Felucca cruising on the Nile

2nd & 3rd June 2010

We walked across the road with all our bags, down the the Nile where our 2 feluccas were waiting for us. They are traditional Egyptian sailing boats which consist of a big sail and the deck is a giant mattress. We got on the bigger of the two boats with 8 others and said hello to our felucca crew. I only remember one of them called himself 'Captain Smiles of the Nile' which was kinda ironic because he only had about 3 teeth. We were tied up to the second felucca when we set off. The staff quickly set the table (By putting a plastic table runner down the middle of the boat) and served lunch. Lots of bread with felafal and cheese and salad things. It was pretty tasty. After we'd eaten we detached from the second boat and started sailing down the Nile. Not much really to write about except for beers in the sun, with some good tunes on the laptop and just general laying about. We made 1 or 2 stops along the way so we could go for a run through the bush (or sand dunes) to take a squat.

We eventually pulled up just before the sun went down. We were told that there was a Nubian Village not too far away and that we could use their toilets and would have some evening entertainment there. We all grabbed a beer and set off up a massive sand dune to watch the sun set. By the time we'd made it to the top our beers were red hot and the sun was disappearing quickly. The boys had rock throwing contests and we just stood about and watched the sun go down beyond the sand. After it got dark we went and had a look through the small village. A flushing toilet was much welcomed (After an afternoon of beers in the sun) and we were shown through their simple home - yet they still had sateillite dishes on the roofs.

We went back down to the feluccas where we were served another yummy dinner (much of the same stuff that we had for lunch) and a bit of a lay down before we headed back up to the village. The ladies of the village were selling their hand made jewellery - cheap and tacky, but I felt it would be nice to spend a couple of pounds in return for the use of their toilet - and giving henna tattoos. I also got a tattoo on my ankle, but the lady that did mine had the shakes and smudged the henna everywhere, it didn't look that good (2 weeks on and its pretty much all but gone now, just looks like I have a poo smear on my foot). We were offered tea and shisha's and just sat around chatting for a few hours.

We got back on the boat around 11, and tucked ourselves into bed. That's a lie, we just laid down where we had been sitting all day - in our big group bed.While we'd been gone, the felucca crew had put up a mozzie net around the boat to stop the little critters from eating us alive.

The next morning we woke up with the sun, and headed up to the village to use the toilet and have a quick splash in their very primitive showers. Once we were all dressed and had eaten breakfast on the boat (More bread) we set off for a full day down the Nile. We had to stay tied to the second boat for the first few hours, as the wind was too strong for the boats to be on their own. We drank beer and laid about some more, before making a stop beside a very steep sand dune where we could all swim.We all jumped off the back of the boats and splashed around while the boys decided to run from the top of the sand dune into the water. They thought it was a great idea until they realised that the sand was very hot and it burnt all their feet.After our swim it was back on the boat where the crew served us lunch, before setting sail again. We finally detached from the other boat after lunch and were sailing along quickly. By dinnertime we'd reached out spot for the night so we set up. The crews were very efficient in making us a high tech toilet - a stool with a hole in the middle sitting over a hole in the ground, surrounded by a sheet. They also made us dinner of chicken wings (I had to forget that this chicken had been in the boat for 2 days without any refrigeration). After dinner we split up into 3 groups and competed in a trivia quiz. Two of the girls on the boat thought it would be a fun way to spend the evening so they spent the afternoon coming up with questions. We all sat on the big boat and played - they did a fantastic job with the questions, some were very challenging and catered to people of all the different nationalities. At the end of the quiz we made our way off the boat onto the sand where the boat crew had lit a fire and were singing, playing music and dancing. They pulled out a bit of the boat and used it as a limbo stick, and had everyone dancing about. They played about 10 verses to the tune of "She'll be comin round the mountain", but using lyrics like "She'll be drinking Birra Stella when she comes", or "She'll be hopping like an Aussie", or "She'll be dancin' like a Nubian". Very good times. When they were done we all made our way back to the boat to get the results of the trivia quiz, but when the girls had gone to mark them they found the book all the answer pages were in had blown open and all the teams responses were lost in the Nile. We gathered a member from each team to try to remember all the responses (This cause much controversy later) and a winner was somehow decided - it wasn't my team, Dan's team won!

After plenty more drinks we all curled up in bed together for our last night, under the stars, on the felucca.