Travel: Sleeper train to Aswan

This was our introduction to the alternative way to travel up the Nile from Cairo. Not for us one of the slow-boat cruises, stopping off to take in the temples in the company of motivated adults. No, we, in a group of families with children ranging from eight to 14, were taking the overnight sleeper to maximise every minute of child-friendly time between tomb-raiding in Cairo, Luxor and Aswan. Trains are fun. . . .

Our train, one of the two sleepers that make the 11-hour, 600-mile journey to Aswan each night, was due at 8pm. At 8.30pm the giant diesel hauled into the station (Giza is deemed easier to use by novice Egyptian tourists than central Cairo’s confusing Rameses station) and we piled into our pre-booked compartments.

The carriages were refitted in the early Eighties (when the train carried chefs) and today, although still billed as four-star luxury, nothing has apparently been updated over the intervening 15,000 journeys (a rough estimate). Not even, one suspects, the beaming but decidedly elderly steward. The bottoms of curtains are frayed by the sun, and everything, but everything, is sand colour.

Still, as the train swung out southwards into the Egyptian night, the children were delighted with the sleeping arrangements: opening cupboards to find wash basins and handtowels, skittling through interconnecting doors and choosing bunks (two to a compartment). Dads were delighted to discover that cans of cold Luxor beer were available; everyone was relieved to see crisp white cotton sheets and soft pillows.