Although we have traveled quite a bit during our almost-three years in Cyprus, the vast majority of our trips have been long weekends– dip in, dip out, sometimes hurriedly. We’ve taken longer trips to Scotland/Ireland, the Christmas Roadtrip, and of course home to California/Mexico. However, even those longer trips didn’t feel as “vacation-y” as Egypt did. It definitely helped that we took the dahabiya– and a luxurious one at that– which really took its time getting from Luxor to Aswan. In fact, on the second full day of our cruise, there was nothing on the agenda but sailing and swimming.
That’s right. We swam in the Nile. We swam in the Nile THREE TIMES. And it was amazing…super cool and refreshing. In two of the spots, the current was nice and strong so we could jump in, get carried down the river past the moored boats, then run back up the bank and do it again. Of course, I later came across a CDC study that confirmed there is no such thing as a “safe place to swim” in the Nile, since fast moving water does not actually protect you from a pesky little bug called bilharzia. We have been OK since we got back, though, so hopefully we got away with it.
The dahabiya are wind-powered, but obviously to keep to schedules demanded by modern times, we had towboats to keep us moving at the necessary speed. When I first realized we would spend quite a bit of time being towed I was worried, but in practice the tow boats weren’t particularly noisy or diesel-y, so it ended up not being a big deal at all.
When the winds, and the schedule, allowed, one of our crew members shimmied up the masts and let down the sails. They were a distinctive red-and-white, beautiful and functional!
Really, being out on the Nile, with nothing to do but read a book or enjoy the slowly passing scenery, was one of my favorite parts of the trip. I was worried that I might get stir crazy stuck on a boat, but this was not an Atlantic crossing…we stopped and docked for lunch, swimming breaks, or tomb visits, so the hours were nicely varied between activity and idleness. It helped that we had this lovely deck to lounge on from morning ’til night:
We’d see bigger Nile cruise ships two or maybe three times per day, and a few fishermen or the occasional ferry, but for the most part, we had the river to ourselves. We passed lots of pump stations like this one, churning away with their diesel generators:
And the occasional island, usually with cattle grazing on them…I’m not sure how the cows got out there (swim or boat?), to be honest:
A very fancy house:
Spectacular Nile sunsets:
One evening we were told fairly precisely when we’d be passed by the famous “Steamship Sudan.” The Sudan’s most famous guest was Agatha Christie, who was inspired to write Death on the Nile after her trip. We actually considered booking it for our trip but opted for the dahabiyas instead. Having seen it steam by, it’s clear to me we wouldn’t have gone wrong whichever we chose!
The staff on our boat are what made the trip truly incredible. They were respectful, helpful, and so attentive to detail. They were there whenever we needed anything, and left us alone when we needed to be. They jumped in the Nile with us solely to make sure we didn’t drown. They seemed to be enjoying their work (and hopefully they actually did!)
Every day they left us a different towel creation in our rooms. There was an amazing elephant the first day. On the last day, they truly outdid themselves– they made “people” and dressed the towels with our clothes. They even put-towel boobs in them! It was awesome.
My 30th birthday was the second to last night of the cruise, and the six of us went for a group dinner to the other boat. I absolutely hate being the center of attention, and I like easy escapes, so I was kind of dreading it. However, it ended up being a pretty surreal experience. I sat next to a drunk–or senile– or both– Jimmy Carter lookalike from Germany. We kept having the same conversation over and over again; he’d find out I’d lived in Ecuador, he’d tell me how he lived in Buenos Aires, and then sing one line of a Tito Puente song. Rinse and repeat. The French woman across from me was amazing, she’d had an interested and well-traveled life and recited dirty limericks. Severin sat next to the man named Duncan who produced Love Actually and Four Weddings and a Funeral, who casually worked in a story about being at the Oscar’s and losing Best Picture to Forrest Gump. He was not impressed with Severin’s story pitch. The crew came up and sang happy birthday and danced to the drums. I don’t dance when coerced, so I abstained. Tom put on a belly dance belt and shimmied. It was nice, for the first time in 13 years, to have someone related to me by blood around for my birthday. All in all, it was exactly what I wanted from my 30th birthday.
All in all, It was a trip I’d make again in a heartbeat. It was certainly a trip Severin and I will remember for the rest of our lives.
