Egypt Guide
The Nile Valley
Feluccas
Whether your felucca trip is blissful or boring, tragicomic or unpleasant depends on a host of factors. Conditions on the river are crucial. Nights are freezing in winter and otherwise cool and damp except in summer, when days are scorching.
As the wind nearly always blows south, travelling downstream (towards Luxor) involves constant tacking, unless you simply drift with the sluggish current, but there's no chance of being becalmed, unlike sailing upriver, where the cliffs between Esna, Edfu and Kom Ombo block the wind – which is why most journeys start from Aswan. The usual trips on offer are to Kom Ombo (two days, one night); Kom Ombo and Edfu (three days, two nights); or a two-day jaunt where you sail from noon to sunset and an hour next morning before being driven to Kom Ombo, Edfu and Luxor, which many tourists prefer to a three-day journey. Few care to sail all the way to Esna (four days, three nights), nor will crews agree to go as far as Luxor. Short daylight hours in winter and the low water level between October and May (when inexperienced pilots may run aground on sandbanks) can cause schedules to slip.
Establish beforehand where the journey ends. Tourists intending to disembark at Edfu often find themselves 30km short of town (in the villages of Hammam, Faris or Al-Ramady) or even at Kom Ombo, where minivans are on hand to drive them to Edfu temple and on to Luxor and whichever hotel the captain has a deal with. (The proper fare is £E10 per person, payable on arrival in Luxor.)
Many of the felucca captains come from villages outside Aswan and will take you there for tea at some point. Feluccas are prohibited from sailing after 8pm, so most stop at sunset for an evening round a campfire, enlivened by singing and drumming. You sleep either ashore after the boat has tied up, or on mattresses aboard. Each day will be different from the last: stow your watch and take things as they come.