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Cheap Egypt Holidays > Travel News > Nile away the hours: cruising the River Nile
Nile away the hours: cruising the River Nile | | 15th July 2008 |
Nile cruising is growing in popularity, with operators adding more ships and itineraries. Kathryn Liston headed to Egypt to see if the experience lived up to the hype.
Discover 6,000 years of history in six days”, the brochure promised. At 1,000 years a day, Libra Holidays' round-trip Luxor to Aswan Nile Cruise seemed an impossible task – could it live up to its claim? From pharaohs to sun gods, imposing temples to richly decorated tombs, the world's longest river serves up a feast of richly preserved ancient delights.
With frequent 5.30am starts to avoid the crowds and exhausting 45C heat, the cruise requires stamina. An interest in ancient history also helps. Each morning was spent visiting monolithic temples and tombs dedicated to various gods and pharaohs – Karnak, Luxor, Edfu, Kom Ombo, Philae Valley of the Kings and Queens – their wonderfully preserved hieroglyphics and wall carvings telling their own stories.
Every temple was brought to life by Libra's knowledgeable guide Assa (“not Asda”, as she remarked with an impressive knowledge of British supermarkets).
She was also a defence against the incessant hassle of hawkers, tipping officials and advising us how much we should pay for cotton shirts, guidebooks and necklaces. With only 68 cabins on the Domino Prestige Emilio, shared tables at meal times and limited deck space, it was difficult to escape one another.
A Nile Cruise is not for clients wanting solitude or a la carte dining – all meals were buffet style, albeit varied and delicious. The experience is also not for those of an independent spirit. Herded around in coaches, there was little opportunity to explore on our own. Free time at each site was limited to 30 minutes at the most.
Only at Aswan did we have time to sail a felucca (small wooden sailing boat) around the swirling cataracts, haggle at the souk, smoke a bubbling sheesha pipe at a typical Nubian coffee house and sip cocktails at the Cataract Hotel featured in Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile.
Today, Christie's characters are more likely to be overcome by fumes emitted from boats docking together.
To protect the temples, boats will also be unable to moor in the centre of Luxor from next year. Cruising along the Nile provides a window into rural Egypt, the landscape changing from lush palms and banana trees to sandy desert and brightly painted mudbrick houses.
Young children waved from the river bank while farmers tended their fields with ox-drawn wooden plows and men fished for Nile perch from wooden canoes. The soft breeze, refreshing swimming pool and drinks cooled our bodies, although it is worth noting that beverages are shockingly expensive.
There was less time spent on deck cruising than I expected. Twice we cruised through the night, once awakening to the sight of towering Kom Ombo and once to dusty, noisy Edfu with its melee of laden donkey carts, hooting taxis and horse-drawn caleches (carriages). With the number of ships operating on the Nile, expect to have other vessels occasionally moored alongside – sometimes obliterating the view.
But despite this, the cruise was a fascinating and memorable experience – and it lived up to the brochure's promise.
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