Egypte / Egypt 2002

July 6, 2002 – Felucca

Today, I leave Aswan with a felucca to go down on the Nile. The rendezvous has been set at 10am on the pier of the Ferry to Elephantine Island. Captain Jamaica is here to give us the last information and, of course, to take orde of what will need on the boat: water (1.5 EGP), Stella beer (6 EGP). We are 12 on a big felucca and the order totalizes: 40 bottles of water and 110 beers, special distinction to 2 Australians and 1 Neo Zealander with 24 Stella each!!!!

Finally, just before noon, we start the trip. The first stop is at the police office for the authorization to sail on the Nile.

One part of the international team!!

The afternoon starts well as we learn to know each other. I talk with my neighbor, a Canadian girl who will visit with her boyfriend, an Australian guy, Jordan, Syria and Turkey after Egypt. There are also 2 British girls, 4 New Zealanders, 1 Australian girl (Carrie), 1 Mexican (Jorge) and 2 French (Salim and myself). There is enough place on the felucca for everyone.

At 5pm, our captain decides to make a stop along the Nile bank before joining other feluccas on a little island in the middle of the Nile. The first part of this trip was very slow because there was hardly any wind this afternoon. There was not a lot of noise there (excepted when the road from Luxor was near the river). The landscape is great and we clearly see that the Nile is the most important thing in Egypt. Behind the green banks of the river there is only the desert. The country can be shorten to a river and its banks..

The Nile

The sunset is really beautiful.

The felucca is covered with mattresses. Our captain, Tarek has 2 men with him including Mohammed our cooking chef. There is also another guy who is responsible of the cleaning of the desk and he is very tough at that. At noon, Mohammed makes us a delicious meal composed of different mezzehs: salad (tomatoes and cucumber), salad with cheese sauce, falafel balls. For the dinner, he cooked a meal based on pastas and tomatoes. Great meals!!

Captain Tarek

On the island, we are playing freesbee before the sunset and after we have to find some wood to make the fire for the evening on the beach.

In the evening, I join Jack and Cathy who also stop there for the night like two other feluccas. The atmosphere is really nice all of the travelers are around the fire and our Nubian team is playing songs with us dancing in front of them. Beer caps are more en more visible and we all start dancing around the fire.

At midnight, everyone went to bed. With Salim, we are the only 2 to be awake and 2 policemen and a local join us for the next hours. We exchange a lot of jokes and Salim is my official translator to explain me what they are saying. We stand there next to the fire which is almost dead.

The night is not really comfortable because I have no sleeping bag and it is a little bit cold and there is a lot of humidity. But I am so tired that I found some sleep…

Main expenses of the day :

Felucca trip : 60 EGP

Drinks (water, Stella beer, soft drinks) : 50 EGP