Gods Of The Nile

The brightly coloured motor boat picks us up from Aswan's East bank and chugs with
determination against the current, leaving the deep blue waters rippling behind us. The Nile is lined with palm trees, boganvillia and water buffalo, grazing serenly at the waters edge. The heat of the day has passed, and the feeling of rushing along through the afternoon breeze is like a divine gift that has been bestowed upon us from some kind of deity- perhaps it is the Pharoh's Goddes Isis, fanning us with her collosal wings.

We approach our destination, and the motor cuts out, leaving us in silence, savouring the every last moment of our journey. We jump out onto the sands of the Sahara, that have carted from the a nearby sand dune to create a small artificial beach. Here, where the current is strong it is safe to swim, and we cannot wait to strip off and be immeresed in the immortal waters of this continant's most important river.

The river bed is a dark and mystical, covered in a soft furry mud that keeps the water above it crisp and cool and I gingerly wade in, with shivers up my spine.

Within a few paces I am up to my neck, and if I take my feet off the bottom I begin to feel myself being carried along with the water at quite a pace. Luckily I am able to replace my feet and wade back to the shore.

When we are sufficiently cooled we take a short trip up river to where there are camels waiting, ready to carry us off into the sunset. As we set off into the dunes we see the Sun God Ra illuminating the monsetary on the hill, his glowing orange disk preparing for his nightly journey into the stomach of the sky goddess.

Darkness envelops us as we farewell our camels and are taken into a Nubian home for a hearty meal and when it is finished, the motor boat takes us back to the East side, to the Land of the Living, where we will close our eyes and wait for the sky goddess to give birth to the sun disk, and allow the industrious Scarab beetle to roll Ra back up into the pale blue sky to light up the earth and show what the Gods have in store for us today.