ABSTRACT
M y first t r ip was on the o ld paddle steamer Sudan for the E g y p t i a n part o f the tour and on the Sudan Ra i lways steamer for the N u b i a n por t ion . I n those days we had about seventy-five passengers and two tour managers. I loved the Sudan, she was so quiet, the only sound was the noise of the water as her paddles turned, she was very manoeuvrable and could turn on that vanished coin , a sixpence. I had been to a l l the Egyp t i an sites that we vis i ted, but some of the N u b i a n temples were new to me. It was a magica l experience ar r iv ing i n the dawn at some half-ruined sandstone temple on the edge o f the desert, w i th an avenue of sphinxes leading up to it, or to see a temple cut into the N u b i a n sandstone. Sometimes these temples were quite ha rd to locate and our tour managers had to go looking for them i n the dark w i t h torches. D u r i n g these explorations they found many snakes of a l l sizes on their way down to the river to dr ink . I have always thought since that the ancient Egyp t i an idea of the Af terwor ld must have been based on accounts of Egypt ians who had been to N u b i a and seen the same thing.
