Egypt

EGYPT 24.04.06 - Entry We were finally on the ship with all the G’lers and therefore in good hands. After stowing away our luggage we went upstairs to the passenger deck. The A/C was running on full blast. Brr- that was cold. So cold that we went and got the insides of our moped jackets and put them on. The passports were stamped on the boats and then we had to wait again until departure. We had about 1 hour delay; Why? Nobody knew. The trip across took 1 ½ hours and we started to prepare ourselves mentally for the arrival and border clearance on the Egyptian side. We had heard different versions of how long customs clearance would take: anywhere from 5 to 48 hours! But we were in good spirits since we knew that the arrival of the Mercedes travelers had been already pre-arranged by the German embassy and the tourism ministry. You’d think that that would speed up clearance. We left the boat to go to customs. Shortly thereafter the 15 G’lers arrived and the race began. It all took only 1 ½ hours, thanks to all the uniformed people who issued their orders. For me as a passenger it was fun to watch. All the other women and I were sitting in the shade, watching our men in their efforts. They really physically went back and forth between offices and authorities. From A to B, then to D; then back to B and C and back again. Nobody knew exactly where they had to go next but in the end we had all of our necessary stamps as well as the Egyptian license plate and the Arabic “driver’s license” for the moped. A short good-bye to all the G’lers- maybe we’ll meet again in September in Namibia? That’s were they will start a new tour. Consequently we left the harbor a lot sooner than we had anticipated and drove our first kilometers on Egyptian ground. We had earned 1 hour due to the time difference (1 hour backwards, they hadn’t switched to daylight savings time yet) and we took our good old time to get to Sharm-El-Sheik. We were planning on getting there that same evening, 180 km on good asphalt roads should be no problem at all. We had also planned a short detour to Dahab since we had read that it was a really nice little village at the beach. But we changed our mind because of the bad condition of our rear tire and decided to drive directly through to Rita’s cousin. A good decision after all. That evening (1 hour after our arrival in Sharm) we learned of the bomb attack in Dahab. That was lucky! By the way, the journey through the Sinai to Sharm was wonderful. We drove past lots of mountain ranges and the desert and the sunset bathed the landscape in beautiful red light. It was 7p.m. when we arrived in Sharm and we were shocked. Granted, we didn’t have any idea about this city; we had just heard that it was a popular diving place. The village consists of nothing but hotels, one 4-star hotel after another... everything seemed totally sterile. On top of that, we searched for a long time until we finally found Heike’s address, Rita’s cousin, who lives in Sharm-El-Sheik and we were planning on visiting. Even though we had the address with us (and in Arab) nobody was able to help us. After endless questions and searching we finally met a cab driver who led us (by accident) to Heike’s house- by now it was at least 9p.m. And shortly after that we heard of the bomb attack in Dahab, a village at the coast, not even 90km away from Sharm. A strange feeling but life over here went on as normal. We really were lucky: had our tire not been in such bad shape we would have gone on to Dahab that same afternoon to spend 1 day there. 25. - 28.04.2006 A few days in Sharm-El-Sheik No, we didn’t use these days to dive or snorkel, we realxed at Rita’s cousin. The first day we inspected our rear tire a little closer and were pretty shocked to see what kind of damage the last 180 km had done to it. On the left side the wire came out and twisted around the tire just the same as on most places on the right side. We got to Sharm just in time. Our off-road tires were already waiting here for us and Chri went together with Heike’s son to get them changed. In addition, “the cow” was being polished by 3 men so that she looked as good as new with those new tires. Otherwise we didn’t do too much in Sharm. We did some laundry, wrote in our diary, watched TV, etc. We were also still waiting for a package from Germany containing our GPS and other things but unfortunately that didn’t arrive by Friday. That’s when we decided to go back to Nuweiba over the weekend. We were also hoping to meet Karin and Wolf there (the 2 Germans with the truck); we wanted to talk to them about the possibility of maybe traveling together through the northern Sudan. Since we weren’t sure whether our GPS would get here on time we had to come up with another solution. So, on the 28th of April 2006, we traveled 180km back north to Nuweiba. We were told that all travelers with their own vehicles stay at the Soft Beach Resort and sure enough, we met Karin and Wolf and a Belgian who was traveling on a motorbike. We put up our tent, went for a swim in the ocean and the rest of the evening we spent talking to another. April 29 – 30, 2006 Trip to the St. Katherine’s cloister and the Colored Canyon We visited the St. Katherine’s cloister on the first day. The weather wasn’t too great, lots of clouds and wind. Every once in a while it started to rain; the raindrops, mixed with the sand, made our moped look dirty again too soon. Scenic wise the route was beautiful: lots of mountains, sand dunes and a series of bends. We weren’t too impressed with the cloister itself. It was already closed and we couldn’t get inside anymore. But after climbing a small hill we were at least able to catch a glimpse of the quadrangle. Well, it was quite a mess. On the way back we drove through a small sandstorm, mixed with rain. Strange weather. The following day we had planned to drive back to Sharm via the Colored Canyon. But we didn’t really make it. First of all we couldn’t find the junction to the entrance of the Canyon. The road that we were on was indeed beautiful- partially with palm trees on the side of the road- but it led us into the wrong direction. After 30km we decided to finally turn around and to just head straight back to Sharm. And that’s when we actually found the entrance, a pure fluke, and decided to try our luck. The entrance to the Canyon was 15km long; after only 7km one way we turned around again. The ‘road’ was a dried out riverbed, full of big rocks, deep gravel, sand and corrugated iron flooring. That was hard to drive on; we even fell a couple of times. Luckily the falls weren’t as bad as we had feared. We just tipped over, moped and all, without getting hurt. But standing the moped back up was an exertion. Consequently we couldn’t tour the Canyon- but what’s the point in risking “the Cow” and our life? After that we drove back to Sharm and stopped once more at Rita’s cousin. We were hoping that the package had finally arrived but were yet again disappointed- no package in sight. Well, that meant having to go on without the new GPS. We also had to come up with a new way of getting through the North Sudan since traveling together with Karin and Wolf didn’t work either- they both decided to stay longer in Egypt. 1st of may, 2006 Journey to Cairo The journey took all day and was totally boring. While the Sinai is nice and hilly in the East, the West is just flat. A lot of oil rigs in the ocean and oil pipes and pumps on the side of the road. Not a very scenic journey. We crossed the Sues Canal through an underground tunnel and the last km’s until the capital went by fast on the highway. The entry into Cairo wasn’t very hard, either; we were going to Giza and just followed the signs. Unfortunately that led us directly into the midst of the city in rush -hour. Phew! Again another challenge for the driver, it was pretty chaotic. But at least we got to Giza just before sundown and started looking for our campsite. That alone took us another 2 hours because we didn’t care for the first campsite- “Salma Camp”- at all: located directly at a foul smelling arm of a river, full of mosquitoes and no travelers at all in sight. So we had to keep on looking and finally found the “Pipo Pyramids Campsite”; we put up our tent. By now it was pitch dark and 10pm. This campsite wasn’t great either, no travelers, but it was the last possibility to camp. After fixing a packet of soup we laid down on our foam mattresses- completely exhausted. May 02 – 05, 2006 Cairo and visits of pyramids We spend these days in Moloch Cairo. Getting our Visas for the Sudan took up the first two days. To receive a Visa one had to have a letter of recommendation from the German Embassy; it costs EUR 20,00 per person and takes 1 day for processing. We’re not exactly sure what they need it for, especially since it is just a standard letter stating our names. The Visa for the Sudan costs a whole US $ 100.00 per person- but processing time is only 3 hours. The Visas expire 1 month from date of issue. We didn’t need them any longer. We also visited the Egyptian Museum on the first day. Well, great exhibit, really interesting stuff. Unfortunately the whole museum seemed one big mess and chaos, as if one just found an object and then decided to just put it anywhere. Well, I guess one had to see it. In addition, we tried several times calling PLAN International-Cairo unsuccessfully since we had planned to visit a project area there. But either nobody answered the phone or it was busy or they didn’t speak any English. Too bad. The pyramids were planned for the 3rd day. We visited the Pyramids of Gize as well as the step pyramids of Saqqara. Both very imposing buildings. It is just always amazing again to see what humans have already achieved. Unfortunately we weren’t able to find the way to the Pyramids of Dahsur- later we were told that they are located inside a military area and probably can’t be toured anyways. That same day we also experienced some difficulties with the Egyptian mentality so that we weren’t able to admire the buildings properly anyhow. May 05 – 09, 2006 Touring the Oasis We left the capital on Friday, heading west, to start our 1200 km long oasis tour towards Luxor. In the beginning we drove through some pretty boring, flat desert which turned into the black desert later on. We saw some fantastic rock formations, all of them in a sparkling black! And sometimes the sand even gave the impression of being burnt. We spent the first night in the oasis Bahriya in a very nice hotel. The second day was the most exciting day of the whole oasis tour: all day long we drove through a sandstorm. On the one hand it was actually too bad because we drove past the white desert where we had intended to stay one or two nights; but it was unfortunately too windy and way too sandy. On the other hand, the sandstorm was quite an experience: visibility was at times under 20m, the temperature at about 40C; moped, boots, suitcase- everything was sandblasted; strong winds coming from the front at an angle; unreal light and of course sand everywhere. The motorbike outfits and helmets were a huge help; we hardly had any sand in our clothes. We spent that night in an awful hotel in the oasis Farafira. Sleep was out of the question! The 3rd day was quite cloudy and we had a boring route ahead of us: flat, gray desert with no change. We found a nice hotel in the oasis Dhakla where we spend a very relaxing evening. The route to the oasis El Kharga on Monday was more interesting; partly we saw beautiful sand dunes on the side of the road and partly we saw small green villages with palm trees. The sand dunes that took over the old streets were funny to look at. Well, they just build a new road around it. In El Kharga we also had police protection all the time, unintentionally. While searching for a hotel, we were followed by 4 policemen in a car all the way through the city. We were also followed on our trip to see the tombs of Al Bagawat. We do not know why we were followed; nobody was able to explain it to us. It was definitely not dangerous; it just got on our nerves! Even when we left the hotel to grab a bite to eat the hotelier followed us. When we asked him why, all he was able to say was: “no English”. We sent him back to the hotel- we are able to buy our falafel on our own! Sleep was out of the question that night again since the stores open up at 7pm at night; quite a hustle and bustle started right in front of our hotel window and didn’t end until 4am in the morning when the last store finally closed. Exhausting! On May 5th, 2006, we started on our last stage through the Egyptian desert, heading towards Luxor. Again the route was very boring and we were quite happy to finally have reached the Nile and to see some green countryside again. We stayed overnight at the Rezeiky Camp in Luxor- another place where all travelers usually meet. But here we were out of luck yet again. We did see 3 cars from South Africa upon our arrival but they left really soon. Later we found out that they were traveling form Cape South to Cape North in 3 months- insane! Later that afternoon we visited the Karnak temple. Impressive. Even though there were a lot of tourists we were able to look at the temple with its halls of columns in peace and quiet. Again, we were overwhelmed by the creativity of the old Egyptians. That evening we splurged and had dinner at a Chinese restaurant- we just had to have that! May 10, 2006- Temple of Luxor and Western Thebes We spent all day looking at temples. We started out with the Luxor temple. Not bad. At noon we took a ferry across the Nile to Western Thebes and rented 2 bicycles. Not the best quality but we were able to move along and everybody looked at us kind of strange. I suppose it doesn’t happen too often over here that tourist’s bicycle. First we cycled to the “Valley of the Kings” and toured three tombs with amazing paintings. Then we continued on to the Medinet Habu Temple; we were, again, fascinated. An enormous building with several courtyards, lots of colossal columns, etc. Very beautiful! We ended the day with a trip to the famous Hatschepsut temple which we had imagined to be even more imposing. All in all, it was a very interesting day! On the way back we met 2 Canadians on the ferry whom we had met for the first time in Goereme (Turkey) and then again at the Pyramids of Gize. What a coincidence! Well, we just had to go out to dinner with them. And we realized again how small the world actually is! May 11, 2006- Drive in a convoy to Assuan What a joke! We had to drive in a convoy because it is just so dangerous on this route. Haha- the only dangerous part of this route was the way the convoy drivers and the policemen drove! It started at 7am in the morning; we were the first vehicle after the first police car. Behind us were 2 mini busses and 3 big tour busses. The first hour was still kind of fun; we drove leisurely at about 100km/h. Then they all started to pass each other, were gone and out of sight. Estimated speed: 140-160km/h! We didn’t join in and sure enough, the last police car was right behind us. It was surprising that they didn’t push us! There were 2 stops planned on the way: Idfu and the Kum Umbu temple. We had one hour each to visit. That was a right down disgrace! Even though we made repeated comments about wanting to travel alone and in peace, the police car, pushing us from behind, did not leave us. Consequently we arrived in Assuan completely knocked out. It was really hot, about 38C, and we decided to stay in a hotel. It was only Thursday night and our ferry to the Sudan didn’t leave until Monday. We didn’t want to swelter all that time in a tent. May 12, 2006- Abu Simbel Another disturbing tour…since we didn’t have enough time to drive ourselves but we also didn’t want to miss seeing the temple, we decided to book an organized tour. We probably shouldn’t have done that. Departure was at 4:30am and we were supposed to drive in a convoy again. The desert really is dangerous… Again, the convoy was a joke because soon all the vehicles were so far apart from each other that you couldn’t even see them anymore. There were a total of about 70 big tour busses and 25 mini busses! And our mini bus (filled up all the way, even the emergency seat was occupied) was one of the slowest. But yet he still drove 130km/h! We are guessing that the first bus got to Abu Simbel about an hour before we did… and that on a distance of about 300km! Insane. We were sitting on the bus and we were really scared! Even in darkness they were driving without lights on- you don’t really need them and the bus wasn’t made for this kind of speed. Ok, and after arriving with about 1000 of other tourists, we had a total of 2 hours to visit the temples. They are really impressive, though, especially when you think about that each stone was moved about 60m. Otherwise the floods of the Nasser reservoir would have drowned everything. But we couldn’t really enjoy it; the journey to and fro was jus too nerve-racking. Back in Assuan we visited the Philae temple (very nice) and the Aswan High Dam (boring). By then we weren’t up for visiting the “unfinished obelisk” anymore, either. Definitely a tour that we cannot recommend! May 13 and 14, 2006- Assuan We got a hold of our tickets for the ferry into the Sudan (first class cabin = 383,50 Egyptian pounds (EP) per person and 372,00 EP for the moped), turned our license plates in at the police, relaxed and took a felucca ride on the Nile towards the Botanical Island. All in all it was actually too hot to move around a lot and we were looking forward to the departure into the Sudan. May 15, 2006- Last day in Egypt We went to the harbor early in the morning where all hell had broken loose. The ship only leaves once a week and therefore everybody wants to get on. We finished up all of our customs and borders formalities and headed towards the ship at about noon. The ship looked a lot better than we had expected and even the cabins appeared to be pretty clean and comfortable. Then we waited and watched the hustle and bustle of loading the passenger- and the cargo ship. Quite interesting. Loading meant: simply throwing the cargo from the truck onto the ship, regardless of losses. At the beginning we also couldn’t see where they were putting “the Cow”. We were even still hopeful that she would make it onto our ship. But at about 3pm, Chri had to tow “the Cow” onto the last available spot on the cargo ship. At 4pm the ship finally cast off. With an uneasy feeling, we watched “our Cow” chug off on a suspicious looking, lopsided barge…hopefully she’ll arrive safe and sound in Wadi Halfa! The passenger ship finally cast off at 6pm., we were served a delicious meal and after about every 2.passenger walked into our cabin without knocking, it was finally quiet by 10pm. We turned off the A/C, opened the window and got a good night sleep and rode this way the last km’s in Egypt into the Sudan. FAZIT EGYPT RITA: even if everything sounds ok now, I have to say: never ever again! The country and its sights is fantastic but the people… CHRI: Never again! I was actually looking forward to Egypt, but the people…. because of them we couldn’t really enjoy the buildings. And on top of that Egypt is very dirty. It’s actually too bad.

EGYPT

24.04.06 - Entry

We were finally on the ship with all the G’lers and therefore in good hands. After stowing away our luggage we went upstairs to the passenger deck. The A/C was running on full blast. Brr- that was cold. So cold that we went and got the insides of our moped jackets and put them on. The passports were stamped on the boats and then we had to wait again until departure. We had about 1 hour delay; Why? Nobody knew. The trip across took 1 ½ hours and we started to prepare ourselves mentally for the arrival and border clearance on the Egyptian side. We had heard different versions of how long customs clearance would take: anywhere from 5 to 48 hours! But we were in good spirits since we knew that the arrival of the Mercedes travelers had been already pre-arranged by the German embassy and the tourism ministry. You’d think that that would speed up clearance. We left the boat to go to customs. Shortly thereafter the 15 G’lers arrived and the race began. It all took only 1 ½ hours, thanks to all the uniformed people who issued their orders. For me as a passenger it was fun to watch. All the other women and I were sitting in the shade, watching our men in their efforts. They really physically went back and forth between offices and authorities. From A to B, then to D; then back to B and C and back again. Nobody knew exactly where they had to go next but in the end we had all of our necessary stamps as well as the Egyptian license plate and the Arabic “driver’s license” for the moped. A short good-bye to all the G’lers- maybe we’ll meet again in September in Namibia? That’s were they will start a new tour.

Consequently we left the harbor a lot sooner than we had anticipated and drove our first kilometers on Egyptian ground. We had earned 1 hour due to the time difference (1 hour backwards, they hadn’t switched to daylight savings time yet) and we took our good old time to get to Sharm-El-Sheik. We were planning on getting there that same evening, 180 km on good asphalt roads should be no problem at all. We had also planned a short detour to Dahab since we had read that it was a really nice little village at the beach. But we changed our mind because of the bad condition of our rear tire and decided to drive directly through to Rita’s cousin. A good decision after all. That evening (1 hour after our arrival in Sharm) we learned of the bomb attack in Dahab. That was lucky!

By the way, the journey through the Sinai to Sharm was wonderful. We drove past lots of mountain ranges and the desert and the sunset bathed the landscape in beautiful red light. It was 7p.m. when we arrived in Sharm and we were shocked. Granted, we didn’t have any idea about this city; we had just heard that it was a popular diving place. The village consists of nothing but hotels, one 4-star hotel after another... everything seemed totally sterile. On top of that, we searched for a long time until we finally found Heike’s address, Rita’s cousin, who lives in Sharm-El-Sheik and we were planning on visiting. Even though we had the address with us (and in Arab) nobody was able to help us. After endless questions and searching we finally met a cab driver who led us (by accident) to Heike’s house- by now it was at least 9p.m. And shortly after that we heard of the bomb attack in Dahab, a village at the coast, not even 90km away from Sharm. A strange feeling but life over here went on as normal. We really were lucky: had our tire not been in such bad shape we would have gone on to Dahab that same afternoon to spend 1 day there.

25. - 28.04.2006 A few days in Sharm-El-Sheik

No, we didn’t use these days to dive or snorkel, we realxed at Rita’s cousin. The first day we inspected our rear tire a little closer and were pretty shocked to see what kind of damage the last 180 km had done to it. On the left side the wire came out and twisted around the tire just the same as on most places on the right side. We got to Sharm just in time. Our off-road tires were already waiting here for us and Chri went together with Heike’s son to get them changed. In addition, “the cow” was being polished by 3 men so that she looked as good as new with those new tires. Otherwise we didn’t do too much in Sharm. We did some laundry, wrote in our diary, watched TV, etc.

We were also still waiting for a package from Germany containing our GPS and other things but unfortunately that didn’t arrive by Friday. That’s when we decided to go back to Nuweiba over the weekend. We were also hoping to meet Karin and Wolf there (the 2 Germans with the truck); we wanted to talk to them about the possibility of maybe traveling together through the northern Sudan. Since we weren’t sure whether our GPS would get here on time we had to come up with another solution. So, on the 28th of April 2006, we traveled 180km back north to Nuweiba. We were told that all travelers with their own vehicles stay at the Soft Beach Resort and sure enough, we met Karin and Wolf and a Belgian who was traveling on a motorbike. We put up our tent, went for a swim in the ocean and the rest of the evening we spent talking to another.

April 29 – 30, 2006 Trip to the St. Katherine’s cloister and the Colored Canyon

We visited the St. Katherine’s cloister on the first day. The weather wasn’t too great, lots of clouds and wind. Every once in a while it started to rain; the raindrops, mixed with the sand, made our moped look dirty again too soon. Scenic wise the route was beautiful: lots of mountains, sand dunes and a series of bends. We weren’t too impressed with the cloister itself. It was already closed and we couldn’t get inside anymore. But after climbing a small hill we were at least able to catch a glimpse of the quadrangle. Well, it was quite a mess. On the way back we drove through a small sandstorm, mixed with rain. Strange weather.

The following day we had planned to drive back to Sharm via the Colored Canyon. But we didn’t really make it. First of all we couldn’t find the junction to the entrance of the Canyon. The road that we were on was indeed beautiful- partially with palm trees on the side of the road- but it led us into the wrong direction. After 30km we decided to finally turn around and to just head straight back to Sharm. And that’s when we actually found the entrance, a pure fluke, and decided to try our luck. The entrance to the Canyon was 15km long; after only 7km one way we turned around again. The ‘road’ was a dried out riverbed, full of big rocks, deep gravel, sand and corrugated iron flooring. That was hard to drive on; we even fell a couple of times. Luckily the falls weren’t as bad as we had feared. We just tipped over, moped and all, without getting hurt. But standing the moped back up was an exertion. Consequently we couldn’t tour the Canyon- but what’s the point in risking “the Cow” and our life? After that we drove back to Sharm and stopped once more at Rita’s cousin. We were hoping that the package had finally arrived but were yet again disappointed- no package in sight. Well, that meant having to go on without the new GPS. We also had to come up with a new way of getting through the North Sudan since traveling together with Karin and Wolf didn’t work either- they both decided to stay longer in Egypt.

1st of may, 2006 Journey to Cairo

The journey took all day and was totally boring. While the Sinai is nice and hilly in the East, the West is just flat. A lot of oil rigs in the ocean and oil pipes and pumps on the side of the road. Not a very scenic journey. We crossed the Sues Canal through an underground tunnel and the last km’s until the capital went by fast on the highway. The entry into Cairo wasn’t very hard, either; we were going to Giza and just followed the signs. Unfortunately that led us directly into the midst of the city in rush -hour. Phew! Again another challenge for the driver, it was pretty chaotic. But at least we got to Giza just before sundown and started looking for our campsite. That alone took us another 2 hours because we didn’t care for the first campsite- “Salma Camp”- at all: located directly at a foul smelling arm of a river, full of mosquitoes and no travelers at all in sight. So we had to keep on looking and finally found the “Pipo Pyramids Campsite”; we put up our tent. By now it was pitch dark and 10pm. This campsite wasn’t great either, no travelers, but it was the last possibility to camp. After fixing a packet of soup we laid down on our foam mattresses- completely exhausted.

May 02 – 05, 2006 Cairo and visits of pyramids

We spend these days in Moloch Cairo. Getting our Visas for the Sudan took up the first two days. To receive a Visa one had to have a letter of recommendation from the German Embassy; it costs EUR 20,00 per person and takes 1 day for processing. We’re not exactly sure what they need it for, especially since it is just a standard letter stating our names. The Visa for the Sudan costs a whole US $ 100.00 per person- but processing time is only 3 hours. The Visas expire 1 month from date of issue. We didn’t need them any longer.

We also visited the Egyptian Museum on the first day. Well, great exhibit, really interesting stuff. Unfortunately the whole museum seemed one big mess and chaos, as if one just found an object and then decided to just put it anywhere. Well, I guess one had to see it. In addition, we tried several times calling PLAN International-Cairo unsuccessfully since we had planned to visit a project area there. But either nobody answered the phone or it was busy or they didn’t speak any English. Too bad.

The pyramids were planned for the 3rd day. We visited the Pyramids of Gize as well as the step pyramids of Saqqara. Both very imposing buildings. It is just always amazing again to see what humans have already achieved. Unfortunately we weren’t able to find the way to the Pyramids of Dahsur- later we were told that they are located inside a military area and probably can’t be toured anyways. That same day we also experienced some difficulties with the Egyptian mentality so that we weren’t able to admire the buildings properly anyhow.

May 05 – 09, 2006 Touring the Oasis

We left the capital on Friday, heading west, to start our 1200 km long oasis tour towards Luxor. In the beginning we drove through some pretty boring, flat desert which turned into the black desert later on. We saw some fantastic rock formations, all of them in a sparkling black! And sometimes the sand even gave the impression of being burnt. We spent the first night in the oasis Bahriya in a very nice hotel. The second day was the most exciting day of the whole oasis tour: all day long we drove through a sandstorm. On the one hand it was actually too bad because we drove past the white desert where we had intended to stay one or two nights; but it was unfortunately too windy and way too sandy. On the other hand, the sandstorm was quite an experience: visibility was at times under 20m, the temperature at about 40C; moped, boots, suitcase- everything was sandblasted; strong winds coming from the front at an angle; unreal light and of course sand everywhere. The motorbike outfits and helmets were a huge help; we hardly had any sand in our clothes. We spent that night in an awful hotel in the oasis Farafira. Sleep was out of the question! The 3rd day was quite cloudy and we had a boring route ahead of us: flat, gray desert with no change. We found a nice hotel in the oasis Dhakla where we spend a very relaxing evening. The route to the oasis El Kharga on Monday was more interesting; partly we saw beautiful sand dunes on the side of the road and partly we saw small green villages with palm trees. The sand dunes that took over the old streets were funny to look at. Well, they just build a new road around it. In El Kharga we also had police protection all the time, unintentionally. While searching for a hotel, we were followed by 4 policemen in a car all the way through the city. We were also followed on our trip to see the tombs of Al Bagawat. We do not know why we were followed; nobody was able to explain it to us. It was definitely not dangerous; it just got on our nerves! Even when we left the hotel to grab a bite to eat the hotelier followed us. When we asked him why, all he was able to say was: “no English”. We sent him back to the hotel- we are able to buy our falafel on our own! Sleep was out of the question that night again since the stores open up at 7pm at night; quite a hustle and bustle started right in front of our hotel window and didn’t end until 4am in the morning when the last store finally closed. Exhausting!

On May 5th, 2006, we started on our last stage through the Egyptian desert, heading towards Luxor. Again the route was very boring and we were quite happy to finally have reached the Nile and to see some green countryside again. We stayed overnight at the Rezeiky Camp in Luxor- another place where all travelers usually meet. But here we were out of luck yet again. We did see 3 cars from South Africa upon our arrival but they left really soon. Later we found out that they were traveling form Cape South to Cape North in 3 months- insane!

Later that afternoon we visited the Karnak temple. Impressive. Even though there were a lot of tourists we were able to look at the temple with its halls of columns in peace and quiet. Again, we were overwhelmed by the creativity of the old Egyptians. That evening we splurged and had dinner at a Chinese restaurant- we just had to have that!

May 10, 2006- Temple of Luxor and Western Thebes

We spent all day looking at temples. We started out with the Luxor temple. Not bad. At noon we took a ferry across the Nile to Western Thebes and rented 2 bicycles. Not the best quality but we were able to move along and everybody looked at us kind of strange. I suppose it doesn’t happen too often over here that tourist’s bicycle. First we cycled to the “Valley of the Kings” and toured three tombs with amazing paintings. Then we continued on to the Medinet Habu Temple; we were, again, fascinated. An enormous building with several courtyards, lots of colossal columns, etc. Very beautiful! We ended the day with a trip to the famous Hatschepsut temple which we had imagined to be even more imposing. All in all, it was a very interesting day! On the way back we met 2 Canadians on the ferry whom we had met for the first time in Goereme (Turkey) and then again at the Pyramids of Gize. What a coincidence! Well, we just had to go out to dinner with them. And we realized again how small the world actually is!

May 11, 2006- Drive in a convoy to Assuan

What a joke! We had to drive in a convoy because it is just so dangerous on this route. Haha- the only dangerous part of this route was the way the convoy drivers and the policemen drove! It started at 7am in the morning; we were the first vehicle after the first police car. Behind us were 2 mini busses and 3 big tour busses. The first hour was still kind of fun; we drove leisurely at about 100km/h. Then they all started to pass each other, were gone and out of sight. Estimated speed: 140-160km/h! We didn’t join in and sure enough, the last police car was right behind us. It was surprising that they didn’t push us! There were 2 stops planned on the way: Idfu and the Kum Umbu temple. We had one hour each to visit. That was a right down disgrace! Even though we made repeated comments about wanting to travel alone and in peace, the police car, pushing us from behind, did not leave us. Consequently we arrived in Assuan completely knocked out. It was really hot, about 38C, and we decided to stay in a hotel. It was only Thursday night and our ferry to the Sudan didn’t leave until Monday. We didn’t want to swelter all that time in a tent.

May 12, 2006- Abu Simbel

Another disturbing tour…since we didn’t have enough time to drive ourselves but we also didn’t want to miss seeing the temple, we decided to book an organized tour. We probably shouldn’t have done that. Departure was at 4:30am and we were supposed to drive in a convoy again. The desert really is dangerous… Again, the convoy was a joke because soon all the vehicles were so far apart from each other that you couldn’t even see them anymore. There were a total of about 70 big tour busses and 25 mini busses! And our mini bus (filled up all the way, even the emergency seat was occupied) was one of the slowest. But yet he still drove 130km/h! We are guessing that the first bus got to Abu Simbel about an hour before we did… and that on a distance of about 300km! Insane. We were sitting on the bus and we were really scared! Even in darkness they were driving without lights on- you don’t really need them and the bus wasn’t made for this kind of speed. Ok, and after arriving with about 1000 of other tourists, we had a total of 2 hours to visit the temples. They are really impressive, though, especially when you think about that each stone was moved about 60m. Otherwise the floods of the Nasser reservoir would have drowned everything. But we couldn’t really enjoy it; the journey to and fro was jus too nerve-racking.

Back in Assuan we visited the Philae temple (very nice) and the Aswan High Dam (boring). By then we weren’t up for visiting the “unfinished obelisk” anymore, either. Definitely a tour that we cannot recommend!

May 13 and 14, 2006- Assuan

We got a hold of our tickets for the ferry into the Sudan (first class cabin = 383,50 Egyptian pounds (EP) per person and 372,00 EP for the moped), turned our license plates in at the police, relaxed and took a felucca ride on the Nile towards the Botanical Island. All in all it was actually too hot to move around a lot and we were looking forward to the departure into the Sudan.

May 15, 2006- Last day in Egypt

We went to the harbor early in the morning where all hell had broken loose. The ship only leaves once a week and therefore everybody wants to get on. We finished up all of our customs and borders formalities and headed towards the ship at about noon. The ship looked a lot better than we had expected and even the cabins appeared to be pretty clean and comfortable. Then we waited and watched the hustle and bustle of loading the passenger- and the cargo ship. Quite interesting. Loading meant: simply throwing the cargo from the truck onto the ship, regardless of losses. At the beginning we also couldn’t see where they were putting “the Cow”. We were even still hopeful that she would make it onto our ship. But at about 3pm, Chri had to tow “the Cow” onto the last available spot on the cargo ship. At 4pm the ship finally cast off. With an uneasy feeling, we watched “our Cow” chug off on a suspicious looking, lopsided barge…hopefully she’ll arrive safe and sound in Wadi Halfa!

The passenger ship finally cast off at 6pm., we were served a delicious meal and after about every 2.passenger walked into our cabin without knocking, it was finally quiet by 10pm. We turned off the A/C, opened the window and got a good night sleep and rode this way the last km’s in Egypt into the Sudan.

FAZIT EGYPT

RITA: even if everything sounds ok now, I have to say: never ever again! The country and its sights is fantastic but the people…

CHRI: Never again! I was actually looking forward to Egypt, but the people…. because of them we couldn’t really enjoy the buildings. And on top of that Egypt is very dirty. It’s actually too bad.