Definitely the last about Egypt

No Nile Cruise would be complete without the traditional ship's galabaya party. These full length garments can be bought very cheaply from Egyptian vendors who row out to the ship when it is waiting to pass through Edfu lock on the river - in fact its difficult not to buy one as they are so persistent. Standing on their rocking boats they hail people on the top deck then throw a polythene bag with a galabaya inside it up to them three floors above - they rarely miss. The prospective buyer tries the garment for size, negotiates a price, puts the money in the polythene bag and throws it back down again. Its great fun. At the party we learned two new games - one where the men had to tie a string round their waists from which hung a potato. They then had to swing this potato to hit another potato on the floor and knock it across the stage. The other game involved passing numerous empty water bottles round the circle until the music stopped - very much like "passing the parcel". Our cabin stewards were great fun too - every evening they made something out of our towels, pillows or life jacket - here are two examples, one a crocodile, the other I'm not sure what but its wearing a life jacket.

More about Egypt

Although our Egyptian guide (that's him wearing the baseball cap and sunglasses) has never been to the UK he speaks excellent idiomatic English and can do a great Geordie accent. He knew some very funny jokes and stories which he used in context to keep our attention when it began to wander in the 40c heat. He guided us round 10 different locations in the week and gave us a quiz at the end of each trip to check that we had been listening! He taught us a few words of Arabic for every day use and told us that Sahara means "desert" so it is not necessary to say "Sahara Desert". He was an excellent guide in every way. Because the Nile is the only source of water in upper Egypt only a narrow strip of land either side can be cultivated and in places the Sahara (not Sahara Desert!) comes right down to the river bank. There's no shortage of sand in Egypt!

A week on the Nile

We've just returned from Egypt where we cruised on the River Nile from Luxor to Aswan and back again. The Egyptians are lovely people, from our ship we could see them going about their work and tending their animals on the river bank - it never rains in that area and the Nile is the only source of water. We had a excellent Egyptian guide who got us all up at 5am to see lots of amazing tombs and temples, some over three thousand years old. We rode camels through primitive villages, Jenny made friends with a kid goat and she also won the "make your husband into a mummy using toilet rolls" competition at the ship's traditional galabaya party. She also enjoyed bartering with the street traders and, unknown to me, negotiated the purchase of a granite crocodile which almost took us over our airline luggage allowance! If you want a "value for money" holiday with good weather guaranteed - go to Egypt.