Day 5

After breakfast we visited the Temple of Philae, which is dedicated to the goddess Isis.

Philae is on an island which can only be reached by boat, however due to the construction of the High dam at Aswan; it was being submerged by water so it has been reconstructed on the neighbouring island of Agilika to prevent it being lost under the waters of Lake Nasser. To me Philae is the prettiest of all the temples and the island has been planted with beautiful flowers to compliment the many temples and kiosks. Outside the Temple of Isis is a little chapel dedicated to Hathor, the goddess of music and dance.

The columns are decorated with carved reliefs of various kinds of musicians and even some monkeys playing the lyre. The goddess Bes, who aided Hathor in her capacity as goddess of childbirth, is also seen playing the tambourine. The worship of Isis continued at Philae long after the introduction of Christianity, but between, AD 527 - 565 the emperor Justinian closed the temple and a Christian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary was established on the site. Amin gave his talk in the shade in the first courtyard, whilst behind the temple two cats were having a very loud argument with each other. We were then left to wander around the island for a while before catching our taxi-boat back to the mainland.

Our next stop was the High Dam at Aswan. Our coach parked on top of the dam and we were allowed to get out and walk around for 10 minutes. We were allowed to take photographs of the lake but not the workings of the dam, and were closely watched by armed soldiers to make sure we weren't spies. The dam was built to provide water and power for Lower Egypt and the Sudan. The project was eventually sponsored by the Russians and is quite a spectacular sight. The dam holds back the waters of Lake Nasser, which is so vast that from the dam you can't see the other side of the lake. Although the power supply was needed by the people of Egypt, the Nile now no longer floods each year therefore the silt that was rich in nutrients no longer irrigates and fertilizes the fields.

As we drove over the dam we could see the rocky riverbed that was once the first cataract that divided lower and Upper Egypt in the days of the Pharaohs.

The next port of call was a welcome cooling stop off at a perfume factory. Here the essential oils that are used for most perfumes and aromatherapy are prepared. We were offered a welcome drink of either hibiscus or mint tea and a young Egyptian woman gave us a talk on the various oils and their used and gave us a sample sniff. The young woman had obviously learned a script as she did not understand much more English. Her favourite phrase was "and by the way" and after a while this was quite comical and got a few of us giggling. When she had finished I was very cheeky and I asked if anyone could demonstrate and do massage with the massage oils for Ray's painful shoulder. Amazingly there was one guy who could do it and he took Ray over to a quiet corner and gave him a sandalwood and peppermint massage. After only about 10 minutes his shoulder felt quite a lot better. We bought a lot of oils from them but as the coach was waiting for us we didn't have time to wait for them to be packaged so they were brought over to the boat for us later, at no extra charge.

Our next treat for the morning was a sail on a Felucca, which is a sailing boat with one large triangular sail. Our group boarded the Felucca and we set sail. We passed the "Old Cataract" hotel, where Agatha Christie based her story "Death on the Nile", and then went past Elephantine Island, which has several temples dating back from the Ptolemaic to the early Dynastic Periods. Whilst we were sailing, the crew of the boat entertained us with a song which we all had to join in with. We were also followed by a small boat with 2 young boys in who also sang to us and made us get up and dance - a bit precarious on a little boat - then expected some baksheesh for the privilege.

We were shown the mausoleum of the Agha Khan, which his wife had had built in his memory.We then sailed back to the "Oddessey" and had to climb off the Felucca via a thin wobbly plank. This was bad enough but we had moored behind 2 large cruise boats and the heat and exhaust fumes coming from them were diabolical. Poor old Clive, who walks with a stick and is breathless anyway nearly collapsed and had to have a good long whiff of his inhaler when he eventually made it to dry land.

When we got back on board "Oddessey" it was lunch time so we went straight into the dining room for yet another feast. After lunch, most of our party went on a tour of Aswan, to see the Mosque and the Coptic Church but we had seen them before so we gave them a miss and had a siesta.

Later on we took a taxi and met the rest of the group at the Nubian Café, which is high up and gives a spectacular view over the Nile, in time to see the sun set over the hills. While we were there we took the opportunity to smoke a shisha pipe. Some of the non-smokers in our group were adventurous but most of them gave it a miss. Once the sun had set we returned to the boat in time for dinner.

After dinner we had been promised some entertainment from some Nubian dancers. First of all they brought on a pantomime horse to the sound of native drums. This horse pranced around kissing the passengers and performing silly antics. We were then entertained by three dancers, to the strain of native drums and wailing stringed instruments. One of the dancers seemed to be a bit of a novice but we still clapped him. The final part of the show was a "native" Nubian chief, who ran into the ballroom, dressed in grass-skirt and Nubian headdress, accompanied again by the bongos.

Immediately this Nubian started running around the audience and fiercely started pointing and beckoning to individuals. There was no way that you could avoid him as he grabbed people and dragged them on to the floor. When he had got about 5 men and 5 women up there, he lined them up and mimed that he wanted them to copy what he did. He started shouting incomprehensible words and pulling strange faces and miming strange positions with his hands. He then singled people out to join him, starting with 2 men. The sounds and actions he had them doing were hilarious and the whole of the audience were in stitches. When someone in the audience was laughing rather loudly he went up to them and pulled a stern face and pointed at them, shaking his finger, which made everyone laugh even louder. Ray was videoing all of this but he was laughing so much it was a wonder he kept the camera still. It was a great night but it really has to be seen to be believed.

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