Along the Nile

We left crowded Cairo and flew 500 miles south to Luxor where we boarded our boat, the Miriam. For the next week this would be our floating home as we cruised up the Nile. I loved sitting on the deck and watching as scenes of modern Egypt slipped by. It looked liked pictures from somewhere long ago and far away.
We saw many small farms where the people worked the fields with hoes and spades. Farm machinery was a rarity.


We watched fishermen in small boats throw out nets along the bulrush covered shoreline.

The sand and rock of the Sahara was never far away from the fertile Nile valley.


The villages looked like peaceful places where life appeared more simple and more peaceful.


I don't think these mud-brick homes were all that poor. If you look you can see satellite dishes on most of the roof tops.


In this Muslim country there were minarets visible everywhere. All day on Friday, which is their sabbath, we could hear prayers being sung from these tall towers. I found it to be a peaceful, holy sound.


The sunsets were beautiful.


There was one very obvious sign of something less than peaceful along these shores. There are many highly visible well-armed guards everywhere. The Antiquities & Tourism police guarded the docks and all the tourist sites with a heavy presence. At night a machine gun was placed on the top deck to protect us. We never left the boat without a well-armed escort. I never saw any sing of trouble and I couldn't decide if this armed guard made me feel more or less safe.