Dispatch from the Egypt …
Sights, scenery, and traveling in Egypt weeks into a war with Iran and general turmoil in the Middle East…
A couple of years ago, before my 60th birthday, my wife Ann searched for a trip that would be commensurate with the occasion. Ann is an extraordinary scraper of travel info and ideas and deals we can afford. She discovered a company called Nour el Nil, which takes passengers on the Nile from Luxor, one of the oldest cities in Egypt (originally Thebes), 140 miles south to Aswan. Passengers travel on a Dahabiya, a traditional, wooden Egyptian sailing boat, 50 meters long with ten rooms carrying up to 20 passengers. Alas, I was born in the early phase of Leo, which means, of course, that the Nile at the end of July is about 120 degrees F. in the daytime. Not doable.
She squirreled away the idea of Nour el Nil until we had the resources and time in the winter months to fly to Cairo, see the Pyramids of Giza and the newly opened Egyptian museum. We would then head south to Luxor, to see one of the world’s most important temples, Karnac, and the Valley of the Kings, and drive south to Esna for the boat and a six-day journey down the Nile in south central Egypt, 200 miles form the Sudanese border.
Ten days before we were to leave, the U.S. and Israel bombed Iran, throwing the entire region into turmoil and uncertainty.
