It had been arranged for us to travel upstream to Sehel Island on the Tuesday night. Sehel is home to a thriving Nubian community. Recognising that their culture is very different to that of the lighter-skinned Egyptians, the Nubians have taken to tourism big time. All along the Nile you will see Nubian felucca crew, musicians, and hotel staff well out of proportion to their actual population.
Dinner trips to Sehel Island for a traditional Nubian meal are one facet, and probably one that you will be offered whilst in Aswan. The great thing here is that you will be dining with a local family, and so you are guaranteed that any money you spend will go directly into the community rather than being divided up by a sea of middlemen.
Omar and his family were to be our hosts for the evening. 4.30 saw us climbing aboard their launch on the Nile, looking tiny and toy-like where it was tied up between two monstrous cruise ships. Casting off, we were steered upstream for our 45 minute boatride. Other than the ride across to Philae that afternoon this was my first experience of sailing on the famous river Nile. Even within the limits of Aswan itself there was plenty to see as the sun started to dip. We puttered past the back end of Elephantine Island to see the smoothed boulders that did indeed resemble a bathing heffalump. Then we went up past the famous Old Cataract Hotel - and from the river the balconies and palms make it look every bit as lovely as it is supposed to be. It was a lovingly-crafted antique among the bland concrete constructions that often pass for hotels. I could really envisage a stay there in the '20s, sipping an iced tea on the verandah, Agatha Christie writing 'Death On The Nile' off to one side, Winston Churchill daubing watercolours on the other. I really was born a century too late!
Once past the Old Cataract with dusk bruising the sky the crew pulled out handheld drums. We were treated to - and had to join in with - Nubian entertaining to get us in the party mood. Their music is strong on rhythmic drumming and call-and-respond singing: or at least the version offered up to visitors is. Ohh-a-lay-lay!
Sehel Island has streetlamps, but not much in the way of streets. Climbing the trail up through the sandy scrub from the beach leads to a cluster of building built in a squarish stucco style, similar to that of the Nubian Museum. There were a few taller blocks (one of which we visited as it held the school, with a playground on its flat roof - rain not being a common problem here) but largely the houses were similar to Omar's. Passing through a blank doorway revealed a sprawling compound of courtyards - as the family expands, so too does the family dwelling, spreading up the hillside as each new generation adds on their own annex upon marriage. This stepped nature meant that when we were settled on rugs (shoes off please!) we were in what could only be described as a roof / yard.
Our meal had been paid for before, but there were other things to buy. Soft drinks (no alcohol) cost E£3, and a selection of souvenirs - embroidered skull caps, carved wooden crocodiles - were produced. One of the women of the family also offered henna tattoos - E£10 for a solitary image, E£25-35 for an entire hand. She could not draw freeform however, and your tattoo has to be picked from a book of designs. Three of our party opted for tattoos. Rather than the reddish hue I associated with henna these came out very dark, lightening over the next fortnight. More entertainment came in the form of an overly-inquisitive toddler who delighted at our reactions when shot with his toy gun. I do hope we weren't encouraging him!
The food arrived en masse. Salad, rice, pasta, fried potato slices, veg casserole, flat bread, and finger-lickin' spicy-coated chicken. I'm assumimng the spicy chicken is a Nubian speciality as I was to have it again before reaching Luxor. Which was fine by me! Refills of food kept coming until we gestured for them to stop. It was all very tasty.
I can't remember how much we paid for the meal - I think E£30 per head - but it was definitely great value compared to a restaurant. Plus you got the experience of dining with a Nubian family on rugs in the open air, the noise of village life (the hum of a generator, a dog barking in the distance, a dimly-heard snatch of music) drifting up around you. As we sailed back down to Aswan we lay on the roof of the boat counting the stars, the sky as big as our bellies.