Free Missing in Egypt by Rita Lee Chapman

us a little way down the Nile .   The breeze was gentle and it felt as if we were just floating along.   After about an hour our guide pulled up to a big flat rock and we clambered onto it.   There was a small tree to give us some shade and with a wave our guide left us to our picnic.   “Pick us up in about 2 hours’ Yasmeen called out to him.
    We smiled at each other like two children who had just wagged school!   Yasmeen pulled a tablecloth from her basket and a bottle of wine from a coola bag.   I pulled the cork and we sipped our drinks with the water lapping gently around us.   Our own oasis!   For a moment I was tempted to have a dip in the water, but then I remembered the warnings about swimming in the Nile .   It is said that although the local children often swim in the water for those not brought up swimming in the Nile it can result in some very nasty illnesses, even death.   It was probably cleaner this far up but I decided not to take the chance. Besides I hadn’t brought my swimmers!   We talked as we ate; it was so easy being with Yasmeen.   She flirted gently with me as she told me stories of her family and her plans for the future.   She did not want to be a tour guide for the rest of her life.   Her family owned an antique shop and Yasmeen had soaked up antiques and artefacts all her life.   She longed to be working in the shop but her father and two brothers were running it and it could not support her as well.   She believed she had a gift, she told me, of picking rare and valuable objects, which her father encouraged but he did not understand her passion or flair .   “It sounds a bit big-headed, doesn’t it?” she asked me, staring up at me from under her long eyelashes.   “Not at all” I replied, as I reached for her and pulled her closer to me.   I kissed her soft lips and she responded.   After a few minutes we pulled apart.   “We had better eat some of this feast, I think, Yasmeen, before I get too carried away”.   We finished our meal in silence, drank down the last of the wine and sunned ourselves on the big flat rock, watching the water sparkling in the sunlight.   It was a perfect picnic, but all too soon our felucca was back to pick us up.
    As we sailed back up the river I watched Yasmeen as she sat with her eyes closed against the sun, enjoying the breeze.   “She is so beautiful” I thought. “She is the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with – and I have only known her for a few hours”.   When I asked her to come back to my hotel she looked straight into my eyes for a moment, then dropped her gaze and took my hand.   Together we walked back to the hotel.   When I took her in my arms it was as if we were made for each other, our bodies belonged together and we spent the rest of the day in a blur of passion and intimacy.
    The evening came all too soon and I walked Yasmeen to her boat where she was to pick up her next tour group.   The thought of being separated from her so soon was more than I could bear so I had determined to catch a boat down to Aswan to be with her overnight.   I couldn’t get a berth on the same boat but I was lucky enough to get one on a boat leaving an hour later.   Yasmeen had been able to book me on to her boat from Aswan to Luxor . The trip to Aswan seemed to take forever as we were always trailing Yasmeen’s boat – at the temple stops I could see her boat pulling out as we pulled in.  
    The trip itself was interesting, even if the time inbetween sightseeing dragged a bit.   The Kasr Ibrim, and the temples at Amada dedicated to Amun-Re and Re-Harrakte were well worth seeing. I learned that the Roman Temple of Kalabsha was originally built in Nubia and, although it was never finished, it was moved some 50 kilometres in 1970 when the Aswan Dam was built.   It now stands 1 kilometre south of the High Dam, with a chapel and gate from it having been relocated to Elephantine Island .   These things I would