Our tour itinerary for Egypt included two days and two nights on a sailing down the Nile on a felucca. A felucca is a traditional wooden sailing boat. Before the trip, I found this part of the itinerary a little worrying. We had to sleep on the deck of the felucca, there were no toilet facilities on board, and no showers facilities available any stage during the two days. It didn't exactly sound like my idea of a good time.

My fears were unfounded. The felucca ended up being the best part of our Egypt trip. Even with the added physical challenges.

The deck of the felucca was actually a big mattress. We spent our days, lying around on "the deck", enjoying the cool breeze experienced when we were under sail. The temperatures reached 47 degrees during the day so on the water was the best place to be. The breeze made life bearable.

The men who sail the feluccas are Nubians and they are known for the concept of "Nubian time". There is no schedule as such, things happen when they happen. When are we going to start sailing this morning? After we have breakfast. When are we going to have breakfast? After we wake up. After a while you stop asking questions and sit back and enjoy the relaxed pace of such a life.

We finished our Felucca trip feeling very crusty. We were covered in several layers of sunscreen, bug spray and Nile scum. But we had big smiles on our faces. It was feluccan fun!

Here are some photo highlights:

The ultimate recyclers. These kids made rafts from plastic bottles. Take a large sack, fill it with empty plastic bottles and you have an instant floatation device.


The sails of the felucca rotate so that they can sail under bridges. The sails are known as lateen sails.


We were lucky enough to visit a Nubian village on one evening. Some of us got henna tattoos. This is Ginny's tattoo of scarab beetles. I got one of the Eye of Horus (a symbol of protection).

The next evening we sat around the campfire with our crew. The crew sang Nubian folk songs and we joined in for the chorus. The crew then invited us to sing some songs from our own culture. The only thing we all knew the words to was Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer". Not exactly a folk song.

Sunrise over the Nile. Pretty isn't it!

More photos on Flickr.

Our trip on a felucca was part of our Road to Jordan tour. We did a 17-day tour with On The Go to Egypt and Jordan and we had a lot of fun. Other entries from this trip include: Abu Simbel and The Dead Sea.