Most of the barriers and frustrations stem from her being a foreigner and a woman. Women just don't do things like row, much less on their own in an Egypt where the native women are still largely hidden away behind robes and doors. While foreign women, even savvy travelers such as Mahoney, are subject to a continual barrage of intimate, often crude attentions. These preconceptions about women make it nearly impossible for the locals to accept her, or her plans, seriously enough for necessary interactions, such as selling her a boat to row. To buy one, she has to resort to subterfuge; such as pretending it is a gift for her (non-existent) husband.

And then there are the broader cultural divides. The whole idea of such a trip, based in rowing for pleasure, is completely foreign to the Egyptians, who simply cannot understand it enough to co-operate in helping her get what she needs, regardless of gender. Rowing is for work, not pleasure. Surely what she really wants is to have them take her down the river in comfort in one of their boats (helping them earn their living, of course).

Eventually though, Rosemary has the good fortune to meet an unusual Egyptian boat-owner - a bit of a square peg himself - who is honest, caring of her and interested in her as a person without it being just an act to get sex. Her idea of rowing down the Nile on her own is just as foreign to him, but he invites her to take solo day trip rows in his rowboat and he's willing to at least consider the larger plan. Ultimately he offers the only version of it he sees as possible - she will row, but he will follow in his charter boat with a female friend of hers, to safeguard her from harm. Rosemary accepts, but doesn't give up on her larger dream.

Rosemary is a beautifully observant, clear eyed traveling companion, who not only brings to life the Egypt around her and her own experience of it, but does so realistically and as much on its own terms as an outsider can. She writes with grace and empathy, not always agreeing with what she finds, but attempting to at least understand it rather than judging blindly. Her own vision and experience is compared and contrasted throughout the book with the experiences of travelers there before her, primarily Flaubert and Florence Nightingale, with the result offering a depth most travelogues lack. To use her own quote from Flaubert, reflecting at the end of her trip: "Travel never makes one cheerful. But it makes one thoughtful. It washes one's eyes and clears away the dust." Highly recommended.