The lovely Joanna Lumley starts a new four-part series on Monday 12th April that sees her travel the length of the River Nile from mouth to source and the first episode involves her taking a Nile Cruise. From the riviera city of Alexandria, once home to Cleopatra, Joanna begins her long journey, following the intricate Nile delta by train. Heading south to Cairo, against the Nile’s flow, Joanna travels in the same direction as explorers have for thousands of years. They were desperate to find the source of the river Nile, a crucial lifeline to many surviving in inhospitable lands.
In Cairo, the Nile widens to become a backdrop to one of the biggest capitals on earth. Accompanied by Egyptian Ramy Romany, Joanna’s friend and dragoman, [does that mean guide? Should say so] riding atop a camel ‘Charlie Brown’, Joanna is taken on a unique trip to Giza’s Great Pyramids via the backstreets of Cairo, where she is introduced to the intricacies of Ramadan fasting.
Filled with the romantic sights of ancient Egypt, Joanna continues her journey south by overnight train along the Nile’s banks to Luxor, centre to some of Egypt’s top industries – temples, cruise boats and dates!
Later, acting as a judge for an ‘Egyptian Night’ Mummy Competition on a local cruise boat, Joanna meets the Brits who come back to the Nile year after year, drawn by the romance of the river.
On the Bridge with the ship’s captain, Joanna is intrigued to find that Nile watercraft come in all shapes and sizes. Traditional sailing boats, once used to carry stone downstream to build temples and pyramids, are still used for the same purpose today.
Hitching a lift with a stone boat captain in the middle of the day, when the tidal stream is best, is a hot affair – but this captain knows the river and its dangers better than most. As Joanna drifts upstream towards Aswan, her final stop-off in Egypt, she is fascinated to hear that life on the tranquil Nile is not all good. There are many local myths and legends about the river and sailing the waters often means risking an encounter with demons.
On her arrival and final evening in Aswan, Joanna ponders her journey so far and where the next day will take her. To continue her Nile adventure, she must leave Egypt’s well trodden tourist path and venture south into Sudan. It’s a country completely off the tourist map and one where she suspects things will get a lot tougher”.
