Cruising the Nile

We’d never done a river cruise before (I exclude the one day overnight river trip on a rice boat in Kerala) – or indeed any type of cruise – so we weren’t sure what to expect. Arriving at Luxor airport at 11.00 pm the coach took our small party to the Nile. We were surprised when the majority of the passengers piled off the coach close to the centre of the town whilst the four of us and another couple were advised to stay on the bus as we headed out of town towards the mooring of the RA II. The coach crossed the Nile and after a fair distance on the main road took a sharp turn down a narrow pot-holed track. This was a private road exclusively used for the company operating the RA’s and clearly not designed for large buses. The sharp right-angled turns were skilfully manoeuvred by the driver and at several points his spatial awareness was indisputable as he turned the coach around a corner with no more than a couple of inches leeway on either side.

Having reached our destination we disembarked from the coach and by the time we’d reached the bottom of the steps our suitcases were being carried to the quayside by porters from the boat – our floating hotel for the next few days.

We were cordially welcomed by the "tour director" (as he grandly introduced himself) and given an hibiscus tea - the traditional Egyptian drink reputed to be instrumental in lowering blood pressure. Next we were given a brief introduction to the boat and then led to our rooms by obliging porter. The room, or should I say cabin, was compact but more than adequate for our needs. Two French doors opened onto the tiniest of balconies but once opened gave a superb view across the Nile, and with a wee bit of furniture arranging we had a couple of armchairs ready for our early morning viewing en route for Denderah.

There were too comfortable single beds and a large mirror opposite the beds and this together with the window and another mirror on the back of the door the gave us plenty of light and a real illusion of space.

It turned out that we packed rather badly because they had to delve into both cases to find clothes and soon our compact room looked like it had been ransacked by a burglar in a hurry. Indeed it never fully recovered from this state during the following three days, but we were undeterred.

There was a small but well-equipped bathroom tucked into the corner of the room and we heeded the warning issued by the tour director not to use the water even for the cleaning our teeth. Fortunately we purchase of water before getting onto the boat and this was placed in a small and noisy fridge to cool down for tomorrow's trip. The room was air condition - critical I would think in the height of summer - but not that important during last day. There was plenty of storage space in the cabin, and once we got ourselves organised we were able to hide at least some of our travel clutter.

The couple of nights we enjoyed aperitifs in our room and although it was a little tight when all four of us gathered together the opening of the French doors removed any feelings of claustrophobia that we might have experienced.

Of course the cabin was fairly noisy with people walking along the narrow corridors or chattering in adjacent rooms, but this wasn't too distracting and I suspect that more efficient soundproofing might be around in the more modern of boats. We assumed that we have some fairly noisy nights as we moved down the Nile from town to town but most nights we were very surprised to be waking up only in time to make it for breakfast.

The Ra II is part of the Eastmar group that's been conducting Nile cruises for the past forty-five years - part of the three hundred and fifty strong flotilla of cruise boats that service the Nile tourism business at any one time. However, the fact that the Eastmar group has its own mooring means that we were always slightly away from the hoards.

We've heard from a number of people who have experienced Nile cruises and I would certainly recommend the Ra II - with its grand entrance hall, neat little shops (well there were two on the first floor) and its friendly staff. It certainly sounded better than the description offered to me by my American cousin who describes their boats that having couple of machine guns to the rear. Our boat had a sunbathing deck and a small swimming pool with plenty of room to relax, enjoy a drink or two and take in the splendours of the river Nile. And what great sights they were particularly as the glowing red sunset cast its hues over the banks of palm trees.

We thoroughly enjoyed life on RA II, but I have to confess that our short stay was long enough.

This was never going to be straight forward as we were embarking on a couple of new experiences.

Firstly we were hoping to arrange a long and tourist packed holiday with a tour operator who must ensure guided excursions, decent quality accommodation at competitive prices.

Secondly we were trying to co-ordinate the requirements of four people (we were intending to make this visit with two friends) and although our interests and needs were very similar there was always the chance that we’d have to consider some compromises on route.

So we started with the well-tested format to plan any joint venture. An evening at home with the four of us enjoying a take-away and a glass or two of a fine Shiraz. We consumed the meal, chatted over the virtues of a Shiraz and a spicy curry, cracked open a bottle of whiskey and then decided we need to spread out the holiday brochures. Now this is where the fun, or do I mean confusion started. Although there were many similar features with each of the tour operators there were also significant differences and it was these that prompted us to draw up a preferred itinerary with the intention to discuss this with specialist operators.

Of course the fact that we’d decided to open it up to specialist tour companies was bound to introduce further problems and the following weeks resulted in our trip to Egypt progressing into a grand tour of the region. I’d begun to entertain the possibility of a short extension to take in Amman, Petra and Wadi Rum and once I’d proposed that option to our friends they suggested a visit to Abu Simbel seemed to be a good idea alongside an extension, at the end of the holiday, for some Rest and Recreation (R&R).

The original 10 day sketch of a holiday was growing into a three week excursion packed adventure pulling in the neighbouring country of Jordan. Unperturbed we set about speaking with three specialists and asking that they let us have an itinerary taking full account of our requirements. One company was unable to oblige and only Audley Travel and Longwood Travel were taking our requirements seriously. After further discussions it transpired that Audley Travel was less flexible that Longwood who were patiently obliging in both email exchanges and telephone discussions. They filled us with confidence that they would deliver to our requirements. The "die was cast" and we decided to commit to Longwood reassured by a local travel agent that they were indeed Egyptian specialists who ensure tailor made holiday packages work to the advantage of the traveller.

Having committed it soon became clear that we looking at a holiday packed with excursions and we decided to pre-book as many of these as we could. This would remove the hassle of sorting them out when we arrived at each hotel and ensure that we had a personalised guided tour for just the four of us. Only one small problem ensued and that was that Longwood had less strong links with Jordan and so it was unlikely that we’d be able to pre-arrange those trips prior to the holiday. "No problem" the agent reassured us "it’s perfectly usual for trips to be sorted on arrival. The local reps are geared up for this!"