600 miles down the Nile

This was the view from our cabin when we woke up in Aswan at almost the end of our journey. The Nile, some nature reserve islands full of all sorts of birds, some feluccas, the very distinctive local boat with the sails and steering at the prow, and beyond that one of the rocky outcrops common along the river contrasting so strongly with the flat green fertile fields and islands along the edge of the river. There's a graceful little stone temple on the top and underneath a line of tombs of  lords and politicians, illuminated at night.

We had a fantastic holiday, though there were some wobbles! For a start as I got into the taxi I thought that I hadn't seen the passports.... which had actually fallen out of my travel bag behind a small filing cabinet! You can imagine the panic as we searched, until I thought where they must be. Only 10 minutes but seemed longer.

There was a tummy bug, probably brought on the ship by one of the guests, which caused problems for most people. Fortunately Geoff and I got off lightly.

And I took a tumble in the middle of the site of a Coptic cathedral! The usual: looking around, talking, tripped over stone. Mostly my dignity damaged, with some bruises, scratches from a low growing prickly plant and some sort of twisting of a back nerve which made getting comfortable in bed a problem for a few nights.

Generally I coped well with most of the trips only missing out on a couple when I felt too exhausted. One unfortunate development, just before we went away,  has been loss of power in my thighs (something to do with my core strength weakening?) which makes climbing steps and longer walks quite challenging. Geoff was brilliant carrying my National Trust chair and encouraging me, while I used a stick to haul myself upwards. The NT seat was excellent for comfortable listening once I reached the top (and was envied by a few of my fellow travellers) One site had 240 steps in temperatures of the late 30s but I do hate to miss anything!

Nearly 40 degrees there! Why am I smiling?

The boat, SS Misur, was beautiful, very distinctive with her dark wood, iron fretwork and steam funnel which made her a very quiet mover up the Nile. Built in 1918 in Lancashire, Misur was a workhorse after the war until King Farouk rescued, restored and enjoyed her until his death. After 21st century private restoration, she is set to sail up and down the Nile for a quite elegant life again. I think there are 20 guest cabins so we were only 36 people which was nice and intimate enough to get to know everyone. Quite international with South Africans, Australians, Americans and Canadians as well as all the rest, mainly well-travelled oldies, enjoying their retirements.

The staff were delightful, so pleased to have work, offering us fantastic service, a variety of local entertainment and superb food, sending us tea fusions with cumin and pomegrate to settle the tum. The captain slept little and worked miracles taking us through neglected locks and round sand banks, low water levels caused by the absence of rain this year. Very few ships sail from Cairo to Luxor, especially such magnificent ones, so we had a lot of attention especially from children waving and shouting from the river banks. Very sadly tourism has declined dramatically because of the bombing a few years back and general uncertainty about IS activity. Really we felt our welcome was warm and we were safe, and we had surprisingly little real pestering by chaps selling stuff, despite their desperation to make a sale.

The other consideration was security! People were pleased to see us because we were rare visitors. IS still linger in the Western desert south of Cairo so while we able to visit some magnificent sites there, and mainly had them completely to ourselves, we had massive security escorts. A reliable witness counted at least 50 on one trip to see the isolated remains of the heretic pharaoh Akhenatum's capital, including 2 SWAT teams. Made us feel very important!

The Nile itself was amazing, life going on as it had done for thousands of years, handsowing and harvesting, use of donkeys with very little use of machines - except for pumps. That's the one big difference: because of the High Dam at Aswan, the river no longer floods and water can be allowed from Lake Nasser under controlled conditions as needed and farmers can take what they need. We enjoyed the changing colours on the rocky outcrops, the many green islands, the little fishing boats and the animal life -water buffalo, birds, goats and cows.

We enjoyed a tremendous variety of visits from the Giza pyramids and Sphinx, to some of the older try-out pyramids like the Bent Pyramid so we began to understand their development and why the great builders turned to different styles of tombs and temples. Our guides were superb, very knowledgeable and good fun to be with. I did particularly relish Tutankhamun's tomb, the only one with its mummy as well as one of its sarcophagi and a wonderful wall painting of baboons. The small temple of Philae, rescued from flood waters, and rebuilt stone by stone on a carefully chosen new island was delightful, and reasonably quiet in the early morning before the crowds arrived. Nubians run the boats there and sell the souvenirs. The Temples of Karnak and Luxor, though take a lot of beating, such huge lines of carved and painted columns, the obelisks and statues. Wonderful.

Bed art by Ahmed!

The sky was azure blue, the temperatures were in the 30s during the day cooling to 20ish in the evening. We had a lot of fun.... And I do have other clothes, it's coincidence that I'm wearing the same thing in all the photos!