Travel With Intent has a “One Word Sunday” challenge and this week the one word is voyager.

My husband and I have recently returned from a month-long trip to Egypt and Israel. For the Egypt portion, we toured with Overseas Adventure Travel, my favorite travel company! Five days of the tour were spent on a cruise of the Nile from Luxor to Aswan, on board a small ship called a dahabeya. It was very intimate: there were only 14 passengers, which were the members of our group, plus 14 staff members! Our small ship was new – we could smell the newness of the olive wood from which much of the furniture was made!

Here is our dahabeya, named Aida.

Normally the sails were not unfurled – the dahabeya was pulled by a tug, since it doesn’t have a motor. However, we all wanted to see it with open sails, so they unfurled the sails and we circled it in a small boat so we could take pictures!

Here are some photos of the interior:

All the cabins were named after Egyptian goddesses. Ours was Hathor, the goddess of love, fertility, motherhood, music and dance!

Morning omelet station: For breakfast each day, we had the option of having an omelet made to order. The omelets were made on the deck.

Partial view of the interior lounge (decorated for the holidays). Behind the bar in back was our dining area.

After our Egyptian tour, we went to Israel and joined another tour! This was led by the Christian tour company Maranatha Tours Inc. One day we sailed on the Sea of Galilee, and the people on board the typical “ark” sang hymns.

This is our “ark” on the Sea of Galilee – it was already quite full of people when we boarded!

By the time we got on, it was pretty much standing room only! But the hymns made us all feel joyful and we enjoyed the ride.

Afterward, we went to a visitors center where there was on display the remains of an actual 2,000 year old boat, which had been salvaged from the bottom of the lake (Galilee is actually a lake, not a sea, despite its name).

A informational poster on the side showed all the types of wood it had been made of.

This was the type of boat Peter, Jesus’ disciple, would have used in his profession as a fisherman.

Finally, I am including a photo of my husband, Dale, and me, because we too are voyagers!

Posing for a photo on the deck of Aida, pretending to control the sail by pulling on the ropes!

Stay tuned for a series of blogs telling all about our adventures in Egypt and Israel!! 😀