Nile River Float

16 Jan

Almost!

Floater’s Blog: Luxor ‘Float on a Float’ Date, January 16th, 2026

I’m in Luxor, Egypt on the Nile River visiting the temples both here and at Karnak, a couple of kilometers upstream to the south.

Today I learned about the Opet Festival, an ancient Egyptian multi-day feasting event to promote the fertility of the god Amun-Re and the Pharaoh (king of Egypt), who was believed to be the spiritual offspring of Amun-Re. It started during the 18th Dynasty, almost 4000 years ago and lasted for about 14 centuries.

Although the festival changed with each ruler the gist of the gig included a ritual procession of the barque (a ceremonial boat used to transport statues of gods and deities) down the Nile from Karnak to Luxor and then an overland procession carrying the boats along the Avenue of Sphinxes back to Karnack.

How appropriate that I can honour the old Egyptian gods with my own float.

I was hoping to float in the Nile itself, but scheduling (and pollution) made that a difficult achievement. Next best thing, a float on a float!

You may have read a recent post about enjoying a hot tub while afloat in a boat in a potentially cold climate. This post is about a cool float in a boat in a supposedly hot climate.

I’m on a medium sized river cruise ship heading north on the Nile from Aswan so quite a bit larger than the Hot Tug experience but floaters gotta do what floaters gotta do.

I have my portable float, so the small roof top pool on the ship is my base of operation. There is a bar one floor down with waiter service to poolside serving the two Egyptian beers, Sakara and Stella, I have been able to find so everything is as it should be until it comes to getting in the water.

The real issue here is that Egypt is having one of its coldest January’s on record. The air is much cooler than I had hoped for and so the pool water temperature is subsequently also less than ideal.

In the almost two weeks I have had in the country I think it is safe to say there isn’t a heater to be found! At least not one that works. Certainly not for this pool.

The water is despicably chilly so pardon my lack of smiley face but no matter as my plunge didn’t draw crowds in any case.

So, I didn’t float downstream on the Nile from Karnak let alone get in the river, but I did get in a quick ‘float on float’ with the sun shining and an Egyptian beer in hand. Not bad.

Now I just need to hire some local labor to carry me back upstream to my temple.