Aswan, Felucca and Botanical Gardens

Leah and I survived our 16 hr train ride from Cairo to Aswan, and were looking forward to the felucca ride that was a part of our two day package deal. As I mentioned before, the Nile is at its finest down in Aswan.
There couldn't have been a more perfect way to spend the 2hrs before our scheduled appointment to see the Philae Temple Light Show (in German only that night).

We boarded our felucca, "The Freedom Flower", just before sunset and our captain took us up the Nile to the island where the Botanical Gardens are located.

He and his assistant let us out and waited for us at the opposite end of the island, a 15 minute walk. It was perfectly relaxing, strolling among the amazingly tall trees and lovely flowering plants. And even better, because it was so close to closing time, there were very few people. Perfect....

If you look closely you can see a little bitty Leah walking between the trees.










We met a friendly dog during our walk, he's pictured here under the weird "No Bowling" ?? sign. I had my first pang of missing arthur. Fortunately, he was left in Cario in very good hands.













The neat thing about the Nile here, beside the fact that the water is blue, is that there are amazing bolders jutting up out of the water. There's an island close by called Elephantine Island that gives you an idea of the color and shape of the rocks I'm trying to describe.

I spotted some hieroglyphic carvings along some of the rocks, as well as patches of more contemporary graffiti...