travelswithalice

February 24, 2007

Sailing into the Sunset in a Felucca

SAILING INTO THE SUNSET IN A FELUCCA

As Stuart steered, Captain Saif got busy with the housekeeping. He spread out colorful freshly laundered mats and pillows for me to lie on, brought out a book on birds of the Nile for me to read, then laid a wool blanket over my feet. He lit incense sticks to perfume the air, then made tea.

The Nile is central to the lives of the locals. They love and respect it. They bathe themselves and their animals in it. They also drink it.This last we discovered belatedly as we sipped the delicious tea that the good captain had made on a tiny tin stove, with fresh herbs and a bottle of mineral water. A bottle he later refilled by reaching over the side and dipping it into the river. He then took a swig from it. Stuart and I quickly and quietly set down our tea cups.

Pushed gently by a cool breeze, we tacked along the languorous curves of the Nile at its most picturesque setting. Keenly aware of the photo op that our felucca provided us, we hammed it up for camera-wielding tourists on board the steamers parked three-deep along the Corniche.

I guess the plan was to sail with the wind, watch the sunset, then circle back on the current. But the current failed us and we had to be towed back, first by a passing ferry loaded with local tourists on their way home from family picnics on Kitchener's Island and then by a fishing boat.

On the homestretch, Captain Saif deployed the oars and rowed straight up to home base at the lovely Old Cataract Hotel. Stuart and I climbed out of our felucca, onto the hotel landing, and into the welcoming arms, as it were, of the hotel bartender.

I had a martini. Cleopatra herself couldn't have felt more content with her lot.

Labels: Egypt, felucca, hotels, Kitchener's Island, Nile, Old Cataract Hotel