Faluqqa ride on the Nile
It's one year since my daughter Erika and I have made a two-day faluqqa ride on the Nile.
Прошел год с тех пор, как мы с Эрикой отправились в Египет и прокатились на фелюге по Нилу.
Русский
One can hire a faluqqa for any number of days. In two days you get from Aswan to near Kom-Ombo.
Nile as a way of communication is unusual because a steady north wind blows nearly always against the current, so a sail boat can move reliably in any direction.
Captain Ashur sailed wherever we saw anything interesting.
There are a lot of small rocky islands near Aswan. They and the green shore behind them are full of birds - grey herons, squacco herons, little egrets, cattle egrets, cormorants, spur-winged lapwings, ferruginous ducks, some pied kingfishers and thick-knees.
Then a grassy terrain with palms and mango trees starts, where along with herons and egrets there were black-winged stilts and other waders, white and yellow wagtails, some ducks, and farther inland hoopoes and masked shrikes. We passed a night in the boat there and in the morning I even saw the famous painted snipe.
Unfortunately the sun in Egypt is too harsh for most pictures except two hours after sunrise and two hours before sunset.
The Nile valley near Aswan is very narrow and the desert coming close to the river is always visible. Birds: teal, pintail, grey heron, little egret, purle gallinule, unidentified gulls and terns.
After the second night on the boat, this time at a sand hill with palm trees, at 7 a.m. the faluqqa ride ends, and we take a passing minibus to the Kom-Ombo bus station to catch the passing Suez bus on our way back to Safaga.
The trip including the bus ride from Safaga and back took 4 days. The budget: small faluqqa with 1 crew and food for 2 days - 400 L.E. + 50 L.E. tip, night in Aswan 100 L.E. (hotel 70 + food), bus for two 200 L.E., roadside food 50 L.E., total 800 L.E., i.e. around 150 USD for two people.