L'EGYPTE AUTREMENT

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Our story

It all began at the Kalabasha boat cemetery, hidden at the foot of the Aswan Dam, during a walking and boating survey on Lake Nasser. Between two modest pharaonic temples saved from the waters by UNESCO, lay the whole history of the navigation of the mythical river..

It is thanks to Jack Bollet who founded Nomade Aventure, among others, that the sandal and dahabieh boats started to sail on the Nile again. This visionary of travel imagined the tourists discovering the Nile by sailing on the old boats intended at the time for the transport of materials. Paul Bedros was charmed by the idea and the two of them collaborated in the development of a different way of traveling on the Nile.

These sturdy steel hulls designed floated sadly between two waters; Like sorrowful souls, melancholic of their past, left half-prisoners of the fertile silt of the Nile, Sandal and Dahabieh begging to be resurrected

The Sandal, what was left of it, a rusty hull with a patina from decades of river transport of sandstone and limestone blocks torn from the desert. The majestic former royal Dahabieh leaned to starboard like an old English baroness in Sunday best. The art nouveau panelling recalled her glorious past

The idea seemed as crazy as it was seductive and after all, these boats were made for the sacred river and its thousand whims, a hull that marries perfectly with the wild shores to stroll along. The sails, once the masts are assembled, allow a silent navigation, letting the Sahara wind crackle in the palm trees.

It was then that Jack, Paul and the others reinvented boats. Shipowners, carpenters, boilermakers and Nubian sailors resurrected the Nile's beauties, making them sail again on the waves. Finally, cooks and guides arrived to share the secret Nile with travelers from all over the world, far, far away from the factory ships.