DAY 15 - CLOSE CALL
SYNOPSIS: I almost missed the boat, but went on the feluka cruise after all. This is about our boat, the King Barbis, and how it works.
By 4 AM I was awake and by 5 AM there was no denying that I was in the middle of a violent migraine. The minute I got up, my stomach turned, and I will spare you the details that followed. But between 5-8 AM I was in hell and the mere thought about going on a boat for the next two days made me dizzy. At 8 AM I called it off. Aubrey the Brit, and Kasper the American, the other two passengers I had recruited for the ride, would have to go without me. Milan the Czech, had already decided against it. The thought of being stuck on a boat was too much for him. He is a guy who needs to move. Even though I could not go on the boat, I was going to drag myself out to the dock to get some of the provisions which we had bought for the trip. Between 9-10:30 AM I waited on the dock – no sign of a feluka. And then, across the river, much further down than I had expected, I saw a feluka depart – I zoomed it in on my camera and it was “my” feluka leaving without me and with my provisions! We had obviously crossed our wires about the meeting point…
I panicked. For the last hour I had been able to keep some water down, the medicine I had taken earlier seemed to have kicked in and I could quite picture being on the boat after all, but there they were heading out without me! I practically ran back to Baba Dool’s and tried every imaginable phone number I had for the captain, the captain’s brother, one of the passengers, to no avail. Finally, one number worked and I hysterically tried to convey in basic English that I had been left behind. Somehow my message got passed on, even though I had already given up all hopes. But several minutes later, there was the feluka, turning around a corner and coming right up to Baba Dool’s house.
Before all formalities were finished, all stops were made, and the police permit was obtained, it was almost 2 PM when we turned north and started the actual trip. This boat is amazing. It is 10 meters long – not big for a feluka. The bulk of the boat is covered with planks which leave storage space for blankets, suit cases, etc. below. On top there is a soft mattress spreading the full width and length of the planks were we sit and sleep. The boat is licensed for 16 people but we are only a load of three passengers and three crew members, so we have all the space in the world. Above us a canvas is stretched which protects us from the sun, until it sinks down low to the horizon. At that point, for about an hour, it is very pleasant to have the evening sun shine in your face and warm you up. The space between the passenger area and the front of the boat functions as a kitchen. And below the front of the ship – I wish I knew more appropriate ship vocabulary - there is a room for some privacy and for a retreat if you get too cold either day or night. But really, it’s like a crawl space.
The boat is entirely operated by sails. No wind, no movement. Interestingly, we are going down-stream (the Nile flows from south to north, that’s why the ancient Egyptians referred to the southern part as Upper Egypt and the northern part as Lower Egypt), but the wind is going north to south almost all the time, canceling out some of the gains from the current. This leads to an interesting zigzagging across the river as the sails have to be maneuvered through the incoming wind. This makes for a relatively slow forward ride depending on the strength of the wind. And it makes for a windy ride. I was wearing long underwear and my sweater as well as a thick shawl the entire day. The shawl is still mainly for my head cold which just won’t budge… But with some electrolytes and lots of water, by noon I had fully recovered from my morning misery.
We sailed until sun set and today made about 20 km. Tomorrow 25 km are ahead of us until we reach Kom Ombo, the site of our final destination and the site of a temple unique in all of Egypt as it is dedicated to two deities instead of the usual one. If we like this way of travel just too much, we have the option to add one more day and night all the way to Edfu. We shall see.
These guys have their craft down to a science. We have a captain – Meme’s brother Mustafa, a sub-captain Karim, and an assistant, Felix. Karim and Felix also fill in as cooks. And Mustafa turns into a great entertainer at night. At one point we had to cross under a bridge. It was fascinating to see all three of them frantically pulling ropes in front and back in order to lower the sail just right to clear the bridge without colliding.
The ride was relaxing, enjoyable, and uneventful. The shore changes between small Nubian villages and fields of greens. Hard to tell what they grow there, but between sugar cane and potatoes, probably just about anything else that is edible and will grow. The date palms are full of fruit. I was surprised to see that the dates are huge and hard-shelled. I guess I have always only eaten dried dates rather than fresh ones. Yesterday, in the market I tasted a fresh one for the first time – it’s a completely different fruit from what I expected; not as sweet and very soft with a skin that is peeled off. We also saw a fair number of fishermen in small row boats. They were hard at work catching fish with nets. It is wonderful to see that the Nile if full of fish again – years ago it was way too polluted for much wild life. But now you can catch fish up to three feet.
At sunset we docked at a sandy beach. A wooden plank was pulled out to bridge the gap between boat and shore but I have no idea if I could manage that walkway in the middle of the night if I had to, without falling. No, there are no toilet facilities on the boat. If you have needs, the boat has to go ashore and you have to find a spot. Lucky to be a man…
EVENING SKY ON THE NILE
I am just so glad that I made it on to the boat after all. What a bummer if I had missed it! Being on this boat is a truly Egyptian experience. And I learned something today: The ancient Egyptian convention of depicting felukas is to show boats going north with their sails rolled in and boats going south with their sails fully inflated. I thought this was the reality. But as with so many other artistic conventions this one does not conform to reality; it was simply a way of unmistakably conveying and reading the right message. The same is the case with skin color. As loaded as skin color is, particularly in the US due to its history of slavery and white culture domination, to the Egyptians, skin color has no other meaning than distinguishing people from the Mediterranean (lighter skin) from those closer to Sub-Saharan Africa (darker skin). In the artistic conventions all men were depicted dark-skinned whereas all women were depicted light-skinned, regardless of the reality. This indicated the type of work men and women did. Women worked in the house and therefore were not subjected to sun as much as men who worked the fields. Often Americans misunderstand it as racial prejudice when a clearly dark-skinned queen like Nefertari is depicted with a white (or yellow) complexion. It goes to show that the heritage of one’s own culture and the burden that comes with it cannot simply transfer onto another one without creating misunderstandings.
As I am writing this blog, the crew and the guys are playing dominos. Captain Mustafa is constantly winning – I guess that is his inherent right. After all, he worked hard today. When there is wind, he has to lean his entire body into the rudder to steer the boat. I can only imagine the muscle power this takes.
Two candles are burning. Plastic bottles cut in half and stacked upside down inside each serve as candle holders. The screw tops hold the candles and the bottle bottom protects the candle from the wind. For the night a canvas was set up which covers the sides of our boat to contain some of the warmth, and unfortunately, some of the cigarette smoke with it…
Let’s see how we will feel in the morning. It got very chilly the minute the sun was down.
Good night.