Hays Travelogue

See those rocks beneath the water? One of my favorite parts of our trip to Aswan was sailing with Captain Gelal through the Nile Cataracts. He lives in a village near Aswan and knows these waters like you know the streets in your neighborhood. He taught Mike a little bit about sailing a felucca, and he sailed right up to a waterfall so that we could take pictures. Along the way, he taught us about the flora and fauna of the Nile, the history of his people, and how to read the river. For instance, there is a kind of fish, no longer found in this part of the Nile, that used its rough nose to grind hollows into the rocks. These hollows became egg beds. Besides short trips like ours, just under 4 hours, he also takes people on overnight trips to Kom Ombo and Esma.

The second day we went to south to the temples at Abu Simbel. There are three ways to get there: land, lake, and air. We took the less expensive, three hour land option through the emptiest desert ever. Land travel in this part of Egypt is done in a police escorted convoy of buses, vans, and private cars. Our driver had a suicide wish that he endulged by driving the entire way in the left hand lane. These two temples to Ramses and his favorite wife, Nefertari, were threatened with submersion when th High Dam was built. UNESCO saved them by carving them out of the mountain and relocating them to higher ground.

We were in Aswan during the Prophet Mohamed’s birthday celebration and saw our first moulid, or celebration of a saint. All of the Aswan photos (including some from last year and some from the Nubian Museum) are here.