Sailing the Nile by dahabieh
<p>No trip to Egypt is complete without a cruise, and in the months of planning preceding our visit, we decided to avoid the big liners and instead take a more traditional dahabieh.</p>
<p>Dahabiehs are smaller boats, powered by two sails and able to dock at small off-the beaten-track places that big liners can't.</p>
<p><strong>One day on the Nile</strong></p>
<p>The top deck of our dahabieh catches the early morning breeze. It's the perfect place to take in the changing views as we move slowly upstream.</p>
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<p>In the distance fishermen throw out nets. Small villages with traditional mud brick homes dot banks. Water buffalos wade in water beside fields where sugarcane is harvested.</p>
<p>One small boy pulls a heavily laden and stubbornly resistant camel. I'm not sure who's going to win, but as we pass there's little evidence of progress.</p>
<p>A little further upstream, date palms line the bank with reeds dominating the marshy foreshore. The water is blue and beautiful.</p>
<p>We have Nile fish for lunch that's been bought from a passing village. As we eat we see more fields, lush with green plantings of corn, sesame, figs, pistachios, bananas, mangos and onions.</p>
<p>Occasionally we spot birds, sometimes against the sky, sometimes on branches among marshes.</p>
<p>Ten year old Nona and her Belgian family joined us just yesterday and she has a book called Birds of Egypt which we all rush to and consult whenever we glimpse something interesting. She's very rapidly becoming our resident ornithologist. So far we've identified, egrets, hoopoes, lapwings and kingfishers. I'm sure there'll be more.</p>
<p>After lunch we dock at a small village and walk to El Kab. Before we even land we're besieged by a running, shouting mob of children, holding up small woven dishes. They've been made by village women, who have then sent these small emissaries to sell them.</p>
<p>As we walk through the village I stop to look at one girl's small paper plaited plates liking their blue and green colours. But I have no money with me, and so have to shake my head and walk on. I glance back and see her eyes full of tears.</p>
<p>At the day's end I sit on the small balcony that our cabin opens onto at the stern of the boat.</p>
<p>We've moored for the evening and a village track parallel to the shore feels so close I could almost reach out and touch it.</p>
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<p>Two boys pass on a donkey. They see me with my camera and stop and laugh. I had no idea I was so funny, but it makes for a good photo. And in stark contrast to the day's earlier experience, I'm glad to see children being children.</p>
<p>Light dims and evening draws in. As the sun sets the call to prayer resounds through fields that are now empty. But here on the Nile, life never stops.</p>
<p><strong>Getting there</strong> Air New Zealand flies into Cairo and then we used Air Egypt for our internal flight down to Luxor, the departure point for our cruise.</p>
<p><strong>Sailing there</strong> We sailed in a small traditional dahabieh. See <a href="http://lazulinil.com/" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>l</strong><strong>azulinil.com</strong></span></a></p>
<p><strong>Seeing there</strong> Life passes before your eyes as you sail. There are also daily stops at small villages and temples, such as the Temple of Horus at Edfu. We also docked at places inaccessible to larger liners, such as the ancient stone quarry of Djebel Silsila.</p>
<p><em>Written by Marjory Woodfield. First appeared on <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/" target="_blank"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Stuff.co.nz</span></strong></a>. Image credit: Marjory Woodfield via Stuff.co.nz. </em></p>
