Sailing the Nile

Hello everyone from the Nile River,

Today we had a sleep in. It was fantastic - I slept for nine hours and had my best sleep in Egypt so far!

We set off at 10.15am and boarded our felucca. A felucca is a traditional Egyptian sailboat. Our group split in half, and I’m on boat two with Kristine, Carl, Chris, Peter, Jason and Nikki. 

We spent the rest of the day sailing on the Nile. The Nile was and is Egypt’s lifeline, and to this day most of Egypt’s cities lie along it. 

Before the dams were built down here, the Nile would flood every year in June. The water would saturate the banks and provide silt, which was very fertile soil for people to plant crops. Peoples’ whole lives revolved around the Nile. They were born near it, they bathed in it, it provided food for them to eat and water for them to drink. Once they died, their bodies were washed with its waters. And, if you were rich, your body would be transported on the Nile to wherever you were to be buried. Otherwise you would simply be buried in the sand. 

The Nile’s current flows north and this is the direction we travelled in. As I’ve mentioned before, the tombs of the important ancient Egyptians were always on the west side of the river because the sun sets at the end of the day in the west. The Egyptians believed it then went to the afterlife. 

There is a debate as to whether the Nile or the Amazon is the world’s longest river. It is said that the Nile is 6700-6800 km long and takes up 3.4 million square kilometres. Even though Egypt is famous for the Nile, just 22% of it flows through Egypt. It also flows through Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan and the Republic of the Sudan. The Blue Nile begins in Ethiopia and the White Nile begins in Rwanda. They come together in Sudan. The debate as to whether it’s the longest or not is because of the two branches. For today's purpose - I like saying that we sailed along the world's longest river!

We spent the rest of the day on the felucca, zig zagging along at a leisurely pace. The cushions and mattresses on board were very comfortable. We passed the time by chatting, playing memory games, reading my Lonely Planet guide (I read some of it aloud to our group) and playing games. We also enjoyed the scenery along the way. Kids playing by the Nile banks and riding horses, palm trees, and at one stage a very scary looking fire that looked petrol fuelled! We also went under a huge bridge and passed lots of big cruise ships. 

Lunch was on the support boat that was following us and was a delicious serving of tuna, mashed potato and feta. Feta must be cheap here because we had a huge plate of it and were allowed to take as much as we wanted - I took a lot, yum!

From my Lonely Planet book I learned a few more interesting facts - the word pharaoh comes from 'per-aa' - palace. Even though it might seem like the Egyptians were obsessed with death, when you think about it, the tombs etc they constructed were to prolong their love of life in the afterlife life. These tombs and all were abandoned in the fourth century AD when the Christians came, and were lost until they were discovered in the 1800s and 1900s. 

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset just before docking. I'm writing to you from our boat docked on the western side of the Nile using my phone's hotspot - Isn't technology cool! It's quite cold but my clothes are proving warm enough thus far. Time will tell!

Love to all

Claire

Xoxox