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Cruising in style on the Nile

VICKI VIRTUE

Last updated 05:00, July 22 2015

Vicki Virtue

Mahmoud (right), son of Nour El Nil’s owner, helps Ahmed the captain at the tiller to keep the 40-metre dahabiyya on course.

In the winter of 1849 an unknown and unpublished French writer, Gustave Flaubert, boarded a sailboat on the banks of the river Nile in Egypt. On that same voyage was a young woman from England, a beautiful, well-bred, yet unhappy young lady, whose parents opposed her dream of becoming a nurse on the basis that it was unsuitable for a woman in her position.

That woman was Florence Nightingale. And in Anthony Sattin's book A Winter on the Nile he claims her voyage down this great river was where Miss Nightingale "found emotional recovery, the inspiration to resist parental pressure, and the resolve to pursue her dream of a career in nursing".

One hundred and sixty-six years later I followed in these illustrious footsteps and also stepped aboard a dahabiyya , one of the glorious sailboats of the Middle Ages that once carried the rich and royal along what is still arguably the world's most romantic river. And, like Florence Nightingale, it was a journey I had long dreamed of taking.

It began with a stroll through the charming little farming town of Esna where the persistent requests for baksheesh (tips) that had tested our patience in Cairo and Luxor were mercifully absent.

On the edge of the vast Libyan desert a riverside mosque summons the faithful with the evocative call to prayer. Photo: Vicki Virtue

Wandering through the bustling back streets of the market, meeting friendly salesmen, seeing the alarmingly wonky buildings and the magnificent Temple of Khnum sitting nine metres below street level was marvellous and a magical way to arrive at the Nile and the beautiful dahabiyya that awaited us.

It was a charming replica of the 19th-century original, painted crisp white with expansive wooden decks strewn with carpets and cushions and divans and hanging chandeliers. There was even a hammock under the awning which boded well for an afternoon of indulgent idleness. "Those old travellers," I thought to myself, "certainly knew how to do things in style." Then before I could say 'magic carpet' one of the crew appeared with two ice-cold lemon juices and a plate of Arabic biscuits.

The unobtrusive and refined hospitality on board is without doubt testament to the owners' insistence on employing crew from local villages rather than the tourism industry where the slick, hard sell is ubiquitous. 

The Temple of Horus at Edfu is the country's most completely preserved. Photo: Vicki Virtue
(Anybody care to name this site? It's not the Edfu temple. Glenn)

And so we cast off our shoes and settled into the thick, comfortable cushions like Ali Baba. And there I can report we stayed for a good portion of the ensuing five days, watching the river slip slowly by as we sipped cooling drinks, read our books and became a very small part of life on the Nile.

Over the centuries little has changed on Iteru (the river), as the ancient Egyptians simply called it. Farmers still harvest their crops with scythes and haul their loads by donkey cart. Fishermen still cast their nets from crude wooden canoes and buffalo still wander into the water to cool off in the late-afternoon sun.

And life continues to pass by unhurriedly, just like the dahabiyya which glides along so gently the movement is scarcely perceptible. From our cushions on the deck we began to settle into this slow rhythm of the Nile, a million miles away from the hustle and bustle and hassle for which Egypt is infamous. 

Nour El Nil's French co-owner Eleonore Kamir's influence is evident in the stylish salon. Photo Dylan Chandler

The recent political turmoil in the country gave us the distinction of being the only guests on board, a wonderful treat for us but a disaster for the owners and staff who rely on tourism for their livelihoods. Ironically the protests and riots that have plagued Cairo and other cities in the north have been non-existent in the Upper Nile due to the importance of the tourism industry. Yet tourists are staying away, giving rise to another great irony: there's never been a better time to visit the region.

The usual irritating swarms of children selling trinkets and pleading for baksheesh have long given up chasing the same few tourists and are largely staying at home and it's possible to visit ancient temples unhindered by busloads of fellow travellers vying for elbow room in the same small space – a huge bonus given that there are more well-preserved monuments between Luxor and Aswan than in any other part of the country.

On board we quickly settled into our own daily routine. After a breakfast of freshly squeezed orange juice and delicious honeyed crèpes, we'd move to the cushions and watch the comings and goings as we slipped along. Lunch was always a wonderfully elaborate array of mezze or duck or Nile perch.

And then when the afternoons became too hot, or our stomachs too full, our captain would find a private spot to moor the boat and we'd jump overboard into the strong Nile current, to swim off lunch and cool down – a treat not available on the large cruisers that charge up and down the Nile in a trail of diesel fumes. Our nimble size gave us the ability to visit sites usually skipped by the bigger boats and the pleasure of spending the night moored alone with just distant village lights and the occasional braying donkey for company .

El Nil's distinctive sails billow in the gentle Nile winds. Photo: Dylan Chandler

Our evenings inevitably began with an ice-cold gin and tonic as the sun dipped into the vast Western Desert, casting a soft golden light over the river. The last rays were usually accompanied by the Islamic call to prayer from a distant minaret, silhouetted magnificently against the night sky. And then there was just the gentle lapping of water on the shore as we settled into a romantic candlelit dinner, prepared from whatever fresh ingredients our onboard chef had found in the markets that day.

And then it was time to retire to our cabin, where thankfully we didn't have to battle the fleas that had so plagued Flaubert and Nightingale's journey. Instead we lay in comfort in our beautiful big, soft, white bed and woke each morning to the sight of the Nile slowly retreating behind us. 

Our days didn't consist entirely of hedonistic laziness, however – indeed some of the most memorable highlights were from our visits ashore. Unrestricted by the tight schedules and wharfing requirements that burdened the larger boats, we stopped to visit small villages and wandered through mango plantations and peanut farms and visited some of the most impressive ancient sites on Earth.

At Kom Ombo we arrived after the large cruise liners had left and stepped alone into the enormous temple dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek and the falcon god Haroeris. Like most temples throughout Egypt, the scale and grandeur were overwhelming and this became even more apparent when we visited Gebel el-Silsila. Here thousands of men once toiled in the quarry to transport gigantic sandstone blocks to the river where they could be floated to building sites up and downstream.

The Greek historian Herodotus once observed that Egypt was the gift of the Nile. And it is true to say that, without the Nile, Egypt as we know it today wouldn't exist, and our wonderful dahabiyya might never have been built. 

Luckily for us this grande dame of the river has made a glorious comeback. As 19th-century traveller Amelia Edwards wrote in A Thousand Miles up the Nile, "The choice between a dahabiyya and a steamer is like the choice between travelling by post-horses and travelling by rail. 

One is expensive, leisurely, delightful; the other is cheap, swift, and comparatively comfortless". 

NOTEBOOK

CRUISES:A number of companies offer Nile cruises on dahabiyyas. We used the original owner-operated Nour El Nil. A standard room for two starts at €2200 (approx. $NZ3100) for the five-night cruise and a panoramic suite from €3200 (approx $NZ4500). All the rooms are lovely and spacious and have en suites but, if you can afford the extra, the panoramic suites are well worth splashing out on. For more information, visit nourelnil.com 

HOW TO GET THERE: Emirates (emirates.com) flies daily from Auckland to Cairo with a stopover in Dubai. From Cairo you will need to take an Egypt Air (egyptair.com) flight to Luxor where Nour El Nil will collect you and take you by car to the boat. Nour El Nil also operates a guesthouse in Luxor.

BEST TIME TO GO: Try to avoid the hot summer months of May to September when daily temperatures can push 40°C.

SAFETY: To date there have been few security problems in the Upper Nile and tourists have not been targeted in the recent political turmoil. However, it is advisable to check the current political situation before departing and to avoid any protests. 

FURTHER INFORMATION: Lonely Planet's Egypt has an excellent section on Nile cruises and a listing of all dahabiyya operators.

This story first appeared in the July/August issue of NZ Life & Leisure. For more, join us on Facebook or subscribe at Mags4Gifts.

 - NZ Life & Leisure