Down (or Up) the Nile

In 1996, Rosemary Mahoney took a cruise ship up the Nile River in Egypt. She was so taken with Egypt and the Nile that she decided she would row up the Nile by herself. She chronicles her adventure in Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman's Skiff. Rowing was a hobby for Rosemary and she felt she couldn't truly see the Nile from a commercial cruise ship. Rosemary decided that she would buy a small Egyptian rowboat and row 120 miles from Aswan (the beginning of the Egyptian Nile) to Qena (just north of Luxor) by herself. Although somewhat anti-climactic, her obstacles procuring a boat, dealing with the locals, and making the trip provide a vivid picture of the Egyptian landscape and its people. But shouldn't it be Up the Nile? The Nile flows north, so if she started in the south and rowed north, technically wouldn't you say up, rather than down?