12 TRAVEL + INDULGENCE THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN, OCTOBER 5-6, 2019 theaustralian.com.au/travel AUSE01Z01TR - V1 air balloons hang like teardrops over the Nile, moving slowly with the thermals. Egypt has long been radiant in my imagin- ation — the cultural riches, that unknowable engineering, the fables, the sequence of inva- sions. We visit temples and monuments fam- iliar from pictures that decorated my high- school classrooms. I tell Hesham I feel giddy. He doesn’t even ask if it’s the heat. He knows it’s the history, the overpowering sense of being amid remnants of the civilisation that gave us mathematics, geometry, metallurgy, astronomy, accounting, writing, paper, medi- cine, the ramp, the lever, the plough … I mur- mur all this aloud from a guidebook but I don’t doubt its veracity. Our river boat passage is slow and steady, seamlessly connecting the elements of our itinerary. We tie up at tight moorings where bigger Nile cruisers wouldn’t fit and redesign the itinerary to allow for a leg-stretching vil- lage visit. We amble past fields of alfalfa, wav- ing to farmers riding donkeys bareback or driving oxen-pulled carts. They look as if they are emerging in puffs of dust from the pages of the old Testament. In a busy marketplace, traders at an open-air souk are dealing in spi- ces, bunches of spinach and clearly doomed animals. Sitting cross-legged in a circle on striped rugs under a makeshift canopy, about a dozen men lounge about. I ask Hesham what they’re up to. “Smoking and talking … the usual,” he smiles. For our return to the river, we com- mandeer two local lads to take us in a tractor- like cart with side seating. We slip and slide and bop along to a ghetto blaster playing groovy Arabic music as chickens and goats scatter at our approach. It is madly, joyously uncomfortable. When we arrive at the river- bank, I ask one of the “drivers” his age. He holds up eight fingers. Gasp. Shore excursion highlight? On the west bank of the Nile, about 55km south of Luxor, the town of Esna is the site of a temple dedi- cated to Khnum, the much-revered, ram- headed god of creation. It was reconstructed in the Greco-Roman era (332BC-AD642) from an earlier edifice. The site is virtually de- serted during our shore excursion, but it’s the casual way in which we almost stumble upon it that is so remarkable. The red sandstone temple is recessed about 9m in an excavated pit between the settlement’s flat-roofed, utili- tarian mud-brick buildings. Washing is flap- ping from balconies all around, kids are kicking soccer balls. It seems incongruous until Hesham ex- plains that successive layers of sand, silt, de- velopment and debris over at least 1500 years have helped to preserve the temple. During the reign of Mohamed Ali (1805-1849), when many important buildings were demolished sume someone is knocking at the door. We have been moored overnight, beside banana groves and fields of sugarcane, after visiting the exquisitely preserved Temple of Horus at Edfu. I call out and no one answers but the taps continue. I soon realise birds are banging on the Farouk Suite’s bowed windows, worry- ing at their own reflections. When I draw back the curtains, they fly about in panic, black wings whirring and smashing. But it’s good to be up early so I creep to the sun deck and watch the day un- furl. Small, sharp-beaked birds, which I think could be bee-eaters, flit about on a lively breeze like scraps of emerald satin. White spires of minarets peep through bunched greenery and dusty pink oleander. But the lush riverine strip is all window dressing, as it were, as about 10km inland start the sandy “vastlands”, as Hesham calls the unforgiving deserts. On another morning, as day breaks, hot- tary route through Egypt and the Levant in the late 18th century. Also on this level are three double and one twin cabin, each 20sq m, which are much cosier but light and bright with good ensuites. On the sun deck, up top, is a smallish, mosaic-tiled pool, a phalanx of lounger beds, and views in all directions. We all come to love chef Hosny’s varied and uniformly delicious buffets. There are complicated vegetable stews rich with okra and spinach; fried Nile perch, a fish once re- vered as sacred; flat breads and savoury dips; honeyed desserts sprinkled with sesame seeds; and creamy pastries. Broad-smiling waiters Ali and Abrahim pose graciously for our cameras and appear with espressos and chilled handtowels before we even know we’re in need of such things. Manager Khaled, the most gracious of hosts, is unflap- pable in a handsomely tailored suit. The second morning, just after dawn, I’m woken by spooky rat-a-tat-tat noises and pre- T he temptation to get into Agat- ha Christie mode, choose who is to play the corpse and assign the role of murderer, is nigh irresist- ible. We are a convivial group of six about to cruise the Nile in style. The seventh member of our party is Hesham Abdulla, an Egyptologist of great erudition and twinkle-eyed charm. He under- stands our humour and is enormously forgiv- ing of bad jokes about “going the extra Nile” and our frankly terrible Poirot impressions. All of this camaraderie is important as our boat is a charter. There are no other passen- gers, just local crew, and so we are a true house-party afloat, cruising 210km from Aswan north to Luxor over four days and, as it transpires, having more fun than seems quite proper. And sorry, Hercule, no daggers are sighted; we all survive unscarred. The key heritage sites of Upper Egypt un- fold like a concertina as we venture ashore each day in the sepia light of early morning and the lengthening grey shadows of late afternoon. It is baking hot this May with tem- peratures effortlessly hitting 45C by noon. We wrap up in cotton scarfs against the heat and dust and admire the easy, swinging gait of tour guides in their flowing gallibaya robes. Hesham opts for an Indiana Jones-style hat but barely raises a sweat. The landscapes have a spare, savage beau- ty even when viewed through gauzy light from our river boat, Sanctuary Zein Nile Cha- teau, a reimagined twin-sail dahibaya. About 60m in length, it was built in 2010 and carries up to 12 passengers. We can’t help but im- agine we are aboard a royal barge of the gild- ed Pharaonic era. The comfortable decor is not over-opulent but tends more to brass-latticed lanterns, giant vases of lilies and amply cushioned fur- niture. But then there is the Farouk Suite, at the stern of the upper deck, which is where I am ensconced, and its grandeur amuses my companions no end. Is it uncivilised that, rather than kingly connections, I am rather more thrilled to hear that a past occupant was Leonardo DiCaprio? Full-length windows curve around this parquet-floored, ballroom-like extravaganza of 93sq m, furnished with a sleigh bed, empire furniture, pedestals, handwoven rugs, and palace memorabilia, including a gallery of black and white images of King Farouk, ruler of Egypt from 1936-1952. His cartoonish waxed moustache is said to have been the in- spiration for actor David Suchet’s TV in- terpretation of Poirot. Also in evidence among the photography is Farida, his first wife, with whom I share a similar hairstyle and swarthiness, if not a wardrobe of tiaras and furs. And so almost in- stantly I become known as Queen Farida among our group, which is amusing, but shak- ing the name is impossible. Even Hesham is cheekily calling me Farida by the time we venture ashore from our adjacent moorings to the Ptolemaic temple at Kom Ombo, and that’s only our first afternoon. On the main (actually lower) deck, the Na- poleon Suite is furnished with a contempor- ary four-poster and its chart-like wallpaper tracks the French emperor Bonaparte’s mili- THE HISTORY CHANNEL Do the Nile in style from Aswan to Luxor SUSAN KUROSAWA MORE TO THE STORY Egyptian-French expert guide Hesham Abdulla has been working for Abercrombie & Kent for 24 years and lists the following seven as his recommended not-to-be-missed sites in Egypt. ■ Egyptian Museum of Antiquities and its Mummy Room, Cairo ■ The Pyramids of Giza near Cairo ■ Solar Boat Museum, to the side of the Pyramids (pictured) ■ The Step Pyramid at Saqqara, about 20km east of Giza ■ Tombs and burial sites in the Valley of the Kings, Luxor ■ The massive rock temples of Abu Simbel, overlooking the Aswan High Dam near the border with Sudan ■ Temple of Karnak at Luxor SUSAN KUROSAWA
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12 TRAVEL + INDULGENCE THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN, OCTOBER 5-6, 2019theaustralian.com.au/travel
AUSE01Z01TR - V1
air balloons hang like teardrops over the Nile,moving slowly with the thermals.
Egypt has long been radiant in my imagin-ation — the cultural riches, that unknowableengineering, the fables, the sequence of inva-sions. We visit temples and monuments fam-iliar from pictures that decorated my high-school classrooms. I tell Hesham I feel giddy.He doesn’t even ask if it’s the heat. He knowsit’s the history, the overpowering sense ofbeing amid remnants of the civilisation thatgave us mathematics, geometry, metallurgy,astronomy, accounting, writing, paper, medi-cine, the ramp, the lever, the plough … I mur-mur all this aloud from a guidebook but Idon’t doubt its veracity.
Our river boat passage is slow and steady,seamlessly connecting the elements of ouritinerary. We tie up at tight moorings wherebigger Nile cruisers wouldn’t fit and redesignthe itinerary to allow for a leg-stretching vil-lage visit. We amble past fields of alfalfa, wav-ing to farmers riding donkeys bareback ordriving oxen-pulled carts. They look as if theyare emerging in puffs of dust from the pagesof the old Testament. In a busy marketplace,traders at an open-air souk are dealing in spi-ces, bunches of spinach and clearly doomedanimals.
Sitting cross-legged in a circle on stripedrugs under a makeshift canopy, about a dozenmen lounge about. I ask Hesham what they’reup to. “Smoking and talking … the usual,” hesmiles. For our return to the river, we com-mandeer two local lads to take us in a tractor-like cart with side seating. We slip and slideand bop along to a ghetto blaster playinggroovy Arabic music as chickens and goatsscatter at our approach. It is madly, joyouslyuncomfortable. When we arrive at the river-bank, I ask one of the “drivers” his age. Heholds up eight fingers. Gasp.
Shore excursion highlight? On the westbank of the Nile, about 55km south of Luxor,the town of Esna is the site of a temple dedi-cated to Khnum, the much-revered, ram-headed god of creation. It was reconstructedin the Greco-Roman era (332BC-AD642)from an earlier edifice. The site is virtually de-serted during our shore excursion, but it’s thecasual way in which we almost stumble uponit that is so remarkable. The red sandstonetemple is recessed about 9m in an excavatedpit between the settlement’s flat-roofed, utili-tarian mud-brick buildings. Washing is flap-ping from balconies all around, kids arekicking soccer balls.
It seems incongruous until Hesham ex-plains that successive layers of sand, silt, de-velopment and debris over at least 1500 yearshave helped to preserve the temple. Duringthe reign of Mohamed Ali (1805-1849), whenmany important buildings were demolished
sume someone is knocking at the door. Wehave been moored overnight, beside bananagroves and fields of sugarcane, after visitingthe exquisitely preserved Temple of Horus atEdfu. I call out and no one answers but thetaps continue. I soon realise birds are bangingon the Farouk Suite’s bowed windows, worry-ing at their own reflections.
When I draw back the curtains, they flyabout in panic, black wings whirring andsmashing. But it’s good to be up early so Icreep to the sun deck and watch the day un-furl. Small, sharp-beaked birds, which I thinkcould be bee-eaters, flit about on a livelybreeze like scraps of emerald satin. Whitespires of minarets peep through bunchedgreenery and dusty pink oleander. But thelush riverine strip is all window dressing, as itwere, as about 10km inland start the sandy“vastlands”, as Hesham calls the unforgivingdeserts.
On another morning, as day breaks, hot-
tary route through Egypt and the Levant inthe late 18th century. Also on this level arethree double and one twin cabin, each 20sq m,which are much cosier but light and brightwith good ensuites. On the sun deck, up top, isa smallish, mosaic-tiled pool, a phalanx oflounger beds, and views in all directions.
We all come to love chef Hosny’s variedand uniformly delicious buffets. There arecomplicated vegetable stews rich with okraand spinach; fried Nile perch, a fish once re-vered as sacred; flat breads and savoury dips;honeyed desserts sprinkled with sesameseeds; and creamy pastries. Broad-smilingwaiters Ali and Abrahim pose graciously forour cameras and appear with espressos andchilled handtowels before we even knowwe’re in need of such things. ManagerKhaled, the most gracious of hosts, is unflap-pable in a handsomely tailored suit.
The second morning, just after dawn, I’mwoken by spooky rat-a-tat-tat noises and pre-
The temptation to get into Agat-ha Christie mode, choose who isto play the corpse and assign therole of murderer, is nigh irresist-ible. We are a convivial group ofsix about to cruise the Nile in
style. The seventh member of our party isHesham Abdulla, an Egyptologist of greaterudition and twinkle-eyed charm. He under-stands our humour and is enormously forgiv-ing of bad jokes about “going the extra Nile”and our frankly terrible Poirot impressions.
All of this camaraderie is important as ourboat is a charter. There are no other passen-gers, just local crew, and so we are a truehouse-party afloat, cruising 210km fromAswan north to Luxor over four days and, as ittranspires, having more fun than seems quiteproper. And sorry, Hercule, no daggers aresighted; we all survive unscarred.
The key heritage sites of Upper Egypt un-fold like a concertina as we venture ashoreeach day in the sepia light of early morningand the lengthening grey shadows of lateafternoon. It is baking hot this May with tem-peratures effortlessly hitting 45C by noon.We wrap up in cotton scarfs against the heatand dust and admire the easy, swinging gait oftour guides in their flowing gallibaya robes.Hesham opts for an Indiana Jones-style hatbut barely raises a sweat.
The landscapes have a spare, savage beau-ty even when viewed through gauzy lightfrom our river boat, Sanctuary Zein Nile Cha-teau, a reimagined twin-sail dahibaya. About60m in length, it was built in 2010 and carriesup to 12 passengers. We can’t help but im-agine we are aboard a royal barge of the gild-ed Pharaonic era.
The comfortable decor is not over-opulentbut tends more to brass-latticed lanterns,giant vases of lilies and amply cushioned fur-niture. But then there is the Farouk Suite, atthe stern of the upper deck, which is where Iam ensconced, and its grandeur amuses mycompanions no end. Is it uncivilised that,rather than kingly connections, I am rathermore thrilled to hear that a past occupant wasLeonardo DiCaprio?
Full-length windows curve around thisparquet-floored, ballroom-like extravaganzaof 93sq m, furnished with a sleigh bed, empirefurniture, pedestals, handwoven rugs, andpalace memorabilia, including a gallery ofblack and white images of King Farouk, rulerof Egypt from 1936-1952. His cartoonishwaxed moustache is said to have been the in-spiration for actor David Suchet’s TV in-terpretation of Poirot.
Also in evidence among the photographyis Farida, his first wife, with whom I share asimilar hairstyle and swarthiness, if not awardrobe of tiaras and furs. And so almost in-stantly I become known as Queen Faridaamong our group, which is amusing, but shak-ing the name is impossible. Even Hesham ischeekily calling me Farida by the time weventure ashore from our adjacent mooringsto the Ptolemaic temple at Kom Ombo, andthat’s only our first afternoon.
On the main (actually lower) deck, the Na-poleon Suite is furnished with a contempor-ary four-poster and its chart-like wallpapertracks the French emperor Bonaparte’s mili-
THE HISTORYCHANNELDo the Nile in style from Aswan to LuxorSUSAN KUROSAWA
MORE TO THE STORY
Egyptian-French expert guideHesham Abdulla has been workingfor Abercrombie & Kent for 24 yearsand lists the following seven as his recommended not-to-be-missed sitesin Egypt.■ Egyptian Museum of Antiquities andits Mummy Room, Cairo■ The Pyramids of Giza near Cairo■ Solar Boat Museum, to the side ofthe Pyramids (pictured)■ The Step Pyramid at Saqqara, about 20km east of Giza■ Tombs and burial sites in the Valleyof the Kings, Luxor■ The massive rock temples of Abu Simbel, overlooking the Aswan High Damnear the border with Sudan■ Temple of Karnak at Luxor
SUSAN KUROSAWA
TRAVEL + INDULGENCE 13THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN, OCTOBER 5-6, 2019theaustralian.com.au/travel
tions of the gods Ra and Horus, know Hathorfrom Hatshepsut, Nefertari from Nefertiti.But all the details I don’t even begin to under-stand still fill me with absolute wonder. Iwould (almost) kill to return.
Susan Kurosawa was a guest of Abercrombie & Kent.
Hesham. “As ever in Egypt, so much more liesbeneath.”
As always throughout this adventure,Hesham’s commentary is delightfully ellipti-cal, full of anecdotes, whiffs of scandal and in-trigue. The learning is gentle and enjoyable.By the end of our journey we can decodemany a hieroglyph. I learn to identify depic-
painstakingly cleaning and restoring weath-ered grime to reveal the original mineral col-ours, such as azurite and malachite. Pigeonsswoop low above our heads.
Stylised reliefs show Khnum with his con-sort, Menhit, and Greek and Roman emper-ors dressed as pharaohs. “What we see is onlyabout a quarter of the original building,” says
to retrieve stone for construction, the hypo-style hall of the Temple of Esna was used forcotton storage, saving it from destruction.Today, scaffolding stretches up 18 parallelcolumns and six half columns to lotus andpalm-leaf capitals and a ceiling carved withconstellations and zodiac symbols.
In a government initiative, workers are
IN THE KNOW
Charters aboard Sanctuary Zein Nile Chateau operate in both directions between Aswan and Luxor. Itineraries can be tweaked to suit guests but typically cover the major sites, includingthe treasury of tombs in the Valley of theKings and the Temple of Karnak in Luxor.Sanctuary Retreats also runs larger riverboats on the Nile, with luxurious appointments and similar shore excursions. The retro-styled SanctuarySun Boat III has 18 cabins; Sanctuary NileAdventurer has 32 cabins; Sanctuary SunBoat IV features 36 cabins and four suites. Abercrombie & Kent offers cruisepackages with land content, including Cairo, Alexandria, Aswan and Luxor. Check DFAT travel advisories before planning a visit.■ abercrombiekent.com.au■ sanctuaryretreats.com■ smartraveller.gov.au
Picnic on the banks of the Nile, main; Sanctuary Zein Nile Chateau, left, and its lounge and Farouk Suite, above left; Temple of Esna, below left
“I tell Hesham I feel giddy. He doesn’t even ask if it’s the heat. He knows it’s the history
C
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