac, if you were satisfied with them, would you mind sharing the company you used for this trip? A little on the logistics (where you meet, how long it was, etc).
Appreciate that! Thanks for this series.
Another great piece, Mac. Doing the Nile cruise is certainly a highlight. Just watching life pass by along the banks is fascinating.
Hi Karl – sorry for a delayed reply. We booked onto a Thompson Holidays trip out of London and were very satisfied with the whole experience, including value for money. We chose the “all inclusive” option and were very pleased with the quality of their wines etc. The boat was very clean and well maintained, all the crew cheery and pleasant, the food good and plentiful (buffets).
There were a good number of “included” trips to temples whilst other trips were extras (Abu Simbel and Cairo for the Pyramids and museum.) Both of these latter trips are very long days and might be better done as a small add-on to the basic tour. Abu Simbel can also be visited as part of another cruise on Lake Nasser (right behind the new ‘High Dam’ at Aswan).
It was the second time that we did this trip and were just a pleased as on the first one – but enjoyed there being many less other visitors at the temples.
Choose your month for travelling as it can get ferociously hot by April through to October (?). We went around Christmas time first – pleasant and quite fresh in the evenings. Second time was March which was really nice but starting to get hot at midday.
For our specific trip see:
http://www.thomson.co.uk/desti…d=EF&iu_id=Broad )
Thanks for all that detailed information, Mac. It’s very helpful!