19. Luxor and Aswan

After a long train ride I finally arrive in Luxor and make my way down to the hostel where Kosta is waiting. As Kosta has been in this town before he knows what is worth a visit. So escorted by my personal guide, I visit Luxor and the monuments around.

From here on we move further to Aswan.The road from Luxor to Aswan is to say a bit of a speed breaker. We have not counted but if we say that we have had a 100 speed humps along the way, we are definitely not exaggerating! Incredible! There is apparently another (faster) road but we must have missed that turn! LOL

How to avoid Egyptians talking to you

Aswan is I should say ‘would’ have been our last destination in Egypt. From here on we will put The Cruiser on a barge and take a ferry to Sudan. A ferry indeed as the road between Egypt and Sudan is still not open. Oh yes, there is a road going all the way down, no we can not enter Sudan that way. A totally ridiculous situation and more so, a very expensive border crossing. When we arrive on Tuesday in Aswan we immediately apply for a Sudanese visa and make our way to the reservation office for the ferry. The barge and ferry leave every Monday and it is advisable to make a reservation a couple of days in advance. Little bit of annoying news: we can’t book space for the car, as the barge is probably full. We have to come back on Saturday and see if there is a possibility to put the car on. 4 days later the verdict comes in: no space for the car, we will have to go on the next one… yes, not the ferry that leaves this Monday but the one that goes next Monday!

Relaxing on a felucca in Aswan

Now, we have already spend some time in Aswan and to be honest it is not the most thrilling town. We have already been here 5 days and we have more to go before ‘leaving Monday’ appears on the calendar. So, we decide to drive to the temple of Abu Simbel, about 280 kilometres further south (and about 50 km from Sudan – not so funny). We make our way down to Abu Simbel with the Dutch family Kamp. The five of them are traveling through Africa for a year. We decide not to leave with the (compulsory?) convoy nor do we get the travel permit that you should have. We heard you can go on your own and save the money for the permit as they don’t check it. So off we go!

Almost in Wadi Halfa, Sudan…. almost

Along the way we are only checked twice and not asked for the permit. When we arrive at the parking lot of the temple we are asked to sign a paper saying ‘that we will be going back to Aswan without police escort and that we will drive 80 km an hour’. Why we had to sign this ridiculous paper, we don’t know but as we see no problem with that, we just do. We sleep on the parking lot, ready to rise and shine at 5.15 am to enter the complex at 5.30, see the sunrise and enjoy the temple before hundreds of people arrive.

The temple of Abu Simbel, carved out of a mountain was relocated in the 1960s to the position where it is now after the waters of Lake Nasser started rising. Almost unbelievable, especially when you are standing in front of this huge monument. Four colossal statues guard the entrance, each of them more than 20 metres tall. Incredible how they managed to cut the monument and put it back together as if they were playing with gigantic Lego!

At around 7.30 the troops arrive: the convoy from Aswan has reach Abu Simbel. Loads of tourist are dropped for a couple of hours to enjoy the monument and then return to Aswan. So this is the daily routine on the parking lot: getting full between 7.30 and 8.00 am, becoming empty again around 10. We return to Aswan on our own. Just as we are almost in the city centre of Aswan again we are stopped and asked for the permit at a check-up. As they only speak Arabic we just smile, nod and put our thumbs up as if to say ‘yes, yes’ and carry on. : )

Parking lot at 9 am

Now all we have to do is wait, wait and wait for a ferry….