Left Cairo and took a 13 hour over night train down to Aswan. Arrived to be greeted by a great charachter, Samir, who is an authority on anything that anyone needs to know in Aswan. He reminds me of a typical Yorkshire Farmer with his red cheeked bubbly charisma and checked shirts and cords.

After a trip to Philie Temple we went off for dinner at Omar's house on the Nubian village on Sijel Island. Omar is another legendry figure in Aswan and regularly invites everyone to his house to meet the family and for an evening feast. A little bit contrived for the visitors but i've been back to see the family at other times which is great.

The Nubian people are a community of people who lived between Egypt and Sudan and have a heritage going back as far as the ancient Egyptians. When the High dam was built at the top of the Nile thier homeland was submerged under Lake Nasser and they were resettled around Aswan on a series of islands in the Nile.

A couple of hours sleep then hopped on the bus to go to the awe inspiring temple of Abu Simbel which was quite Mesmerising.

Have just made it back to Cairo after a wirl wind trip down the Vile Nally or maybe that should be the Nile Vally! The trip was a 2 week adventure called Felucca Journey and we had 8 clients and my wonderful and expereienced guide Sameh to show me the ropes.

Our group were the most random assortment of people plucked from every corner of the planet. A Canadian couple the husband having a passion for bats and the wife being a palm reader, both artists.

A japanese guy who spoke no English and went down with a fever leaving me to interpret between him and the doctor in sign language. He was lucky not to get major surgery after my dramatic gesticulations!

Two Ozzie Girls who insisted on playing a drinking game called Beirut where you line up a row of vodka shots and have to down one if the ping pong ball ends up in the glass. Luckily i was a better shot than them!!!

A columbian psychologist who i ended up councilling on life, the universe and the realationships! How ironic is that!

Not to mention another canadian who was obseessesd with the cult of the Egyptian goddess Isis and kept doing Reiki on everyone! I quite thought she might hold a ceanse at Philie.

Strangely enough they were all fascinating in their own individual ways and it was amazing seeing them all arrive with nothing in common and end up being life long friends. Or atleast profess to become so!

Spent 3 days on the Felluccas sailing up to Edfu. The crew Awie, Mohammed and Hasoona were classic entertainment the whole way. A multi talented bunch, sailing, cooking and generally keeping us all in stitiches with their sense of humour not to mention HasoonA'S dancing which was remenisent of a frenzied daddy long legs!

Watching the sun set over the Nile each day and sleeping on the deck under the stars was an absolute inspiration. We had bonfires on the beach and danced till dawn to the beat of the Nubian drums.

The Felucca is totally reliant on wind power so you feel utterly in the hands of the Gods. There is no engine and it is built entirely from wood according to age old Nubian craftmanship.