Sailing A Felucca On The Nile River & Edfu Temple
Trip Start
Sep 29, 2007
1
160
221
Trip End
Ongoing
Edfu,
Nile River Valley,
Egypt
Thursday, October 16, 2008
"He who rides the sea of the Nile must have sails woven of patience"
Egyptian proverb
The first boats to sail transporting people on The Nile River were made from Papyrus bundles (plants), next came wooden boats with multiple sets of oars then, boats with rudders. In 1869 Thomas Cook brought tourists to The Nile to travel on steamers. Nowadays there are still dahabiyyas (luxurious double sail boats) and feluccas plus around 400 modern cruise boats. A felucca is a traditional wooden sailing boat used in protected waters of the Red Sea and eastern Mediterranean including Malta, and particularly along the Nile in Egypt
climbing the mast
. Its rig consists of one or two lateen sails. We decided to take the budget (and better) option and cruise a felucca sailing boat down part of the longest river in the world, The Nile River by sailing from Aswan to Edfu. The journey was very relaxing and would have even been romantic if we were not sharing the small open air deck space with eight others. This was part of the fun though and the 'others' i mentioned came in the form of an international crew of pirates including the cool cat, well travelled Mark who shared loads of inspiring stories and also Brad from the UK, Carmel and Mrs Carmel from Barcelona, Spain, Neil from Ireland and the captain Ziggy (probably stole his name from Bob Marley's son) a Nubian, his first mate Mohammad and the first mate's little brother. Everyone was fairly tranquilo and some good chats were had. The boat belonged to 22 year old Ziggy's family and it's name was 'Jahmed Family' but Ziggy had painted his name on there too, the proud boy.Before we left Aswan we stocked up on Iced Tea, peanuts and a whole tray of those delicious Egyptian pastries that we adore. Every country has a food that you miss when you leave, the acaraje and acai in Brazil, the steaks in Argentina, the stuffed avocado in Peru, the Ramadan sweets in Morocco and now, the honey pastries in Egypt.
Sailing on one of the felucca boats was the slow ride but brought us close to life along The Nile as we zigzagged from bank to bank sometimes cutting in amongst other sailboats with a couple of near misses. However, the captains and crew seem to 'know the ropes' as they say and enjoy their work. I would compare their attitude to the work with that of the camel men of the Sahara Desert because they seem to have some freedom out on the water and most are laid back characters
putting the sail up
. Marijuana seems to play a part in their lifestyle too. Our guys had a cosy little smoking joints room at the front of the boat that we called the 'Bat Cave'. We had our Stella beers that we dangled from the back of the boat in a bag to keep them cool.The Nile River runs through ten countries and up until the late 19th century before rail and road was decent, the river was Egypt's highway and the quickest way to send messages, move cargo or people. These days it transports many tourists up and down the river who are visiting monuments. We saw many cruise ships sailing passed us but most of them were nearly vacant because the tourist season is just beginning. One of them even had a disco dance floor on top and a giant sound system was pumping out 'I'm a Barbie Girl'. This one passed us as we were working on our moon tans under a sky full of stars as local Egyptians played drums and sang songs. It was a glorious full moon, lucky timing for us. We were glad we were not onboard the bigger boats. All of us agreed that the tourists onboard these vessels were probably looking at us with envy during the day because we were kicking back with the wind in our hair and using quiet sail-power with no fumes to get the real experience whilst they were cruising fast on engines and missing the point of cruising The Nile. I found the little sailing boats to be incredibly charming, these are the boats Florence Nightingale described as being like water lillies or fairy boats during her journey on The Nile in 1850
birdlife
. All the dahabiya boats we saw were being towed by tugboats and we never saw them with their double sails out.We set sail from Aswan and apparently got some permission before folding the sail pole (i don't know the boatie jargon-mast?) down and sailing under the bridge that would mark the beginning of our trip. The weather was perfect and we had many it really feels like what you expected Egypt to be moments. The days flew by fast and we hardly moved from where we first lay down just reading our books and sticking our heads up to catch glimpses of life on the river. We though of the freshly married Alana and Rohan with their new yacht. The banks of the river are fertile and coloured a lush, vibrant green. There are many palms. The sand desert behind is coloured a nice hue of orange. The whole scene is unbelievably beautiful at sunset when the glowing sun turns the sky a brilliant orange and then tucks in behind palm trees and sand making silhouettes of the trees on the West bank. We made silhouettes of ourselves doing the cheesy 'Walk Like An Egyptian' poses. I often wish i could bottle the colours of nature we have seen and paint our living space in all the delicious shades of Mother Earth. There are many birds that display National Geographic moments as they take flight up or down the river on their migration or waddle around in the shallows. Fishermen rowed about day and night and are seen on the shores patching up their nets and chatting away
the felucca racing
. It was easy to sleep with the waves rocking you to sleep as they gently hit against the wood of the boat. A nice and easy journey was had by all, the wind stayed up and the sails were always billowing full of air. It's easy to negotiate a trip on a felucca because there are alot of captains around touting for business. The boats are all decorated with various international flags and some have Peace, pirate or Bob Marley flags. On noticing us Aussies the captain produced an Australian flag from the 'Bat Cave' and tied it to the back of the boat. Throughout the journey he would call 'Aussie, Aussie, Aussie' and we would quietly respond with an 'Oi, Oi, Oi' every now and then. The food was basic and was mainly beans, bread, the triangular cheese and tomato and i can't remember what else put together in various combinations to be presented at meals. Cooking was done on a primitive gas cooker housed inside a very flammable cardboard box, perfect for use on a wooden boat don't you think?mmmmm.... The young boy on board who usually perched himself near where my spot was would hum songs to himself very quietly for the whole trip and i found it to be very calming and peaceful. I played some Bob marley for him on my ipod. I liked that you had to walk the plank like a pirate to get on and off the boat although i don't know how safe this is after a couple of Stellas.
Ziggy's family boat
There were no toilets on board so you just hung your arse out over the edge of the water in front of everyone and did your business, only joking, the captain stopped on the side of the bank for meals and toilet rests. During one of these stops, a boy came riding towards us on an impossibly white donkey, he rode it like he was on a unicorn. We were not sure what he wanted, probably money but we gave him a bouncy ball and some balloons. Both nights we stopped on the bank to sleep. The second night there was a large Contiki type youth tour from Australia who were playing games like wrapping each other up in toilet paper and pretend you are an ancient Egyptian mummy whilst dancing around a campfire, this was good for a laugh.
River travel was so important to the ancient Egyptians that they believed that the sun god Ra travelled through the sky in a boat and that the dead would sail to the afterlife. We have seen evidence of this in some carvings in tombs. I love the idea of sailing away on a journey to your next life, they were onto something these ancient Egyptians. The felucca journey was a highlight for us.
The boat deposited us somewhere on the riverbank near Esna and we all got into one of the open backed troopy style taxi trucks which drove us through some small farming villages where cattle was being herded and people were working donkeys and crops on the side of the road
desert and palms
. There wasn't time to visit Kom-mombo temple because it was required that we join another police convoy to get to Edfu and then onto Luxor. We all got in a minivan that joined the long snaking line of coaches, cars, taxis etc all waiting to get through. This convoy was another palava. Armed military were positioned at 20 metre intervals next to the tourist buses. We really were foreign sitting ducks should anyone like to attack. We were stationed outside a rest stop and tourist shop with some seriously annoying touts attacking the bus on all sides trying to sell scarves, plastic ornaments and generally putting the sleaze on. We made a joke out of it of course. We ended up waiting there for 1 hour until the convoy from the opposite direction arrived and we were on the road. The time did give us a chance to chat with a French couple who told us of a spectacular desert oasis to visit that we have now added to the itinerary. Eventually we made it to The Temple Of Horus at Edfu built between 237 BCE to 57 BCE, into the reign of Cleopatra VII. It is built from sandstone blocks and of all the temple remains in Egypt it is the most completely preserved. The temple was one of my favourites bacause it is dedicated to a bird god, the falcon god Horus. The inscriptions on its walls provide important information on language, myth and religion during the Greco-Roman period in ancient Egypt
sail away with me honey
. There is a chapel, a library room and a room where potions and perfumes were made plus an offering room. The tourist watching opportunities were high and we were appalled to see people actually lying on the ancient falcon statues. Horus is sure to curse them. We met one lady who had a travel mascot like Mono Loco but hers was a Scottish troll doll. Classic. Again, difficult to take in all the carvings and drawings on the walls. The bus continued on to Luxor City.Lame Joke Of The Day:
What do you get if you cross an Egyptian mummy with a car mechanic?
a Toot and Car Man.
