Expedition Log - Coles & Granger Ltd. Expeditions - The Lost Letters from Egypt - 8 days before Expedition Launch.
Dear Diary, March 3, 1922 - The last few days on board the dahabiyya have been wonderful. Each day we sail upstream a few miles, and then it seems there is somewhere wonderful to moor for the afternoon and evening. Sometimes we visit some ruins, or maybe just stop outside a village.
The journey has taken on a life of its own, that precious feeling that this little world is all there is, and that the world outside has just paused for now.
I am getting to know some of the others on board. They include Dr. Haroldson, an Egyptologist, who is an expert on hieroglyphics. He has a theory that the Sphinx was not actually a lion, but a lynx, the keeper of secrets. Another professor, Dr. Brown, has been making many astronomical observations with a small telescope. There is a writer, named Clarissa, who has been collecting stories from many of the villagers we meet. And another passenger, named Rose, who has traveled all over the world, and is studying the local dialects. And several others, each bringing their own unique perspective to our travels and studies.
I have been having many unusual dreams while I've been here, and sometimes feel a sense of deep inner knowledge, like the secrets of the Sphinx. But then, just as I seem on the verge of some great understanding, I wake up and the knowing has slipped just beyond my grasp. But I sketch and make notes of the dream time and the waking time, and try to recapture the knowing.
In the safety of my cabin, I pull the golden cat from my satchel, and it watches over me as I write in my journal. Almost as if it does the knowing for me.
Dear Diary, March 3, 2009: I'm so very busy packing and making arrangements right now, it's hard to believe that I will be there in just over a week. I wonder what mysteries are there for me to know.
(journal page by Jessica Herman Goodson, aka Jessie Starling)
www.destinyvoyages.com/Egypt2009/
Egypt & The Nile with Juliana Coles March 11-22, 2009
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