Swiss woman builds a dream ship on the Nile for a million

The longing for the East went to bed early in Katharina Németh (56). She sang in the band Touch El Arab at the age of twenty and entered the top ten in the Swiss hit parade in 1988 with the song “Muhammar”. Blick described the Baselli youth as “Switzerland’s craziest band”. Németh laughs: “But nothing came of his dream of being a rock star.” Instead he studied psychology, his life “crazy and unconventional”. She withdrew to Egypt again and again, first as a diving instructor, then for love. Today she owns the longest Dahabeya on the Nile, a traditional sailboat for luxury cruises between Luxor and Aswan.

craving for corn

Németh first went to the Red Sea for a diving holiday in Sinai in 1999 and fell in love with the country and the people. He still feels it every time he gets off the plane: “In the first hour on Egyptian soil, I laugh more than I did in Switzerland in a whole week.” Instead of listening to the concerns of his patients, Németh falls into silence as a diving instructor not only in Egypt but also in Southeast Asia. She has been working on a dive ship in Micronesia for half a year, she. Then he retreats to the land of the pharaohs, falls in love and gets married. Marriage fails, patriotism remains. He is learning Arabic, buying an apartment in the Beduin district in Hurghada and commuting from Allschwil BL. “Once I came back, the sheep were quartered with me, and that’s on the fourth floor.” Because no matter how friendly people are, the coin has a downside: “There are a lot of rascals. It’s not easy to find reliable friends.”

For pharaohs, kings and tourists

He has found a business partner in Mohamed Youssef (50) whom he fully trusts. “Because he comes from a respected family of sheikhs, he learned English in England and lived and worked in Europe for several years,” says Németh. At the age of 15 he collected his own felucca and traveled with tourists from Luxor to Aswan.

Her biggest dream was to one day have more of her own. Stylish, flat-bottomed, twin-sailing boats were built first for the pharaohs, then for Egyptian celebrities and royal families who loved to cruise the Nile for fun. Sailing trips were also popular with Europeans in the 19th century. For Németh, there’s still no better way to explore ancient Egypt on the waterline of Africa: “You’re gliding through 4,000 years of history in absolute silence,” he says. The advantage of Dahabeya: Stops where larger cruise ships cannot anchor.

Bath and bed for Switzerland

Today, slow travel is gaining popularity again. There are about 160 Dahabeyas of various grades on the Nile. So there is enough competition, but the standard is often lacking, which, according to Katharina, is particularly important to Swiss audiences. “It starts with the bathroom and the beds,” says Katharina. «Quality, design, hygiene and service must be right.» He had lofty goals when he and Mohamed decided to build his own Dahabeya in 2018: “I wanted the most beautiful and best ship on the Nile.” Katharina focused entirely on design, while Mohamed took care of everything technical and building permits. “I drew the plans for the rooms inside the ship and designed all the furniture in the cabins and on the sundeck.” From the pergola to the bar, from the cushions to the curtain fabric, everything belongs to him.

Only the best is good enough

He did not hesitate to equip the “Queen of the Nile”: the boutique ship cost more than 1 million Swiss Francs to build. Whether it is the most beautiful or not is in the eye of the beholder: with a length of 56 meters, it is the longest further of the Nile. The woman from Basel was able to afford her dream ship, thanks to an inheritance. “My bank nodded at the time, it wasn’t exactly the safest investment.” But she wanted to create something of her own. Something that has an income and can travel a lot on his own instead of sitting in his practice. But as soon as the proud barge embarked on its maiden voyage in the fall of 2019, the pandemic struck. Katharina: “At first I thought it was the biggest mistake of my life, now I’ve wasted my father’s money.”

Meanwhile, the desire to travel has increased again and Egypt is one of the popular destinations, according to various tour operators. The journey is short and the formalities uncomplicated as there are many package deals and flights. And if you’ve been on a cruise since Corona, you’d rather be on a small ship with a lot of comfort: the Queeny has ten spacious cabins with panoramic windows and two suites with their own little balcony. On the deck there are sun loungers, a bar and a spacious lounge, 15 employees take care of the well-being of the guests. Katharina is confident about the season and already has new ideas: «Second One Dahabeya. Or a yacht for divers in the Red Sea. But first Queeny needs to warm up a bit.”