I have mentioned before in one of my old posts how important the Nile has been in the past, today it is still important as a source of water and without it the Nile Valley would be an arid desert.
Today also it is still used for transport in this case to and from across the Nile usually using the public ferry, 1LE for Egyptians, 5LE for tourists, if you have got used to the exchange rate that is 20p one way.
For the tourist it is more of a source of entertainment and no visit to Egypt would be complete without at least one cruise on a felucca, the traditional Nile boat. Feluccas come in all sizes most of those used for tourist trips are no more than about 6 or 8 metres long but there are some moored up which are far larger and can take 10 to 20 people in extreme comfort up or down the Nile for a week long cruise to visit the archaeological sites bordering the Nile.
SO there was me on Friday sitting there stationary by the public ferry waiting for lunch to arrive when all of sudden we took off across the Nile taking somebody across to the East Bank on business....
A bit later after lunch I took off for an hour with Saieed for a more sedate cruise along the river as far as his house and farm where we stopped for the proverbial cup of Egyptian tea... Getting back on to the boat was a bit of a challenge walking up a narrow gang plank and naturally as there was water involved I fell off the gang plank and got the Gucci Loafer wet...... Nothing serious.....
While we were out a normal felucca passed us.... Very relaxing they are too unless you are on the one that took in 2019, look further down the blog at the older posts and you will se the bit when we nearly capsized.
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