I started my travels through Egypt in Aswan, where the Egyptian part of the Nile begins. I had a chance to discover Nubian culture, which you can see in another video I made. I wanted to make it all the way to the Mediterranean coast, covering approximately 1,000km without skipping any parts by flying, so the most obvious thing to do is to sail down the Nile of course! In Aswan you can hire a "felucca" boat, where a Nubian sailor will bring you downstream powered only by the wind. The journey to Luxor by felucca would take about three days, and you sleep on the felucca itself. But first I took one full day on it to explore the surrounding areas. We sailed a fair distance down the Nile, needing to zig-zag our way between both banks, to cater for the wind direction, and we went all the way past the last Nubian village. From here we turned back and made it to Elephantine Island very quickly now that the wind was with us. My sailor brought me to his home and cooked a lovely meal for me, and we checked out the old dam as my sailor explained how much the landscape had changed in his lifetime because of the new dam.
I would have loved to have spent the 3 days on the Felucca, but unfortunately just before I was to leave Aswan I ate or drank something that made me very sick. Since Feluccas don't have any bathrooms, which I really needed...I had no choice but to sail down the Nile on a cruise ship. I got a last minute great price off a local, and it was certainly very comfy, but this wasn't quite the experience I was looking for. Then again, a felucca cruise would be much more enjoyable with friends, so I can always come back for that another time. I was too sick when I got to Luxor to do anything, and spent my whole time there recovering and then had to fly out for a visa run. When I came back I was in full health and ready to tackle Luxor's valley of the kings! This was a fun hike through a desert mountain, which I had all to myself because other tourists were more interested in the tombs. When I reached the peak I had a wonderful view over Luxor.
My destination was ultimately to reach the Hatshepsut temple, which I was starting to see from the heights I had reached. Once I had climbed down there, I did the same thing as all the other tourists I suppose! I got my taxi back for a night's rest and was ready for the train part of my journey! This wasn't as interesting as I was hoping though, as we didn't stay so close to the Nile. I did see lots of farmers and fields hugging the fertile area near the Nile. We ended up getting stuck in one station for about 3 hours, and I had one scary incident where my window was broken by kids throwing rocks at the trains. This trip took about 14 hours. Once we reached Cairo I decided to stop for the night and stay somewhere with a nice view of the city. The next day I made it just in time for my train on to Alexandria. When I finally arrived, the city was definitely a sight for sore eyes ...but also was a sound that would give you sore ears! I'll have another video on my further travels in Egypt soon! Thanks for watching!
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