It was a bit of a rocky ride but I think I managed to get some sleep.

I was woken up early in the morning by a yell from Tracey who was sitting next to me - she had been groped!
A man had walked down the aisle of the train and when he got to her gave her right one a bit of a squeeze!
She was horrified!! - and started yelling.
There was nothing anyone could do about it then because she didn’t see the guy so it was pretty pointless making a fuss.

I will add the toilets were by far the most disgusting that I have ever had to use.
I was about 1.5cm deep in urine (men and women) and there was a point that I thought I was going to vomit - but I had to go!

The sun was coming up and the sunrise was beautiful.
It was my birthday!

I had myself some chocolate for breakfast and watched the countryside go by.
I was on the desert side of the train - which was like a moonscape - very hilly and rocky.

Out of the window in the other side of the train was the Nile and the lush green fields and lots of palm trees.

On both sides of the train were tiny little brick or wooden shacks with straw roofs - they looked like cubby houses but people lived in them.
There were people working in the fields and donkeys tied up to palm trees waiting for some work to do.

We arrived and jumped in our waiting bus - bags again on top - and went to the hotel.
It was called the Happi Hotel and we got served with some nice cold hibiscus tea on arrival! - love that stuff!!

We didn’t actually check into the hotel - we just had to grab our stuff for the felucca overnight and left the rest of our gear in one room.

Did a quick wander to the bazaar while waiting for others to get ready and looking forward to seeing that properly when we get back to Aswan.

I was walking around with Paul and a guy said to us “Welcome to Alaska” - we weren’t sure we heard right and just kept going - we then heard another guy call it out to us.
It was very strange.

The boat - "just one big floating mattress with a canopy!!"

We walked down to the river where out boat was waiting.
It was awesome!! - just one big floating mattress with a canopy!!

There were three crew to help us out if we needed anything but I really needed nothing.

(two photos)----- (three photos)-----

(two photos)----- "and here is my view" (two photos)

I was having a ball!!

City of Aswan (two photos)---- Sandhills (two photos)

Lush riverbanks (two photos)---- Camels grazing (two photos)

The colours of the landscape were amazing - sand dunes right up to the river bank and camels grazing on lush grass just a bit upstream.

"lunch - what a surprise, falafels!"

The crew made us lunch - what a surprise, falafels!
They made salad and pita there was an egg dish and cheese - it was so yummy!!

(three photos)-- The riverbank --(two photos)

Paddle boats and tourist boats (two photos)

(two photos)--------- (two photos)

We just basically cruised around for the afternoon!
The sun was fantastic and there were so many boats on the water.

"Where we stopped for a swim"

(two photos)-- Tanya swimming in the Nile!!! --(two photos)

We found a nice spot and went swimming.
We just jumped off the boat into the river - it was so lovely and the first time I have been swimming since I left home over a year ago!
I wished that we had longer in the water but it was dinner time.

"The village we stopped at for dinner"

We went further upstream and docked at a Nubian village.

We were met by a nice fellow who took us through the long windy “streets” to his home.

There were kids all around talking to us and holding our hands and donkeys wandering aimlessly around.

"At night from the rooftop where we ate"

We went up onto the roof of his house and had an amazing view across the town.

Tanya having her henna tattoo done

......and here is the finished result (two photos)

There were mats laid out and we took seats and looked through the henna pattern book to decide what we wanted done and also looked at some of the handmade jewellery.
I brought a bracelet with wooden beads and hand my hand hennaed.

Mike and his Mo!!!

Everyone had something done and Mike had is face hennaed.
Him and his friends have a November Moustache competition, or “Mo-vember” as they call it, so he had a henna mo done.
It was hilarious - I still can’t believe he did it.

Dinner is served!!! (two photos)

Then it was dinner time.
Our meals were brought up on the heads of the Nubian ladies - she had four pots on her heads and walked upstairs with them.

Anyway it was great - we had soup and kofta and potato rice and pasta.
So yummy!!

Her Birthday Photo

Then we made our way back to the felucca to find another one had arrived.
It was apparently more comfortable to spread us out over two boats so they docked next to each other.
We got ourselves spread out on the two boats and in our sleeping bags and just as we were settling I stretched out and said to Mike who was next to me “Well, that was a fantastic way to spend my birthday!”
It was pretty funny and everyone was really surprised but then sung me happy birthday before we went to sleep under the stars.

Now I am 29!!!!!