In November during our trip to Luxor, we sailed a wee bit of the Nile on a felucca, a traditional wooden sailing boat. We spent the afternoon breathing in the sea wind and beautiful views of the Nile. Our hosts, Ilsa and Mahmoud of Nile Compound, packed us a tasty hot lunch and drinks. Oscar even got to "help" the sailors steer the boat. Possibly for a bit longer than they intended.

Our destination was a place called Banana Island. It has a lot of bananas. Also, it's an island. Did you know they didn't have bananas in ancient Egypt? I didn't. I even lost a bet.

After a stroll along a path through he bananas, we stopped at a restaurant/gift shop/zoo. This was a strange place. Like, awesomely strange. Particularly the gift shop. I suppose it's possible there is a market for dusty jewellery and badly preserved dead animals. With bonus cobwebs. The restaurant did serve up a jolly nice platter of fruits. And, if you got bored (or, more likely, if your children get bored), you could always check out the live crocodiles.

Not creepy at all...

As you know, I love the weird and wonderful, so I was pretty thrilled. The people were actually quite lovely. The trip back was beautiful. We enjoyed being gently rocked by the waves while enjoying the warm light of the dipping sun. Once ashore, we retired to a riverfront cafe to watch the sunset.