Hello Aswan ... Time to Explore
We docked in Aswan last night so our touring happened around Aswan today. Again ... up early to meet Mohamed (found out today that I have been spelling his name wrong the whole time - oops) and our driver for our adventures. We headed out of Aswan to the Aswan High Dam which was finished in 1971. It was built to help control the flooding of the Nile and also to generate electricity. Like all dams it is huge! 169,000 million cubic metres of water and the building of it took 11 years to construct. We were also shocked to learn that Lake Nasser (created by the damming of the Nile) is home to 18 million crocodiles - so no swimming there!
Our next stop was the Temple of Isis which is located on Agilika Island. To get to the temple we had to take a boat - we thankfully had a private tender and therefore were able to negotiate the boarding and getting off a little easier than if we were part of a bigger group. The boats jockey and jostle for position at the dock so it really is a quick leap on and off! The temple was originally on Philae island which is why it is often called Philae Temple but was carefully and painstakingly relocated between 1972 and 1980 with the help of UNESCO as it was partially submerged when they built the old Aswan Dam. This is the first temple we have seen on an island so it added an extra special element to it.
From the temple we headed back into Aswan to the Unfinished Obelisk. The obelisk was carved out of red granite in the Northern Quarries which are about 2 km from the centre of Aswan at the time of Hapshetsut and would have been the largest obelisk had it been completed. Unfortunately the granite cracked during the carving of it so the stonemasons abandoned it and left it still half carved in the main rock face. We pity the poor person who was tasked with telling his King/Queen that the partially carved obelisk had cracked!
We ended our morning sailing the Nile, around Elephantine Island and Kitchener Island in a felucca which is a traditional Egyptian sailing boat. Our sailing captain was a lovely man who allowed me at one stage to actually man (woman) the tiller to steer the boat whilst he looked after the sails. Thankfully I didn’t crash us into the islands!
At this point of our cruise of the Nile we said a fond farewell to Mohamed who was heading back to Luxor by train having completed his guiding duties. We are still on board the MS Nile Premium for one more night but as there were not more tours he was able to leave us to head home. This morning before starting our day he introduced us to our guide for tomorrow (another Mohammed) who will meet us in the morning for our trip to Abu Simbel. The tour company has been fantastic ... lots of drivers, guides and assistance along the way.
After lunch though, with an afternoon to fill, we disembarked and explored Aswan on foot. We walked through the streets, checked out the train station, explored the Sharia as-Souq. This is a traditional market in the centre of town and whilst you wander along the traders try to urge you into their stores or to their stalls in an attempt to sell you things. They are fairly easy going though and don’t hassle you too much. Everyone here is fascinated by Ian’s hat and there are lots of ‘Gday mate’ called out to Ian as we wander. We also get stopped a lot because Ian carries Kooka and Koko in his shirt pockets which causes endless fascination for the locals. We ended our exploration of Aswan at McDonalds (don’t judge us) as it is a great place to see how the locals live - especially the young kids (which is surprisingly not very different to anywhere else in the world). We grabbed a cool drink and a thick shake and sat on the wall of the Corniche to watch the world go by before wandering back to our boat.
We left the boat again just before sunset to grab some photos of the feluccas on the Nile. Ian very patiently waited whilst I snapped a few pics (okay ... maybe a hundred). When we headed back on board we asked our concierge if we could walk through the boats behind us to see what they looked like and he said of course we could ... so we walked through the next boat and then the next one which was at the end. Here one of the lovely stewards offered to open the back door for me to snap a couple of more pictures (okay ... maybe another 50) and then he asked if I would like to go up to the sun deck to take some more pictures ... and how could I possible say no to that offer! Sunset pictures over the Nile galore for Jacqui today!
And so ends our Nile Cruise ... off to Abu Simbel tomorrow before we head back to Cairo. I am loving this trip!
Our next stop was the Temple of Isis which is located on Agilika Island. To get to the temple we had to take a boat - we thankfully had a private tender and therefore were able to negotiate the boarding and getting off a little easier than if we were part of a bigger group. The boats jockey and jostle for position at the dock so it really is a quick leap on and off! The temple was originally on Philae island which is why it is often called Philae Temple but was carefully and painstakingly relocated between 1972 and 1980 with the help of UNESCO as it was partially submerged when they built the old Aswan Dam. This is the first temple we have seen on an island so it added an extra special element to it.
From the temple we headed back into Aswan to the Unfinished Obelisk. The obelisk was carved out of red granite in the Northern Quarries which are about 2 km from the centre of Aswan at the time of Hapshetsut and would have been the largest obelisk had it been completed. Unfortunately the granite cracked during the carving of it so the stonemasons abandoned it and left it still half carved in the main rock face. We pity the poor person who was tasked with telling his King/Queen that the partially carved obelisk had cracked!
We ended our morning sailing the Nile, around Elephantine Island and Kitchener Island in a felucca which is a traditional Egyptian sailing boat. Our sailing captain was a lovely man who allowed me at one stage to actually man (woman) the tiller to steer the boat whilst he looked after the sails. Thankfully I didn’t crash us into the islands!
At this point of our cruise of the Nile we said a fond farewell to Mohamed who was heading back to Luxor by train having completed his guiding duties. We are still on board the MS Nile Premium for one more night but as there were not more tours he was able to leave us to head home. This morning before starting our day he introduced us to our guide for tomorrow (another Mohammed) who will meet us in the morning for our trip to Abu Simbel. The tour company has been fantastic ... lots of drivers, guides and assistance along the way.
After lunch though, with an afternoon to fill, we disembarked and explored Aswan on foot. We walked through the streets, checked out the train station, explored the Sharia as-Souq. This is a traditional market in the centre of town and whilst you wander along the traders try to urge you into their stores or to their stalls in an attempt to sell you things. They are fairly easy going though and don’t hassle you too much. Everyone here is fascinated by Ian’s hat and there are lots of ‘Gday mate’ called out to Ian as we wander. We also get stopped a lot because Ian carries Kooka and Koko in his shirt pockets which causes endless fascination for the locals. We ended our exploration of Aswan at McDonalds (don’t judge us) as it is a great place to see how the locals live - especially the young kids (which is surprisingly not very different to anywhere else in the world). We grabbed a cool drink and a thick shake and sat on the wall of the Corniche to watch the world go by before wandering back to our boat.
We left the boat again just before sunset to grab some photos of the feluccas on the Nile. Ian very patiently waited whilst I snapped a few pics (okay ... maybe a hundred). When we headed back on board we asked our concierge if we could walk through the boats behind us to see what they looked like and he said of course we could ... so we walked through the next boat and then the next one which was at the end. Here one of the lovely stewards offered to open the back door for me to snap a couple of more pictures (okay ... maybe another 50) and then he asked if I would like to go up to the sun deck to take some more pictures ... and how could I possible say no to that offer! Sunset pictures over the Nile galore for Jacqui today!
And so ends our Nile Cruise ... off to Abu Simbel tomorrow before we head back to Cairo. I am loving this trip!
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