Egypt Part II

May 23rd 2004

After saying thankyou’s etc to Omar in Alexandria, we head off in the sweltering heat to Giza where we are immediately overwhelmed by camel owners, horse & cart drivers and ‘cowboy’ tickets salesmen. Managing to dodge all of these, we both see all nine pyramids, the Sphinx and visit a lotus & papyrus shop (buying nothing of course) all for under a tenner – not bad, we must be learning! We did all this on camel back/hump which was hilarious albeit rather painful on the sunburnt inner thighs and later for the groin! Rewarding ourselves for surviving the 40ºC midday sun, we later enjoyed a quick Maccy Dee’s and KFC before meeting another bloke who contacted us through our website. We sat in Hotel Mena, one of the plushest hotels in Cairo, sipping beer and mostly listening to Sam Watson about his (and soon to be our) desert adventures. Sam was extremely helpful bringing with him GPS locations of fossilised whalebones etc., desert campsites and US military flares, smoke bombs and maps (to be destroyed immediately after use….alrighty then)! We felt utterly useless when we eventually plucked up the courage to admit having no GPS and had to lie about having a compass! Sorry Sam! The plan that evening was to drive the 100km to a desert campsite in the dark having only a sketch of directions to aid us. We found the random set of street lamps, the ambulance station and the telecoms aerial. After two attempts crossing the railway track we were in the desert and knew we had to aim dead straight for 8km until we hit (or dropped off) a large ridge. The slight misalignment of the steering wheel didn’t help and after driving 12kms, we suddenly found ourselves on a railway track and then a road – we had travelled in a large arc and were sitting on the tarmac of the same damn, only road in the desert! Oops. We try again, ironically following a self-named ‘question mark’ star, for 14km until we give up and spend our first night in the Great Western Desert.

May 24th 2004

When we pop our heads out of the tent, we watch the sunrise over hundreds of kilometres of incredible desert; once being the seabed to a huge expanse of water. The desert floor was covered with shells, fossilised wood and the water levels could be seen etched into the large yellow rocks. We spend the morning driving over 75km following the ridge and ‘playing’ in the desert until getting almost stuck in sand, finding a track and heading back to terra firma to find the jerry cans hanging off the back and the padlock missing! Oops. We continue on to the small oasis town of Bahariya in the west of Egypt stopping to walk up some amazing untouched dunes. We camp in the desert out of town watching the sun set behind huge cone shaped mountains which later light up eerily under the moon.

May 25th 2004

After a hearty breakfast of beans and bread and another ‘squat’, we head south for another oasis town called Farafra. The road is incredibly good simply because it is never used and the ever changing scenery is unreal. First the Black Desert scattered with small dark rocks and large cone mountains, then the White Desert of chalk with odd mushroom and column shapes rising from the desert floor and then over a ridge, we are met with a huge sand sea stretching over the horizon. The temperature is pushing 50ºC and the feeling of putting your head under a hand dryer is actually cooler in the car so we steadily continue through Farafra before camping early off the road to read, wash-up and use the camp shower for the first time – stopping only for the odd passing truck!

May 26th 2004

After breakfast and another refreshing shower off the side of the car, we drive through more desert, past more strange mountains, steep sandy dunes and oasis towns full of palm groves, people harvesting hay fields and cows eating green grass, which we strangely haven’t seen for days. We stop in Dakhlar for a quick cheese sandwich and a new padlock before trying to camp under a lone desert palm tree outside the town of El Kharga – we are hit by a sandstorm and leave immediately with only a few photos. Continuing on past our intended Luxor turnoff, we spend a wind-free but dusty night in a hotel on the outskirts of Baris.

May 27th 2004

We eat the inclusive breakfast of cheese and bread whilst chatting to Mammoud, the local fuel pump attendant, and the limping hotel owner’s adopted son who later tries to fleece us of double the room cost – a common occurrence throughout this country. We set off early to avoid the midday heat but the day gets no better when we are denied access along the 280km road to Luxor and are forced, after a sneeky attempt to cross the desert, to drive the 600km journey via Asyut instead. We are led into the city of Asyut by a police escort and immediately requested a bank and KFC. Allah was blatantly racked off with us today – coolant was p*ssing from under the bonnet leaving a large illuminous green pool outside the bank like something out of ‘Ghostbusters’. Off we limped to a backstreet garage (we were repairing nothing in 48ºC!), surprisingly next to a KFC, where the problem with the water pump was immediately found, the spare part plucked from the car roof, and fitted within two hours (the adrenaline took rather longer to stop flowing!) - all for 15 quid. The convoy of minivans, cars and coaches along the road south to Luxor was like something from ‘The Wacky Races’ in which we started in last place but managed to finish third! The drive followed the Nile, through small towns of fruit stalls, builders hauling cement and brick up rickety wooden scaffolding and kids diving into the river. When the sun set, things got more tricky, avoiding unlit donkey carts and tractors appearing from the darkness ahead whilst being constantly blinded by the sudden main beams of oncoming traffic – they believe having lights on at night drains the battery – maybe spending the ‘baksheesh’ (tipping/tourist charges) on some basic automotive education maybe of benefit….like the Murphy’s, we’re not bitter. On luckily finding a recommended campsite in town (Rezeiky camp with pool and cheap rooms @ 3 quid a night) we swim, eat and crash after an incredibly exhausting day.

28th May 2004

Sleeping in, we head off to the Colossi of Memnon (funerary temples) and the ancient tombs in the Valley of the Kings on the West bank of the Nile in the midday furnace. We head back to camp as quick as possible to find shade and while Ranger works on his tan beside the pool, AD struggles for five hours trying to send a group email. We eat nothing all day and after a spectacular, but exhausting, sound and light show at the Karnak temples, we crawl back to the vehicle to sleep.

29th May 2004

Up early to catch 7am police escort to Aswan. We follow the Nile, constantly being harassed by the police to keep up with the coach, which is only 50m in front of us. After an hour, the convoy reduces to three so we decide to overtake the lot and leave them behind; each police stop didn’t seem to mind so we keep going reaching Aswan at noon. We book our tickets (no 1st class left – damn) for the ferry up Lake Nasser to Wadi Halfa in Sudan and find the cheapest air-con hotel with balcony views across the Nile and a rooftop pool – all for £3 each a night – bargain; contrary to the Manager’s sales pitch, we later learn the pool is closed for refurb but hey, this is Egypt! Lunch was eaten in the floating Aswan Moon restaurant opposite our hotel (Horus). After, we catch three hours of much needed zzz’s before some emailing and a walk around the market (Souk) on El Souk street looking through the corners of our eyes at spice stalls, pipe shops and men cooking corns on hot coals; if you catch eye contact with anyone, they have your attention and you’ve had it. Constant shouting of ‘welcome to Egypt’, ‘English?, Alaskan?!….’ and ‘I’ll help you spend money, I’ll help you save money’ were heard through all the narrow streets. We eat dinner in the Aswan Moon and chat to a lone traveller from Coventry, who we met in Luxor, doing the same route. We retire after a good feed.

30th May 2004

We sleep well in the incredibly pleasant air-con room and have the day free to get prepared for Sudan – the vehicle is given a blood transfusion with an oil and filter change, we buy food for the ferry journey and update the diaries. In the evening we watch the sunset over Kitchener’s Elephantine Island, in the middle of the Nile, from the deck of an 11m Felucca. Our skipper, Captain Cool, and his nephew, Ayob (aka Captain Bob), were extremely friendly and with their singing and funny stories, made the experience well worth it – the row back to the west bank against the current when the wind dropped was a slight hiccup. Captain Cool later hunted down a line and some hooks for us, so when we run out of food we can hoist a 20lb catfish out of the Nile to slap on the fire…or not! We eat dinner again in the Aswan Moon restaurant and tomorrow we take the 24hr ferry up Lake Nasser into Sudan….

31st May 2004

Up early for breakfast overlooking the Nile from our hotel, then off to traffic police to sort plates and paperwork before heading to the High Dam for the ferry up Lake Nasser. We meet up with the infamous Mammoud Adries from the Blue Nile Navigation Co. who helps us through customs etc and then we wait on the slipway in the unbearable heat to be loaded onto the pontoon; us on the passenger ferry, the car on a separate pontoon. We still wait, staring from our vehicle, at the truck loads of beds, sacks, chairs, tinned fruit and fridges that just keep coming down the slipway – it appears people are shipping their entire home contents all but the livestock. It is too hot to talk. 12 hours later, we slot the car sideways onto the pontoon into a tiny gap between the 6m high cargo and board the passenger ferry. As well as the hundreds of Sudanese, the smell of people and food immediately hit us and we know it’s gonna be a long journey! First class consists of tiny air-con cabins, second is a ‘free for all’ of benches down below or the deck. We could only get 2nd class tickets so opt for the deck and are faced with the task of crossing a sea of sleeping Sudanese men – the tip-toeing through the obstacle course wouldn’t have looked out of place on ‘The Krypton Factor’. Removing footwear did make the task easier because when Ranger removed his, the seas immediately parted and he’s helped through; all very random. After being rudely woken and asked to leave the Captain’s Bridge, we are luckily allowed to kip on Martin’s cabin floor (English bloke we met in Luxor) which, apart from the stench of diesel and the neighbouring loos overflowing, was a godsend.

Total Distance since London : 8100kms

To see the pics, click here!-------> Photo Link!