Sail the Nile in style

It’s hard to resist a bit of amateur sleuthing when you’re on a Nile cruise. As my boyfriend and I boarded the luxury liner Oberoi Zahra, we scrutinised the other passengers like Hercule Poirot might. Was the elegant Chinese-American businesswoman’s young companion her son or her lover? What resentments lay behind the silent mealtimes of the elderly British couple? Were the group of three young couples, who always had their meals together, really just friends? And who was staying in the best suite on the ship, equipped (we spied over the top deck) with a private hot tub?

The itinerary took us from Cairo, via Aswan, then back to Aswan, on a route so well-travelled that, more than once, we saw the same fellow tourists at different hotel bars. Muhammed, our cheerful guide, was in his 26th year of the job and efficiently ushered us around all the best photo spots.