Cruising with the Pharaohs

In 2008, my daughter Meredith and I spent a wonderful week cruising on the Nile. This article appeared in Reach plc's regional titles across the UK.

FROM our aircraft window we saw the seemingly endless desert suddenly broken by a vibrant ribbon of green - as if an artist had swept a paint-laden brush across a bare canvas. We could pick out fields and palm trees and then the River Nile itself - a mighty artery pulsing life into Egypt, a country that is 95% sand.

As spectacular introductions go, this was up there with Omar Sharif's camel-back appearance in Lawrence of Arabia. It set the tone for a week of sight-seeing on the grandest scale.

Our base was the Domina Prestige, one of the newest of the many cruise boats that ply their leisurely way up and down the Nile. We met the Domina at Luxor, a five-hour flight from the UK and 500 miles south of the pyramids. Our cruise took us further south, to Aswan, and then back to Luxor. With so much to see, the schedule of excursions requires some early starts.

As day broke on Day One, we arrived, bleary-eyed, at the 5,000-year-old Karnak Temple. Our reward was an awe-inspiring stroll in the footsteps of the Pharoahs. A short bus ride took us to Luxor Temple, smaller than Karnak, but no less impressive. When the Pharaohs were in their pomp, a 1.5 kilometre path, lined with ram's-headed sphinxes, linked the two temples.

After this early-morning assault on our senses, we headed back to the boat to absorb it all as we set off on our cruise south. We sailed through timeless countryside. Men tended their crops, fishermen in small boats gathered in their nets, donkeys brayed and small boys, sucking on sweet stalks of sugar cane, waved and smiled as we drifted past.

As we reached Esna, where the cruise boats queue for their turn to go through the huge lock, a babble of voices sprang up. A crowd of tiny dinghies had drawn up alongside, from which local men and boys threw traditional robes and crafts on to our boat, imploring us to buy.

At Edfu Temple, we marvelled at the wonderfully-preserved hieroglyphics. At Komombo Temple, we heard how crocodiles were lured from the river through an underground channel, to be used for medical purposes, before being mummified. At Philae, we learned how the temple was painstakingly reconstructed, stone by stone, on higher ground after it was realised that building the Aswan High Dam would flood the original site.

Aswan itself is a bustling city, where Egypt meets black Africa. It has long been a magnet for visitors, from the Aga Khan dynasty to Agatha Christie. Here we visited the Botanical Gardens, much of which were planted by Lord Kitchener, who - when he came south from Cairo to Sudan, to quell the Mahdi rebellion - took time out to collect exotics.

We followed this with a boat trip, to see cormorants, egrets, ospreys and dazzling Egyptian kingfishers, skimming low over the water. The boat ride ended with a chance to handle some baby crocodiles.

The undoubted historical highlight of our week was a visit to the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, the ancient burial site of Egyptian royalty.

One of the most gripping stories was that of Queen Hatchepsut. When her husband, the Pharaoh, died, Hatchepsut appointed herself to take over from him - even though this was a men-only job. She dressed and acted as a man, and launched an ambitious expedition to far-off countries that brought back exotic animals and spices. She also decided that her temple was going to be in a totally different style from the rest, and called in a top designer.

It all ended in tears, though, when Hatchepsut's son - disappointed that his mum had robbed him of the top job - had her bumped off and her body chopped into 40 pieces and thrown into the Nile, as a snack for the crocs.

Our last morning arrived, with one final highlight in store. A 4.45am alarm call told us it was rise-and-shine time for a balloon ride.

We took to the sky just as the sun crept over the horizon. Looking down from our 32-person basket, we saw the mist-wreathed Nile on one side, the mountain-tops of the Western Desert to the other, and 17 more multi-coloured balloons in the air around us. A magical way to end an unforgettable week.