Sailing on the River Nile

We boarded our Feluca boat and home for the next 3 days on the River Nile. Felucas are a traditional wooden sailing boat but for the use of tourists they line the wooden deck with mattresses and this is where we ate and slept and ate and slept some more and then jumped off the side to cool off in the Nile. Then when we needed the bathroom - number 1's you jumped off the boat for a "swim", number 2's we pulled over and had to go on some poor guy's farm behind what little shrubbery was around, all very classy. Asides from the lack of a bathroom, sailing along with 9 other lovely people, reading books, chatting, attempting to play cards without losing them in the wind, snoozing and dangling our feet off the side gazing at the amazing scenery, this would have to be the most serene experience by far. We honestly did not have a care in the world, it was a sure fire way to rid any stress or worry we had. After the first day of sailing and swimming we docked by a farm that had a welcoming Nubian (a small ethnic group in southern Egypt) house nearby where we were offered traditional tea and shisha under the stars. Then back to the boat where we slept surprisingly easily considering our day of doing nothing.

Jay working on his leg tan

Our home for 3 days

Shisha smoking at the Nubian house

Reading on the boat

We woke with the sun and had breakfast prepared by our Feluca crew then off we went repeating our glorious routine from the day before. We pulled over for lunch and a swim by a rare sandy beach along the river where a group of Nubian people, mostly children, were bathing and playing in the Nile. They were over the moon to see tourists and eventually a couple of brave little ones made there way over to our group to play with the soccer ball we had and pose for a few pictures. It did cross my mind to ask if we could keep one of the littles ones but I soon realised that would put us over our luggage allowance. We took off sailing again but with no time to stop to jump off for a "swim" and Jayden's weak bladder he had to make do with lowering himself off the back of the boat (while we were still moving) to relieve himself whilst everyone watched and almost had to join him from laughing so much. And yes it was suggested that he just stand and pee off the side of the boat but our guide warned us of previous situations in which the wind has changed and someone has received an unwanted splash in the face. After a couple of hours we were off again and when we docked this time this was where we were staying for the night. As a few other boats docked nearby the crew from the boats decided to build a "firebon" as they called it and we danced and sung the night away around the fire before we crawled back onto our boat after another hard day of relaxing.

Jayden going to the bathroom

See he did want to come with us!

Jumping into the Nile

Bidding farewell to our little sailing home the following day was made slightly easier by the fact that we checked into a 5 star hotel with a bath tub! Not having a bath tub in our home in London for the past year and a half means we get overly excited when we are lucky enough to find one. The following couple of days were filled with visiting more temples which as amazing as they were to see writing about them could never do them justice so we will leave it at that, however we did get a chance to visit the Valley of the Kings which was incredible. The valley consists of 55 tombs that have been built into it's walls and the intricacy and detail that has gone into each one was insane, unfortunately to preserve the artwork cameras were again not allowed but it was worth wandering around the valley and tombs in the scorching heat just to admire it all.