"Sir, your shoes please"; I turned around to see the Nubian captain looking at me sternly. In my rush to meet the other passengers, I had forgotten all my manners and looking down I saw several footprints marked on the soft foam beneath my feet. I apologized and sheepishly returned to the bow of the boat to remove my shoes.

I had just stepped aboard one of the most ancient sailing vessels in the world, a felucca, which has been making its way up, down and across the Nile since before even the pyramids were constructed. For the next three days, the now dirty, foam mattress was to be my bed, dining table, sofa and even chessboard.

With only the shortest of introduction from Captain Ahab, Siad, the second mate (and chef) cast off the line that tied us to the dock and we began to make our way out into the Nile. 111 miles separated Aswan, our departure point, from our destination of Luxor.

Aswan, made famous by its huge dam and Lake Nasser, is a quiet detour on any tour of Egypt, especially after the bustle of Cairo. While Aswan is not devoid of its touts or tour guides, there are considerable less than in other destinations. The city had only a few sights, minor in comparison to the great ruins in Cairo or Luxor, yet the Aswan High Dam and the semi-submerged temples that now sit within Lake Nassar, are suitably impressive.

Several of Aswan’s monuments and temples have been moved onto higher ground to make way for the rising level of the lake. Several islands within Lake Nassar are now home to some of Egypt’s most important cultural relics. Today, several small temples lie beneath the water line; perhaps many more which have lain hidden for centuries will never be revealed.

After just a few minutes under sail we docked on Elahantine Island, in the middle of the Nile. This island used to separate Egypt from the Nubian Island in the south; it is now home to Aswan’s Nubian museum. While it is much smaller than the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, the Nubian Museum is one of the best in the county, focusing on Nubian culture and the great steps that were taken by UNESCO and Egypt to save many of the great monuments from the rising levels of the lake. While the Island has been the site of several excavations, the majority of monuments on the island have been destroyed; the Nilometer, which was used to record the level of the river (and to calculate the appropriate taxes for that year) forms part of the steps that lead up to the museum.

Several feluccas docked close to the museum; offering tours around the island, or across to the Aswan Botanical Gardens, one other boat was also to be following us up the Nile.

After browsing the museum I boarded the felucca once again, shoes removed this time, to introduce myself to the others: Enrique and Simone were from Ecuador and had been travelling the Middle East for the past six months. A British couple was on a two-week holiday and had decided to get away from their hotel for a few days. Erik was from the U.S. and Eline was from Sweden. We talked passionately about the countries in which we had been travelling, but as we cast off from the dock, the sound of the waves an occasional gust of wind replaced our voices. Gazing across the water towards the bank of the Nile, a thick green band of green foliage came to an abrupt stop as it met the harsh golden sand of the desert beyond.

"Since the dam, the farmers have had less ground to farm on" Ahab explained "the floods do not come and they do not grow as much as they should. The dam has been bad for the people of Aswan". "It has, however, been good for tourism," he added.

As we sailed away from the buildings of Aswan, trees were all that could been seen from the Nile, the occasional small village peeked out of the foliage and groups of children could be seen playing on the water’s edge, as women washed clothes on the rocks. Occasionally small boats would pass the felucca; a little larger than a kayak they were weighed down with nets and the catches that they had been lucky enough to gather. Despite our stares, the fishermen would barely look up; tourists on the Nile were anything but a novelty.

Our dinner that night was not to be fresh from the Nile, instead the smell of garlic wafted from the improvised galley; the wooden decking at the bow of the boat. Sautéed courgettes served with a tomato sauce and rice and pita accompanied the meal, which tasted all the better for the fresh air (and perhaps due to the fact that we hadn’t eaten all day).

As the sun set that night the colours of the desert turned from harsh yellow to a deep red, the Nile became darker and the stars above slowly came into view. The sights of the day rapidly disappeared into the darkness.

During the day I hadn’t noticed the large cruise ships that took tourists up and down the Nile; many on a similar tour to myself, yet on a very different budget. On board, visitors sat in formal dress as waiters served them a range of Egyptian (or perhaps even Western) cuisine. Other cruises would be more informal and groups of children played on the deck. Some diners would raise their drinks to us as we waved to them. Many would just look at our small wooden boat, full of people, making its way past the huge ship, perhaps wondering why we would decide to spend our evening in such a way.

The fog was lifting from the Nile and the sun cast long shadows across the river as the temple of Kom Ombo drifted into sight early the next morning. The two temples of Sobek and Horus have been slowly degrading over the years since they were constructed in approximately 200 BC; the changing level of the Nile, Coptic invasion and the bricks of the temple being used for new building have still left impressive remains.

The bank of the Nile, where sacred crocodiles once bathed, was now filled with cruisers and other boats that had stopped for the day to look at the temple. A large luxury cruiser had docked close to the entrance and tourists disembarked with their cameras and cell phones in hand. I looked into the portholes and large panoramic windows to see porters running with trays and waiters offering drinks or snacks. The host was helping guests walk down the gangplank and I stopped briefly as he walked past me; "How much does a cruise like this cost?" I asked. After taking in my dirty T-shirt and sandals, the host laughed and returned to his passengers. I never thought I would enjoy a cruise like that, I thought as I lay back down on the mattress I shared with 10 others.

We tucked into a lunch of pita bread and salad as the boat departed to take us further up the Nile; almost 24 hours separated us from our next site; one of the most important, and well preserved temples in the country.

Dedicated to the Falcon God of Horus, Edfu is a vast temple; every wall decorated with carved hieroglyphs telling stories of Egyptian life and the tales of the Falcon God (depending on which guide you listen to the stories can be very different).

One of the first words you will hear in Egypt is backshish; meaning ‘tip’ (or as some will translate it, a small bribe). For just a few pounds of backshish you can secure a personal tour of any of the temples; ask to be taken through the tunnels that are built in the walls of Edfu. The guide will happily show you the entrance but ask for a little backshish before he will hand over a torch; a few Egyptian pounds well spent to see a part of the temple few visitors know about.

Esna was to be our final stop on our journey up the Nile; we stopped on the bank of the river just a mile or so before the city. According to Ahab, his permit would not allow him to sail further up the Nile; instead an armed escort greeted us on the banks and sternly directed us to the vans that would take us to Luxor. With tourism being the largest employer in Northern Africa, the Egyptian Tourist Police are keen to take care of their visitors.

We left the greenery of the riverbanks and drove into the desert; only the van in front of us broke up the brown and red rocks of the desert around us. Just a few hours later the hum of the air conditioning and the smells of traffic and the back streets of Egypt began to fill my senses.

Freshly showered and in clean clothes I walked down to the banks of the Nile and happened to meet up with a small cruise ship that was unloading passengers. "Excuse me," I asked "how much does it cost to go on a cruise like this?" "Ah" said the suited man with a clipboard "for you sir; I give you good price".