Aswan and Nubia, Mickey Mouse the Camel and pet croccodiles

We are chugging toward the Cataract Islands, whirlpools in the Nile among little islands where bullrushes might have hid the baby Moses. Colorful little boats, like painted wooden bathtubs, paddle toward us--kids with little boards for paddles catch up with us and grab the tires hanging from the sides of our motorboat, and sing Alhouette, and other French children's songs. The older adults lean over the sides and sing loudly and happily with them. They hang hard in our wake and finally let go, drifting away in the Nile.

Kitcheners Island is a botanical garden where tree species from all over the world are planted, bordered by cool aisles of royal palms. Lord Horatio Kitchener (1850-1916) had managed Egypt for the British, and been given the island where he satisfied his horticultural passions. Now it serves as a nursery and breeding ground for many species. An embassy of cats greets us on the steps of the island, overflowing with acacia and bougainvillea. They are slender with large almond eyes, and they peer at us, some in fright, some craving caresses. It is heaven here, among the healing ancient trees from India and California and every warm land.

Then we float down between palm trees and horses grazing, a full sun and wind, a short stretch in a felluca with its great slanted sail. We disembark on the desert coast of Elephantine Island, above which the rosy sandstone of the Agha Khan's mausoleum is enclosed by a rambling wall that strings over the huge sand dunes. The previous Agha Khan had come here for recuperation and finally desired to be buried here, by St. Stephen's Monastery. He is also credited with restarting the Nubian perfume business.

Mickey Mouse and dentally distressed friend

Under the wall's shadow are camels and their dark black drivers, mangy, branded and talkative---one poor thing has a bloody mouth (her tooth was pulled, said the boy who tended her), and she wails and writhes her long neck. Jacques and I are dispatched to a dark black man dressed in a winter jacket under the searing sun whose hands were ice cold. Our camel, Mickey Mouse, lumbers to standing with both of us swaying forward and back, and plods at his leisure. The camel driver hums and urges him on, and meanwhile, it turns out, strikes Mickey rhythmically with a stick. Mickey seems indifferent and reluctant to proceed, until he spots a certain camel, and hurries through the herd to sniff his genitals, causing the other to bolt. A little later he rushes through the crush to caress another camel's face with his own. As we turn around, he practically gallops the way to his spot under the wall.

Fellucca, behind is Agha Khan's tomb

We climb back on top of our motor craft to steer among bullrushes and small rock islands where birds, long and beaky, unfurl their wings and pose for us, or skim the water flourishing their wingspread.

We disembark on a hot, sandy incline above which perch Nubian houses, hobbit-likes series of arches painted in bright fantasies. We enter a house with its spacious straw roofed salon in which two adolescent croccodiles lie in a cement tank, barely lifting their eyes to us, mythic as Egyptian hieroglyphs. They are pets. A man passes around a little baby --attention, tenez bien la tete. They will be eventually released into their native waters, not eaten, we are assured. Over the entrance is nailed a dead albatross or pelican, its beak to the sky, for good luck. On the walls' exterior a graffiti of Mecca with the pilgrimage plane overhead. This is Nubia, amidst Egypt, the families displaced by Lake Nasser and given new homes by the General, whose photo is next to Sadat's and a boy of the family--the only wall decorations.

The large room is lined with benches and has tables of trinkets to buy and local dishes to taste. The bread recipe is from antiquity. leavened by the sun. After a good hour in the sweltering home, where children scamper in sweaters and beg, we go to a more modern house, empty and spacious marble,  and stand over the terrace overlooking more brightly painted facades, while Adel explains how the Nubian family meets every need, rescues, supports, provides all.