Aswan.... Finally!

James: We are now in Aswan after 900 odd km over seven days. The bodies are tired! We are even struggling to walk up the stairs of our minus 5 star hotel (3.5GBP per night)! The last few days have been interesting to say the least. A few days ago we spent the night in Sohag, which is on the west bank of the Nile. We found a cheap and cheerful hotel (or fondok) near the train station and managed to convince the manager that we sleep with our bikes and they should be kept in our rooms rather than outside. We also got to experience some fantastic Egyptian hospitality. This started when we stopped for supper and once we had finished our meal the owner refused to let us pay. Then a fruit seller gave us some free veg even after we tried to pay for it. After returning to the hotel we met a guy called Faizel and his brother Ahmed. They lived with their family next door to the hotel and it turned out that Faizel has a similar academic background to Mark (electronic engineering) and was interested in similar things. And he spoke fluent English. After chatting outside for a bit he invited us to his home where we met his father and enjoyed refreshments and fruit while Faizel gave us an overview of his family and his aspirations career wise. It was such a interesting evening and we were really bowled over by how welcoming Faizel and his family were. Particularly to guys with crusty beards on bicycles! We took a group photo at the end, which is in the photos section of the website.

From Sohag we planned to ride to Luxor in one day. This is about 220km and we got up super early to leave just as it got light. The first 100km were done by lunch time when we hit the town of Nag Hammadi. Normally you cross over to the east bank at this point and stick to main road but we wanted to avoid this road and the vehicle fumes (don't get me started on the toxic air in the Nile Valley!) that go with it and take the quieter west bank. This was working out well until we hit a police checkpoint. We have hit many of these before and generally we speed up and wave and even if the police do try and stop us it's usually a very lame attempt. This was different. The police rushed into the road to stop us cycling through. Once stopped the main police man, with ray bans of course, got on his phone and it was 10 minutes later when we were told to head back to Nag Hammadi and cross the river. Rather then risk an Egyptian prison we complied even though it involved a 15km detour. So now our distance for the day would be 235km. Easy on an unladen road bike. Horrific on heavily loaded tourer! Once across the river we hit another checkpoint and before we could argue we had a police escort following us. It was not so bad but they did not want us to stop for anything not even to drink. We got to a point when we were both about to "hit the wall" so we stopped to buy coke and the cop went mental at us, fingering his pistol and waving his hands about. So back on the bike it was all the way to Luxor. The road was actually quite nice. It was lined with loads of plants in flower and on another day I would have really appreciated it but in our state we only wanted to get to Luxor to eat and drink and lie down. We were counting down the km doing some hectic mental arithmetic of speed, time, average speed, etc, and worked out we were a kilometer away and the signs confirmed it. After that supposed final kilometer we hit another sign: Welcome to Luxor turn right, 4 km. We were not amused but luckily there was a bit of a downhill into down and we were able to limp in riding side saddle to give our backsides some relief. We were so glad when we finally got to Luxor. We had spent a total of 9.5 hours in the saddle and found our hotel, the Happy Land Hotel, just as it was getting dark. We both sat on the cold floor and downed a few cokes and devoured a few bags of crisps. We were knackered. Still we managed to head out that night for a beer (called Stella) and also to check out the Luxor temple. We also got hit with Starbucks like prices for the cup of instant cappuccino in the tourist area and vowed not to be wooed in by any Nescafe signs from now on!

There is alot to see in Luxor so we decided to spend the following morning doing the tourist thing. We got ourselves a taxi and headed to Valley of the Kings to explore some tombs and visit a few other sites in the area. Once all the tourists pass you by in the Valley of the Kings you really start to appreciate the place and you try to imagine what it must have been like discovering the tombs for the first time. Imagine being in Howard Carter's shoes when he discovered Tutankhamen's tomb?

With a few tombs, monuments and temples in the bag it was back on the bikes for a 110km ride to Edfou, where we stayed in the worst hotel so far, and then another 110 km to Aswan. On arrival in Aswan we headed straight to the Nile River Transport Co office to get our tickets for the ferry. Outside we met the first overlanders we had seen in Egypt. There was a crazy dutch guy with his wife crusing around in a white van, a swiss couple in a landcruiser, a guy in a massive truck and a few guys on motorcycles who had gone through Syria and been held by by guys with AK47s. We also met a cyclist from England, Simon, who was cycling from Cairo to Addis Adaba. Most had been stuck in Aswan for 10-14 days as the ferry was cancelled due to Eid. Some of their sudanese visas were also about to expire and people's patience was somewhat strained. We eventually got to speak to the main man who assured us that it won't be a problem for us to get on the ferry with our bikes we just need to sort out our own visas before we can buy a ticket. The Sudanese consulate only opened the following day (ie today 13 November, Sunday is the equivalent of Monday in Egypt) so we headed of to a hotel recommended by Simon. It was a steal at 3.5 GBP per night although you would not be putting your tour groups in there or forcing your girlfriend to stay the night there. Don't worry Isobel I won't make you stay in a place like that. Showered and fed we headed out with Simon to find some beer eventually being sold a few cans of Sakara by a shifty shop owner. We sneakily drank the drinks on a bench overlooking the Nile (you can't drink in public in Egypt) and talked about bikes, previous trips and how to do some serious stealth camping even in European cities.

Today we were at the Sudanese consulate at 8 am to be first in the queue. After a while the other overlanders arrived and we heard there had been a protest in Aswan the night before and they had wreck some shops and Nubian man had died. One of the overlanders had his windscreen smashed as he was parked nearby doing his own stealth camping. After some questions from the smartly dressed Sudanese consulate employees about why we did not apply for our visas in Cairo (it was closed!) and why we were going to Sudan, we were told to fill in the form and come back the next day (14 November) to collect the visa. And the price was only $50 rather than the $100 in Cairo, which means more beer after Sudan! If the visas are ready by 10 am as promised this will give us enough time to cycle the 17km to the Aswan High Dam port and get our tickets for the ferry and then board at lunch time. We are holding thumbs! We can't face staying in for seven days! Wish us luck. If all goes to plan we will be in Sudan on Tuesday afternoon.

Over and out until Khartoum....

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