If you click on Free Nile Cruise Guide up on the menu above this post you’ll see how to download it to your computer.

It’s in PDF format so can be downloaded and viewed on either PC or Mac and because you can read it on your computer you dont’ have to print it out and waste your valuable printer ink.

It’s a guide to what to expect on a Nile cruise, what to wear, what to take with you, tips and hints and lots more so if you havent’ already downloaded a copy you might find it really useful.

So this is what I do…

I buy the book or books that I fancy and…read them (!!).

Sometimes I read the book pretty quickly, othertimes I might take my time, take it with me on my travels or leave it till I’m ready.

But then, when I’ve read it I use Amazon to re-sell it.

If you go to Amazon.co.uk and enter the title of the book your hoping to sell into the “search box” you will then be taken to the page that advertises that particular book. If you look to the right hand side of the page you will spot a menu that includes the words “Sell yours here”.

If you click on that button you will be taken to a page that invites you to set up an account with Amazon that allows you to become a “reseller”. Once you’ve completed that simple and free process you can sell your copy via Amazon on the very page that you found details of the book originally. You will be able to list it in the “New and Used” section of the page.

My tips are, if reading the book with the intention of reselling it ensure that you use a bookmark rather than turning down the corner of the page. Make sure you dont’ rest cups of coffee on the cover and generally keep the book in good condition. That way you can resell it as “as new”.

I’ve sold 3 books this week already using Amazon. Which is great for me as a voracious reader as I can…BUY MORE!!

I’ve bought loads of the “Dummies” books. Mostly to learn how to do various things on my pc. They’re great value and have really taught me so much.

So I was intrigued to see this title, “The Ancient Egyptians For Dummies“. I wasnt’ sure what I’d make of it. But I’d highly recommend it as a great read before you take your Nile Cruise and a great companion to take with you.

It follows the standard “Dummies” approach with over three hundred and fifty pages which provide a wealth of information. It’s a book you can dip in and out of, and, as you journey down the Nile, you can come back to the ship and read up on what you’ve just seen.

The chapters cover the geography and a broad and full history of ancient Egypt, royal women, food and entertainment, disease and medicine, religion, mumification, art and hieroglyphics, temples and tombs.

There is a mass of information and the book is well written and easy to read. It’s available in good bookshops or can be ordered online at Amazon.

I would really recommend it as a “one-stop” introduction to Ancient Egypt and I’m sure it will make your Nile Cruise even more informative and enjoyable.

We wrote it to help potential Nile Cruisers get a real “feel” for just what a Nile Cruise entails and we’ve tried to give as good a picture as possible.

It’s full of advice, tips and descriptions of what you’ll do, what you’ll see, what to wear, the places and sights you’ll see and lots more.

If you’ve already read it and can think of anything that’s missing or anything that we can add or expand on please email me on ” colin(at)tarsc.net and I’ll take care of it.

I begin each day with great intentions to complete another chapter and then the office phones start ringing and the day’s gone. But I’ve managed to finish 2 chapters out of the intended 13 chapters so maybe in about another….year(!) I’ll have it finished. Just kidding, should be finished in about 2 weeks.

I’ve just found these facts about the mighty River Nile that I’m going to add to the guide:

Did you know…

1) The year 1010 was the last time the Nile froze?

4) The temples at Abu Simbel were moved 200m in 1964-68 at a cost of $40 million.

More facts to come!!

In the article she describes the excitement, wonder and fear of actually travelling as she did down the Nile.

If your looking for a good book to read either before your Nile cruise or during it I can heartily recommend Rosemary’s book.

For those interested in travelling on a Nile Cruise and doing a little research and homework before you go you might be interested in the Ancient Egypt Magazine.

Here’s what Ancient Egypt Magazine is all about:

“Ancient Egypt is a magazine researched and written by experts in the field of Egyptology. Its lively and informed style appeals to the many thousands of ordinary people fascinated by this early civilisation, and provides them with the latest news on their interest.

With reviews of international exhibitions, visits to museums at home and abroad, educational material, book reviews, features and an introduction to hieroglyphs, every issue of Ancient Egypt appeals to both the committed student and those who are new to the subject”.

You can subscribe to the magazine for £24 for 6 issues and I would think that doing so can only enhance your enjoyment of your cruise.

Here’s just a sample of an article about the The Red Chapel’ of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III at Karnak.

Visitors to the great temple of Karnak do not always realise that to the left of the first courtyard when entering the temple, is an area known as the ‘open air museum’ writes Bob Partridge. A separate ticket is needed for this museum, but it is well worth it, for it is there you will find some of the oldest buildings in the huge temple complex.

It would appear that the blocks were carefully stored. within the temple for future use. Some seem to have been reused fairly quickly, but it was Amenhotep Ill, who used all the remaining blocks as filling for his Pylon (now known as the Third Pylon, which was a splendid new river‑facing entrance to the temple).

You can continue reading the article here.

The seller is selling it regularly for £5.50 plus £1.70 postage and packing.

It’s certainly a book that we would recommend and in fact we sell it on the main Nile Cruise website ourselves, just as an extra resource for people thinkg of taking a cruise. Or for those who have booked and want to get a taste of what’s ahead.

This sounds a great book to take with you on your Nile Cruise. Below you’ll find an article/review from the Worldhum website:

Rosemary Mahoney’s new book doesn’t just chronicle her unlikely journey down Egypt’s great river. Reviewer Julia Ross finds it also deftly explores the uncertain waters that split genders and cultures.

At the outset of her new book, Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman’s Skiff, Rosemary Mahoney assures us she has no desire to die. She simply wants to row 120 miles down the world’s longest river, an unaccompanied Western woman gliding along the coffee-colored current, alone with flamingos and minarets. But the Nile isn’t just any river; local police will never allow her passage, she is told, and Egyptian fishermen might become “crazy” at the sight of a foreign woman adrift.

A year earlier, 58 tourists had been killed in a terrorist attack at Luxor’s Temple of Hatshepsut; this was no time for a foreigner to go it alone.

Thankfully, the Rhode Island-based writer isn’t easily thrown. Mahoney’s chronicle of her 1998 rowboat journey is an engaging and thoughtful travel memoir by a woman who decides to take on the Islam-West divide by way of a river and ends up turning gender and cultural biases upside down.

The idea for Mahoney’s unlikely quest takes root on a 1996 trip to Egypt, when she boards a cruise ship in Luxor and ponders the northward-flowing Nile’s unrivaled reach: “It rubbed against ten nations,” she marvels. “Some 250 million people depended on it for their survival. It had fostered whole cultures and inspired immense social and scientific concepts.”

The river’s unchanging landscape and the Islamic call to prayer linger in Mahoney’s mind for two years until, spurred by a love of rowing—a daily ritual at home on Narragansett Bay—she returns determined to row the Nile from the cities of Aswan to Qena. Immediately, her plan meets resistance: She is confronted by disbelieving Egyptian men reluctant to sell her the boat she needs, assailing her with rejoinders like, “You don’t know how. I will row you.”

Mahoney invents a story about “a non-existent husband who was perpetually asleep in the hotel” and keeps prodding. Her persistence pays off when she meets open-minded Nubian felucca captain Amr, who agrees to loan her a seven-foot skiff as long as he can shadow her up the river to ensure her safety. He doesn’t question or doubt her ability, and on this basis a friendship blooms, making for one of the book’s most enriching threads. On their first meeting, Mahoney relievedly senses a kinship: “His words carried trust and respect and were surprisingly devoid of the usual distancing banter, the jokes, the sexual innuendo, or mention of money.”

In fact, it’s Mahoney’s conversations with Egyptian men, who alternately vex, offend and surprise her, that give “Down the Nile” a real sense of discovery. Time and again, she stumbles into unusually frank discussions about love, sex, honor and what should be expected of women, both Western and Muslim. Perhaps it’s the 38-year-old’s androgynous appearance—“sunburned, greasy with sweat, wearing dirty trousers, dusty boots and a brimmed hat”—that puts the men at ease, or perhaps it’s simply the novelty of a foreign woman taking interest.

One encounter in Luxor is typical: A young man working in one of the tourist shops provides Mahoney with a detailed account of his sexual encounters with older French and German women, then admits to taking money for the service. When he subsequently labels all foreign women prostitutes, Mahoney calls him on it. “Ahmed was speechless for a long time,” she writes of the episode. “And then, slowly, he began to giggle nervously in recognition. ‘You’re right lady,’ he said, absorbing the irony of it…He looked wounded and embarrassed. ‘You are right.’”

Mahoney’s intelligence and instinct shine through in moments like these; she deftly challenges prevailing stereotypes among the Egyptians she meets but always exits the conversation without offense.

At Luxor, Mahoney sheds her river escort to row the final leg of her journey alone, and is, at last, buoyed by the solitude: “It was the happiness of entering into something new, of taking the moments simply for what they were, of motion, of freedom and of free will.” She wraps a white linen shirt around her head to simulate a turban, tucks her hair up, and slices through the water unnoticed.

Unfortunately, the moment is fleeting. The trip’s most terrifying experience rears up on her second night alone in the boat, when a local man who speaks little English bumps into her while she’s asleep. After asking for cigarettes and a camera, he tries to step into the skiff. She pushes off, he gives chase and eventually hits her up, in the middle of the river, for the equivalent of $3.

Though the outcome is benign, Mahoney’s description of the visceral fear that overtakes her—she imagines how she would defend her life with a knife—is gripping. It will strike a chord with any traveler (particularly any female traveler) who has slipped unknowingly into a marginally safe situation, late at night, in unfamiliar surroundings.

“I cannot deny that I like to find myself in sticky situations, with the feeling that I’ve really gone and done it this time, that I’m finally sunk, that there’s no turning back and possibly no tomorrow,” Mahoney admits at the beginning of her journey. She’s not kidding. But those trouble-seeking instincts serve readers well in “Down the Nile”; Mahoney proves an insightful guide through the uncertain waters that split genders and nations.

Julia Ross is a frequent contributor to World Hum. Her last essay was Le Club Tintin.

Please visit our main Nile Cruise website for latest Nile cruise prices