The Ferry to Aswan…

Sam, Mazar, Friede and I on our way to the ferry...

This was our last view of our vehicles as the ferry cast off...

Despite the fact that we boarded the ferry at a little after lunch, it only set sail at around 6pm… There was still cargo being offloaded as we clambered over a barge and onto the lower deck of the ferry.We all stood on the top deck looking back at our vehicles standing in the hot sun, and wondered when we would see them again…

We were shown up to our cabins, which at $76.00, could hardly be described as “well worth the money”! Two single bunks bolted to one wall, and a small shelving unit was all you got! But it was air-conditioned, and it DID have a porthole! The toilets made me smile, as I knew I would not be using them!! Water lay all over the floor, and the men’s were used by all and sundry as a shortcut from the port side of the boat to the starboard side… It was a bit disconcerting to be pushed head first into the basin while brushing your teeth, by a Burqua-clad woman dragging two screaming kids behind her…

Melody, Jakob and Jeffrey sneaked into the 1^st Class dining area, and joined us there for their meals. We spent much of our time up on the deck near the wheelhouse, chatting, drinking huge quantities of Coke, and watching the Lake glide by, as we steamed north to Aswan.

Jakob, Melody and an old Geezer, where we spent most of our time whilst on the ferry...

The sun sank lower in the western sky, turning the water of Lake Nasser into liquid silver… While we were watching the stunning sunset, we saw the barge carrying the vehicles the guys in Wadi Halfa were waiting for come slowly past us. This was the same barge our vehicles would be on, so we immediately began doing a few mental calculations, and all agreed that by Sunday, we would have our keys in hand, and cars and bike on the road…

The sun starts to slide into what the Egyptians of Ancient Times refered to as the "Underworld"...

And then it was gone, into the depths of the Western Desert, leaving the sky a burnt orange... Magical...

At 10.30pm, we passed Abu Simbel, and the four massive statues that Ramses ll had built to show his power to all those passing into Upper Egypt from Lower Egypt and Nubia. (present day Sudan) These statues had to be moved when the High Dam was built, and today reside about 65 metres above their original position… An amazing feat of workmanship… Only three of the statues are complete, the head of the third having fallen off long before they were discovered… The area is floodlit, but the ferry was too far off shore to get any decent photos of the statues themselves…

The Faithful gather on deck to pray...

At around midnight, only Melody and I remained up on deck, braving the wind that had got up a few hours earlier, and was pummeling all the 2^nd class passengers who had chosen to sleep outside, rather than in the musty confines of the decks below… We sat chatting about what we thought our futures held, and why we were making our respective trips… We later clambered about the ship, trying to find a decent spot for her to sleep in…

First we tried the deck, but the place she had chosen was now wet, so we lugged her gear down into the hold. The women’s section was full, and being a non-Moslem, Melody was made to feel uncomfortable there, and eventually found a place near the 2^nd class dining area, in the men’s section of the hold. This made her even more unpopular with the women, and the fact that she was wearing a skirt and a sleeveless t-shirt made them even more hostile towards her…

I made my way back to by cabin, which I was sharing with an old Sudanese guy, who jabbered away to me in Arabic, while I smilingly replied in Afrikaans… When I hopped up into my bunk, I inadvertently stood on his fingers, which caused him to sit bolt upright, and bang his head on the underside of my bunk… I lay there wondering if he would wait for me to fall asleep before taking revenge… I eventually fell asleep, and just a few short hours later, woke when my cabin mate went out to pray on deck. The Mullah had called them to pray at 4.30am…!!

with Sami and Khalid on board the ferry...

Marie and Melody discuss this seasons Parisienne fashions...

I watched the sun come up and then went off to find Jakob and Jeffrey. They had slept out on deck, and were none the worse for the experience… After a breakfast of beans and bread, we went in search of Melody, and found her fast asleep on a bench near the kitchen… She had been pestered during the night by some women, and had eventually moved to where she currently lay, wrapped up in her sleeping bag…

One of the more upmarket ferries taking tourists to Abu Simbel on Lake Nasser...

Nineteen hours after we had sailed, we were tied up to a rocky point near the entrance of the Aswan harbor, while Immigration officials came aboard to do their thing… Our passports were stamped, and we were told to wait out on deck. Once they had left the ferry, it was moved a short distance away and mayhem ensued as people clambered over their luggage and each other, in an effort to get off.

We managed to get into the wheelhouse of the ferry with some of the crew...

A stern faced Egyptian policeman restored order by whacking a few of the passengers with his parade stick, all the while shouting at the top of his voice…

We nearlt "wept" with laughter at the label on this dial... Does it make the windscreen drier or wetter...

It took a few more hours before we were able to gather out on a steeply sloping causeway, and make our way towards the customs building a few hundred metres up the hill… Khalid’s diving knife, which he had packed into one of the family’s bags, was picked up on the x-ray machine, and this held us up for a while… The knife was confiscated, and he was told to go to a police station in town, to get permission for it to be released… It is better to leave anything that may be classed as a weapon, either on your bike, or in your car…

All six of us managed to squeeze into the car of the “Fixer” Kamal, whom we had arranged from Wadi Halfa, and he drove Khalid, Marie, Sami and I to the Hathor Hotel, and then took Sam and Friede off to the Basma hotel up on the hill overlooking the Nile. Our hotel was on the Cornice, which is the main road running right next to the Nile River, and very centrally located… The main Souk, or market runs parallel to the hotel, just one block up from the Cornice, where all manner of goods can be found, including restaurants and small grocers…

It was a relief to be out of Wadi Halfa and into Egypt, but a different set of hassles awaited us here, ones that would test our patience to the limit and eventually cause all of us to lash out at the locals at one time or another…

Chilling on deck on the way to Aswan... The complete absence of mirrors in my hotels in Merowe, Dongola and Halfa, meant that the beard once again took control of my face...

©GBWT 2010