Today is Friday 9.29/23. Our day started great with a nice breakfast and all packed to meet our van to the cruise boat at 945a. Communication about the cruise has been nonexistent and when there is we have not gotten straight answers. So we don't know the ship name, the tour operator company , or the itinerary. What could go wrong? They were 1 1/2 hours late picking us up. So the morning tour of Aswan was moved to 2pm right in the heat of the day. Y'all. It's 116 here and it's desert!
We got to the boat and it was 100 yards from our hotel! We could have just walked down here.
Chris: Because they picked us late after two or three months of almost nonexistent communication our mood was not great and our first impressions of the boat were not good. It's obviously pretty old but it is clean and the staff is very polite and helpful plus we have met some really nice people whom we already consider travel friends. So our mood changed drastically. We are enjoying it now.
But, the tour we did this afternoon almost killed us and not just Rhonda and I but all of us on the tour. 116 degrees, 116 !!
We went to the High Dam it's called and the Old Dam on the Nile but they never took us anywhere to a vantage point we could actually see them. We just drove across them then stopped at a place with basically signs showing cross sections of the dams. I like seeing dams and such so I was a bit disappointed.
The dams were constructed to help control flooding on the Nile. Apparently before the dams they would have floods that destroyed everything on both sides of the river. The old dam was started in eighteen ninety eight I think our guide said and took almost thirty years to complete. The high damn was started in nineteen fifty nine and took I think, ten years to complete. I never really understood why they needed two dams six or seven miles apart but I guess they did cause now they got them. I sure would like to see them.
Rhonda: Then Philea Temple. It was actually fun to get there. We climbed into these funky boats with a 12 yo operating the motor. The temple is on an island so it took a few minutes to get there. It is beautiful but , I know it's not a popular opinion, but when it's 116 and unrelenting sun, it's hard to appreciate art and antiquities. One temple starts to look like all the others. And the coffee shop that has fans looks like a mirage !
On the way back in the boat our boy driver actually rammed our boat right into the side of another one. Whew boy the driver of the other vessel was MAD! No one was injured but it was a bit uncomfortable to be in the middle of.
Chris: I wasn't uncomfortable at all, I thought it was pretty cool. I heard people in the front of our boat screaming so I looked up and saw us on a collision course with another boat. Hold on and then BAM !! We hit them broadside. The yelling started before we hit but man afterwards it went over the top, the other boat driver was standing at the edge of his boat just letting our boy driver have it. Man, he was pissed, but I never saw who's fault it actually was. Our kid seemed unfazed, he just reved the engine a little, turned right a bit, we scrapped along the side of the other boat and away we went up the Nile.
The last stop was a Nubian spice shop. Nubians are a native population here that believe in natural healing through spices and teas and incense. They did a very interesting presentation and of course some is coming home with us!
It was around 7:30 PM by the time we got back and had dinner on the boat. We already decided we weren't going out at 4 AM the next morning for any more temples. So we played rummy cube until bed.
Love y'all.
Comments