Egypt, why to go now

The sun is soft and warm as I write this. It hangs delicately a little way above the westerly line of palms, mango and guava trees. The waves beat a rhythm against the steel hull, ropes creak occasionally as they hold back two massive sails filled by a fresh northerly breeze, a donkey brays from the banks and a bunch of kids call "hello" until I wave. I am not a born sailor, but I am on a dahabiya, a replica of the sort of sailing boat an 18th-century grand tourist would have taken – with en suite bathroom, Wi-Fi and a few other modern comforts added. The wind in Egypt blows from the north, the Nile flows from the south, so we are sailing sedately upstream and although I bow to the inevitable, part of me wishes we might never pull in to land.

Over lunch, the dozen other passengers and myself smile the smile of the smug. The boat is ours in the same way that the Pyramids and Karnak temple had been ours: there were no other foreigners. It is no secret that foreigners are staying away from Egypt, but I have never known it as extreme as this. It occurs to me that there were fewer visitors when we went to the Valley of the Kings on Sunday than there might have been if we had come in 1850. Reasons for this are hard to find.

Last year was a turbulent one for Egyptians, with the downfall of President Mohamed Morsi and his government and the violent dispersal of Muslim Brotherhood demonstrations by Egypt's security services sparking violent protests. But none of the tumult was aimed at foreigners, which was why, even though demonstrations and sporadic anti-military violence continue, the Foreign Office has no objection to our travelling to Cairo, Luxor and the south. But visitors have been nervous since 2011, when former President Hosni Mubarak was forced from office, and they have been slow to return to the capital or along the Nile.