This breaks a little with tradition because I am covering one full day in Aswan and part of the second in this article, which continues the extended review of the Viking Pharaohs and Pyramids cruise down the Nile. The introductory article of this review can be found here.
Why the change – well, the first day of our stay in Aswan was not actually very busy, at least for the people who chose not to take the optional excursion to Abu Simbel. Those that took that tour were really impressed, I must admit. It involved a 7:30am departure to the airport, a flight to Abu Simbel airport to see the temples, which have been rebuilt stone by stone in an artificial mountain following their removal from an area that was going to be flooded by the damming of the Nile at Aswan. So, I can’t personally make a recommendation as we didn’t do this one but all the feedback I heard was very positive!
Instead, we were taken on a coach tour to the Aswan dam. To be honest, it is a dam – big and impressive, but not ever so interesting. This is the place where they are going to stop any photographer with a long lens – I’m not too sure what you are not supposed to photograph as the power station is right by the viewing area.
We then went to a traditional market area in Aswan and to a spice shop to be given an educational talk (ie sales talk) about the different spices they have available. It is certainly colorful, and they have an endless variety, but we thought that although it sounded reasonably priced, things did cost considerably more when it came to the weighing and checkout. So beware and make sure you know what you are buying.
You can also look around the market here, but the roads and narrow and busy with traffic. Our police guard worked hard keeping us safe from the passing traffic here and so we didn’t spend much time outside the spice shop before reboarding the coach and heading to the water.
Down on the riverbank in Aswan our group boarded a couple of Felucca boats to sail under wind power around the narrow harbor in Aswan. Downstream of here, the Nile is wide and slow, but from Aswan south to the dam it gets narrower and faster with large granite outcroppings rising above the surface.
As the picture shows, these boats appear to have served for many years but overall, this was an interesting and informative way to see Aswan from the water. Going upstream was relatively easy with the wind driving us along the river.
One interesting thing to note in this photo is the stacked cruise boat on the right. This seems to be the normal way that Nile cruises dock in Aswan – very different from the approach that Viking take as you will see shortly. As we sailed south, we passed the famous Old Cataract Hotel. The Cataract Hotel was built in 1899 by Thomas Cook to house European travelers to Assouan (as Aswan was then known). Its guests have included Winston Churchill, Howard Carter, Jimmy Carter, Princess Diana and Agatha Christie who set portions of her novel Death on the Nile at the hotel.
Wherever you look on this cruise, there are colorful scenes. This was on the opposite side of the Nile on one of the islands in the river.
The journey back to the dock was slower as the felucca tacked from side to side very professionally to make their way back against the wind and finally, we took the coach back to our boat for lunch. That was then it for the day – a relaxing afternoon with the Abu Simbel travelers arriving back around 3pm.
The next morning was the start of a much busier day with a bird spotting tour in a small boat heading to the Nubian Village, then the Philae Temple and Papyrus Institute followed by our departure down the Nile towards Kom Ombo. In this article, I’ll just cover that first boat trip.
Our guide was also a very skilled bird photographer and so was able to spot and name birds as we sailed up the riverside. I’m not sure just how well other guides would have handled that, but I heard no complaints from the other group in their boat.
We had a smaller boat with an outboard motor that was difficult to start after each stop for a little bird watching. The Nile gets pretty fast moving as you will see, but each time the motor eventually started with a blast of fumes, and we managed to safely get to our destination!
Although we were on this cruise before the main arrival of birds on their migrations, we still managed to see quite a range of birds as we slowly sailed up the riverbank. Whenever we spotted some interesting birds, we would stop the engine and float slowly to avoid disturbing them, and my longer 100-400mm lens really came into its own for these images.
As we sailed further upstream, the river become narrower and more turbulent with views of a tourist resort high on the sandy hills alongside the Nile:
Finally, we approached the Nubian village and the next part of our adventure – meeting the Nile crocodiles (and the Nubian school children…)
