January 1-2, 2019

Tonight was to be our last night on our lovely dahabeya, the Aida, so there was a celebration. When we returned from the Daraw livestock market, of course, the steward had cleaned our room as he did every day. Anyone who has been on a cruise knows about towel art: you come back to your stateroom to find a creation on your bed using towels. Today mine was these lovely swans, whose heads bent together form a heart.

Dale’s was different: The towels were in the shape of an ankh, to match the one he had received from the crate maker the previous day.

It also seems to be standard practice to make an ape on the last day. The ape was hanging in the hallway! Ahmed, the towel artist (our steward) poses with his creation here, with toilet paper hanging down – maybe to represent a sort of tree rope?

The cooks had made a special cake and other special desserts for us on New Year’s Eve.

Tonight the crew prepared a fabulous dinner (as they had every night!); not to be outdone on New Year’s Eve, this was our dessert tonight!

During dinner, they came in singing and dancing, accompanied by tambourines.
Everybody loved the crew – they had been so nice and friendly, not to mention efficient in making us comfortable for the last five days!

It was sad to have to leave the next morning, so on our last afternoon and evening, we enjoyed the view.

Boys on shore give us a thumbs up as our dahabeya takes off from the dock at Daraw.

The city of Aswan – our cruise’s destination – at night.

We were up early the next morning, and were greeted by this beautiful sunrise.

Now we looked forward to the last days of our journey to Egypt – Aswan and Abu Simbel!