Earline's Big Adventure: Egypt...some more

It's been a while now since I could work on posting what I saw in Egypt, but they only had a 4 hour internet card, so I've got the time! After we were in Luxor a few days, we boarded a cruise boat to Aswan. It was kind of a different boat. It is VERY flat. The draft on the Nile is only 3 meters, or about 15 feet, so these boats only have a draft of 2.5 meters. They are really flat. The Nile is low now, so the ship we were supposed to take had grounded, and we were put on another one. We boarded a day before we actually left, and spent the first night tied up to the dock. The difficulty is scheduling the locks on the Nile, and ships wait for hours (as ours did) to be able to pass through the locks. We don't have a lot of room side to side. The ship has about 6 inches clearance either way! Here is our ship.

The Nile is really beautiful to sail down...

You get the sense not much has changed here in hundreds of years.

Once we got to Aswan, we got to sail on a Felucca, which was pretty neat. Again, really old design, but pretty efficient. You know, so often, sail boats have a motor, but not these. No wind...no sail!

I had some fun with T and his new friend the Drom...but then the Drom moved to Sweden, so T is friendless again.

Here is a picture of Ayman sailing the felucca. We took them everywhere.

Here's T checking out the Nile...

And also looking at Aswan. There is an upper and lower dam. We could only go to the lower.

This is a view of the first cataracts. We stayed on the island, at the Movenpick, so we had to ferry back and forth to the city.

In Aswan, the last temple we visited was the last temple used...the Temple of Philae. A temple dedicated to the worship of Isis, this temple would have been underwater, and was moved from an island which is now part of the lake to a higher island. Literally, stone by stone. It was cut up, numbered and put together like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

Here are some pictures.....

This would have been where anyone arriving would have landed.

Here's the view from the river of the landing site....

Now for the pictures you have been waiting for! Yes, Virginia, Earline did ride a camel, AND have a live alligator dropped on her head! It (excepting the alligator) was on of the best times I had in Egypt! We took a ferry up the Nile a ways one late afternoon. When we had gone a ways, there were camels...and I rode one to a Nubian village. I can't remember if I told you alread that I'm pretty sure Nubia is where Dr. Seuss got his inspiration. The houses are all arches and wild colors. It was really neat. We had tea there, then of course I had to wear the alligator! Coming back down the Nile after dark was so peaceful. I laid on the roof of the ferry and just watched the stars come out. Now for the pictures...