After arriving back from Abu Simbel, we transferred onto our felucca.  A felucca is a small, traditional sailboat, where by day you can laze about the deck and by night you sleep on the same deck. We were really keen to cruise on the Nile – but we were not at all keen to go on the large, noisy cruise ships that go up and down the river – we wanted to be able to swim in the water and sleep under the stars.  (It’s also a lot cheaper and a lot more basic than a cruise boat – think going to the toilet in the bushes, no shower and sleeping under blankets on deck with the captain!) We had thought we would be part of a group but on our first day we had another guy with us, and on our second day we were by ourselves.  This was one of our favourite experiences in Egypt – it was so utterly relaxing to glide across the waves, fall in and out of naps, jump in for a swim and read on board the deck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our captain, Nega, spoke good English and cooked us amazing vegetarian Egyptian food – we feasted on board! He was also a big fan of Bob Marley, so we also listened to Bob a lot.  If we did this again, we would book directly with Nega and stay on board longer as we had so much fun (also, this would eliminate the couple of hours we spent waiting for tourists who never showed up on the second day!)  Nega can be contacted on +201 004986390.

 

 

 

 

After two nights on the felucca, we were dropped on the side of the Nile, where we met up with a driver and some other tourists for the next part of our tour – visiting the temples of Kom Ombo and Edfu.  Kom Ombo is on the banks of the Nile and is dedicated to the crocodile god – one of the highlights here was seeing the mummified crocodiles on display!

 

 

 

 

Edfu is amazing – huge and imposing and, like most other sites we visited in Egypt, had hardly any tourists.  These two temples were fascinating.