As the 'Zahra' cruises on the Nile, it's a fascinating opportunity to watch Egypt go by and get a little insight into the way of life of the people. In addition to the ancient simple ways, I'm interested in the impact of industrialisation and electrification, so some of the pictures may appear odd.
Sunday, 15 March 2009
Kom Ombo and Aswan
The Temple at Kom Ombo
At 6.45 a.m. the boat quietly slips away from the overnight mooring on Aswan's Corniche. We re-trace our steps, by sailing downstream about 30 km to Kom Ombo.
I take breakfast at 7.00 a.m. and decide to try the pool again. Although the pool water is pleasantly warmed, there's quite a cutting wind on the exposed sun deck. It's advisable to get in and out of the pool as rapidly as possible, although it's fine actually in the water.
Around three hours sailing gets us to the landing places on the east bank. There are a few cruisers already berthed, including one steamboat. Our guides have travelled from Aswan by road and are there to meet us. We are issued with tickets for the temple and disembark, being given a credit-card sized boarding pass. This is mainly so that the crew can easily do a 'body count' to see if stragglers have failed to return to the boat. They only issue these cards if the boat is scheduled to leave - they don't usually bother at an overnight stopping point.
The temple is only a few yards from the boat - a romantic-looking partially-ruined building in a superb location overlooking the river. It's smaller than many of the temples we've visited but, even in its incomplete state, I find it exquisite. The sun is warm, the wind has dropped and there aren't too many visitors about. I'm told that at night there can be rows of Nile cruisers moored, disgorging up to a thousand visitors!
After we board the 'Zahra', she departs upstream to return to Aswan. Today, I take lunch on the Sun Deck with some of my new friends - a couple from England, a couple from Australia and a couple from U.S.A. By the time we've finished eating and talking, we're almost back in Aswan. I watch the boat dock (at the same mooring we left this morning) and then quickly prepare for our afternoon visit to Aswan's Botanical Gardens. This time, we don't get in 'Sprinter' number 6 but board a felucca moored near the stern of the 'Zahra'.
'Felucca' is the name for the design of wooden sailing boat common on the Nile (and, I think, parts of the eastern Mediterranean). They come in various sizes - ours, the 'Sunshine' would probably carry around twenty passengers but today there's just the five members of our group, the guide and the two-man crew. They're a bit like a racing yacht, broad in the beam, large wooden rudder and a centreboard which appears to be steel. They can have one or two main masts. Ours has one, quite near the bow. They feature the 'Lateen' rig with a triangular sail suspended from a long yardarm aligned fore-and-aft. The yardarm is hoisted to the correct height with a rope and pulley system with the free end of the rope made-off at the bottom of the main mast and then the yard just lies against the main mast, The upper end of this yard arm is controlled by ropes and pulley blocks with the free rope end led down to the helmsman who sits on a small aft deck cradling the tiller. Well, that's one position. I've also seen the helmsman with his feet braced against the gunwhales and his back pushing the tiller hard over, leaving his hands free to 'trim' the sail. The bottom of the sail is controlled by a boom, horizontal when sailing, with the inner end just lying against the main mast and the outer end controlled by another rope taken to the helmsman to allow tacking. To prevent abrasion damage to the masts, there are patches of some sort of plastic material nailed to the main mast and yards in the areas which rub together. I guess that it's a recycled tyre, but the captain explains that it's cable insulation. When I check more carefully it is, indeed, the sheath off a 3 x 140 square millimetre cable!
The felucca is great fun. In a suitable wind, they have quite a turn of speed, because they carry quite a large sail area. By setting the ropes, the helmsman can get the sail to billow out like a spinnaker. The centreboard is very necessary to control the way the boat heels over when the wind is strong, but it has to be raised in shallow water or near the shore. When tacking, there's a metallic 'clang' from the centreboard each time the current changes to the other side. Soon, we're at our destination, the 'Island of Plants', Aswan's Botanical Gardens.
In gratitude for his military successes in the Sudan, Consul-General Kitchener was presented with this island, where he planted all sorts of exotic flora. This has now matured into a charming water-bounded oasis, full of birds and quite a few cats. Although the Gardens receive a lot of tourists, with a continuous procession of feluccas and motor boats coming and going, it was easy to find quieter, shaded spots and I enjoyed my visit.
Getting back into to our boat involved some undignified scrambling over other boats but we were soon under way. With a less-favourable wind, the return journey involved a lot of tacking, with the boom swinging to the other side to catch the wind. We were also required to join in a sing-song with the master playing a tambour, concluding with "She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes". Inexpensive necklaces and carvings were also displayed on the decking for our consideration. Every time the boat tacked, the deck heeled over and the souvenirs were scattered everywhere! I'd had a good time and was happy to purchase a necklace.
We arrived back at the 'Zahra' just after five o'clock, in nice time for afternoon tea in the Club Lounge, before retiring to our cabins to prepare for dinner. Dinner was rather more hurried than normal, as we had one more engagement in this busy day.
At 8.15 p.m. we were taken by our regular guide, 'bus and driver to the landing stage serving Philae Temple to attend the 'Sound and Light' show. A couple of motor boats transferred us to the temple island. The experience was quite different in the darkness and the re-located temple, which had rather disappointed on my first visit on Saturday, seemed to come alive at night. To my surprise, there were only about twenty people attending and we were just about outnumbered by the staff. The performance was very professionally produced, with well-known English actors doing the voices of various Gods and well-synchronised lighting changes. The story was vaguely a history of the temple from early times right up to the conservation of the temple by moving it to its present site - very poetic and sonorous. The first part of the performance involved walking round the temple whilst each scene played out. That was very effective. We then settled in the outdoor stone seats arranged theatre-style for the rest of the performance and, for me, this didn't work so well but I was impressed with the overall effect and enjoyed the trip back to the landing stage by motor boat. The 'bus then transferred us back to the boat at the end of a very satisfying day.
Pictures of Aswan.
Pictures of the Felucca trip.
Pictures of the Botanical Gardens.
Pictures of Philae Temple.
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