Cruising Croc Class

Feluccas on the Nile

Nile cruises are probably not intended for people with a innate fear of both boats and vomit, but that’s never put Travel Bug off before. The photographer and I decided to increase the proximity to both water and Bilharziose (an attractive disease involving tiny worms nesting in your gut) by ‘cruising’ in a felucca – a small sailboat which has been used on the Nile for centuries.

We boarded in Aswan, where I took two travel tablets, checked my travel bands were in place, foolishly asked about life jackets, and then felt like an idiot for at least an hour as we sailed gracefully and quietly up the Nile on water as still as glacial lake. I started to feel a bit like an intrepid sailor, and obligingly posed for a few shots for The Photographer: hanging off the sail, staring into the sunset etc. I quickly stopped this when I overheard two other passengers exclaiming with great surprise that a child had been allowed on this tour.

A rare photo of The Photographer on Toilet Beach

It wasn’t long before someone needed a wee, which involved a truly terrifying walk to the beach via a gangplank 3 meters long, 2 meters high and 20 cm wide. If one had any wee left after this experience, it was to be expelled onto the beach itself. Now I’ve wee’d on many a mountain walk in my time, but somehow weeing on a beach felt like blasphemy. Dignity left well and truly on the smelly beach, we reboarded the boat to eat lunch cooked by our crew. The tasty salad and meats was somewhat spoiled as I had seen them wash the salad in the Nile. Yup the water right next to Toilet Beach itself. I suspected we might be in for a few more trips to Toilet Beach over the next few days – I wasn’t wrong!

Mummified Crocs are cool

Later, as the sun was setting, and we were starting to layer up for a freezing night under the stars we glimpsed the awe inspiring sight of a three thousand year old temple, magnificent in the red sky. Like the glowing conclusion to an epic pilgrimage, Komombo’s Temple of Sobek, was no less impressive in the twenty-first century and was completed by a mummified crocodile of its own. Cool. I privately hoped that was the closest I would get to crocs on this trip.

We were so enchanted by the temple that we set off for our camp late. You are not allowed to sail feluccas in the dark, so we were rescued by the Nile coastguards who towed us to our final destination, the big cruise ships honked at us as we were pulled past, we felt like the naughty kid on the way to the head master’s office!

Travel Bug and The Photographer backpacked around Egypt in 2008. We found that ’ Imaginative Traveller’ had the cheapest tours – watch out as there are some hidden extra costs but the guides are excellent and the company still provide good value for money.