Into the Crocodile’s Lair

“I am the raging one who seizes powerfully, and if he seizes, there is no one who can be freed from him.”

A chill ran down my spine as I read those words. They come from an inscription on a wall at the Temple of Karnak in Luxor. Queen Hatshepsut had ordered the inscription, in which she spoke as the dreaded Nile crocodile to inspire awe and subservience in her subjects.

I certainly was subdued. I began to wonder whether taking our three children on a crocodile-watching trip on Lake Nasser in southern Egypt was a good idea after all.

We live in Cairo, and having heard about Lake Nasser’s natural beauty and exotic animal life, we made it our destination last April for a two-day break.

From the air, Lake Nasser looks as unnatural as it is: a 310-mile-long swath of blue set in golden sand behind the towering Aswan Dam. Inaugurated in 1971, the dam was built to remedy the Nile Valley’s age-old curse of cyclical drought and flood. Today, it also supplies 70% of the country’s electricity.

Damming the river meant relocating 100,000 people--and, of great concern to the world, artifacts and monuments that had graced the shores of the Nile since 3100 BC.

In what must have been the biggest archeological rescue operation in history, most of the major monuments were saved by moving them to higher ground. The Temple of Ramses II, for instance, was chopped into 1,048 blocks and reassembled on top of a cliff at Abu Simbel, south of Aswan, in a Lego-like exercise that took five years and cost $42 million. Other, smaller monuments were offered to countries that contributed to the UNESCO-led effort; the Temple of Dendur now stands in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Still, several monuments had to be sacrificed, and they remain submerged in the waters of the lake. (Almost one-third of the lake lies across the border in Sudan.)

Our plane landed in the city of Aswan after a one-hour flight from Cairo. Aswan, which is on the Nile about six miles below--that is, north of--the dam, has been Egypt’s southern outpost and a trading center since ancient times, but it is short on the sort of Pharaonic monuments people associate with the Nile Valley. Aswan does have some excellent cultural sites and spectacular views of the Nile and the deserts that flank it, and it is a popular winter resort. Almost all Nile cruises stop here before or after visiting the Valley of the Kings at Luxor, and most people wishing to see Abu Simbel, on Lake Nasser, use Aswan as their base.

We spent the early afternoon touring the city in a horse carriage. The children--Lorri, 11; Varouj, 9; and Kim, 4--were very excited when the driver let them take turns on the reins. I derived my excitement from buying a huge hand-woven basket at the bazaar, or souk, after promising my husband, Harry, that I would be the one to carry it home.

We were staying at the magnificent Old Cataract Hotel, built in 1902 for the comfort of the (mostly British) travelers who would come up from Cairo by excursion boat.

The Old Cataract is perched on a granite hill at the river’s edge. The guest rooms have a turn-of-the-century charm, with classic furnishings and bathroom fixtures and big, comfortable beds covered in crimson spreads. All is serene here, even the deep blue Nile. We could see the desert on the river’s west bank. (Next door is the modern New Cataract Hotel, which has even better views of the river but little else to recommend it.)

The old hotel’s public rooms are Belle Epoque, with high ceilings, wood revolving doors and an ancient but efficient wood elevator. The reception area is adorned with carved marble fireplaces, tapestries and brass chandeliers, all Islamic in spirit. The name of the hotel restaurant, 1902, commemorates the first Aswan dam, a modest British effort. The restaurant is distinctively Egyptian in style, with a tall domed ceiling, intricately latticed windows and hanging brass lamps. After a candlelight dinner--European cuisine--we tucked in early because at 6 a.m. we were going on a “croc adventure.”

At 6 sharp our guide picked us up at the hotel. During the half-hour drive to the dock, 4-year-old Kim was keen on knowing the exact size of the boat. I had a feeling she figured bigger meant safer. The ancients believed that crocodiles would not attack anybody floating in a papyrus boat, but we had reserved a solid 16-foot motorboat.

Armed with binoculars and a picnic lunch packed by the hotel, we set off in the early morning breeze. Our guide knew exactly where to go. He had been bringing tourists here since the early ‘90s to see crocodiles. “Crocodiles are not vicious. They are cowards,” he said comfortingly. “They won’t attack unless you go near them.” Noticing the uncertain look on the girls’ faces, he added, “Besides, they are not hungry; there are lots of fish for them to eat here.”

Fishing is practiced extensively in the lake both for business and pleasure. Otherwise there was almost no visible activity.

The birds were the first to greet us. Eagles poised on the bare branches, and a pair of wild geese flew in an arch across the sky. A pelican stood still, and we saw flamingos and storks.

We were scanning the shores with our binoculars when suddenly a great commotion erupted. My husband had his arms all over the place signaling to our guide that he had spotted a crocodile.

Through the binoculars we could see a 9-foot-long, greenish-gray Nile crocodile basking in the sun on a stretch of sandy beach about 50 feet away. We watched it in absolute silence for barely three minutes when the sound of our boat gave us away. In the blink of an eye, it plunged into the water and disappeared.

By the end of the day we would experience eight more of these adrenaline-rush sightings. “The biggest crocodile I saw was 21 feet,” the guide bragged. This may have been another of the many “big fish” stories about crocodiles. According to an Internet site I’d checked before we left, a Nile crocodile can grow to 16 feet, in which case it would weigh, on average, half a ton.

One of the crocodiles we saw was lying with its mouth open. This has the same cooling effect on them as panting has on dogs.

Temperatures soar above 100 here in summer. Even in April, the noontime sun was getting too hot for us, but going for a swim was out of the question. Instead, we envied a crocodile swimming idly not far from our boat. It seemed that all these creatures had to worry about was food and the weather. Conflict with humans did not appear to be an issue.

In the early 1970s, however, all 23 species of crocodiles were classified as endangered. Preservation efforts have paid off; the animals’ status has changed to threatened for the present.

By 4 o’clock it was too hot for the crocodiles to come out of the water and too hot for us as well. A pool never looked so good.

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GUIDEBOOK

Along the Nile

Getting there: EgyptAir, the national airline, has a monopoly on all domestic flights and charges $334 for a Cairo-Aswan round-trip ticket, regardless of the season. (October to May is best; the rest of the year is too hot.)

Where to stay: Aswan has hotels in all price ranges. The grande dame is the Old Cataract Hotel, telephone 011-20-97-316-000, fax 011-20-97-316-011. Rates start at $110, plus 23% tax and service charges. The New Cataract next door is less expensive, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

The Aswan Oberoi, tel. 011-20-97-314-667, fax 011-20-97-313-538, is well regarded for its location: a garden on Elephantine Island in the Nile.

On a smaller nearby island, Club Med operates Ho^tel Ile d’Amoun, tel. 011-20-97-313-800, fax 011-20-97-317-193.

For more information: Egyptian Tourist Authority, 8383 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 215, Beverly Hills, CA 90211; tel. (323) 653-8815, fax (323) 653-8961, Internet https://www.touregypt.net.