Egypt

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In February 2010 I took my wife on a trip to celebrate her retirement: a cruise along one of the worlds great rivers, the Nile. 4000 miles from source to sea, we sampled a tiny portion of it between Aswan in the south to Luxor. About 220 kilometres of broad, tranquil and a surprisingly smooth river.

February is the peak time for tourists and I won't pretend that we managed to avoid them all the time but our journey was to be on a Dahabiya, built in the fashion of luxurious Colonial sailing boats of the last century. We booked through Bales Travel as we had enjoyed our previous holiday with them some years ago when we went on their 'Chile, Land of Contrasts' tour.

A pleasant flight with British Midland brought us to Cairo in just 4 hours 10 minutes but because Cairo Air Traffic Control were 'recalibrating' part of their system (on a Saturday in peak time?) we were diverted to Al-Ghardaka for re fuelling and another scenic trip around northern Egypt. No matter, we still caught our ongoing flight to Aswan where our journey started in earnest.

I need to say here that I won't be giving a historical treatise on the temples and Nile sites as I am essentially a photographer and my retention of historical facts is not good when I am concentrating on taking pictures. So, please enjoy the images and tolerate my sometimes pithy comments!

You may prefer just to see a 'slide show' of my favourite images which you can see if you click here.

	It has been a long day and now at well after 11pm we await the small boat which will take us to our floating Hotel, Amber, which is awaiting us.		After a hearty welcome dinner, some wine and some sleep, we awaken to a gorgeous Aswan morning. Our sister ship, Zahra is moored alongside.
Breakfast is served in the open air with the warmth of Egyptian sun pouring in on our pale winter bodies.		Our water taxi takes us to meet our early morning bus that is to whisk us to the airport for a short flight to Abu Simbel.
	Its only a short flight of 1 hour or so, but we will be flying all of that time over the worlds largest man made lake: Lake Nasser.		The desert below is full of fascinating lines and shapes.
		Our first glimpse of the Abu Simbel temple is from our seats on the left side of the plane, thoughtfully arranged by our guide. Built by Ramses II about 1270 BC and boasting four seated figures of the Pharoah 18 metres high.
Soon, we are there taking in the magnificent sights. Photography was not allowed inside the temples.		Between 1968 and 1972 the temples were moved to higher ground to avoid being flooded when Lake Nasser was formed following the opening of the Aswan High Dam.

		The temple has a door and an enormous key. Down by the lake, the very big lake (300 miles long) is a heron.
A lady sits in the shade enjoying the tremendous view.		and on the way back to the bus, a friendly policeman who is a budding photographer. For 'baksheesh' you understand.
	Lake Nasser. a very small part of it.		It's about 36 deg C so we are on our way back to our nice air conditioned boat.
and a nice lunch with some pretty good wine. Egyptian wine, too.		Blue skies and warm sunshine: in February. Takes a bit of getting used to.