Nile Delta and
Sinai
As usual we could not
leave Alex for four days... thanks again to Jutta and Monica. We
decided to head East
through the Nile delta towards the Suez Channel. The landscape was a
constant green of palm trees and crops, such a contrast with the
desert where we had spent so much time. Unfortunately it is
difficult to see the channel as on most of its length it is guarded
by the army. We slept in Port Said and continued along the channel
towards the south and then crossed to Sinai. There we wanted to do
some off road driving and go to St. Katherine's Monastery through
the wadis. We tried it the first day and did not get through
but
we drove around some nice canyons, then ended up taking the asphalt
road to the monastery. St. Katherine's is a peaceful place. It was
created in 330 AD when a Roman empress had a small chapel and a
fortified refuge built for the local hermits. It is one of the
oldest continuously functioning Monasteries and has a good
collection of icons, ancient manuscripts and bibles. Unfortunately
we arrived when Easter was starting so we could not see the
Monastery inside, but it's surroundings are beautiful and it's a
good starting point for a trek to Mt. Sinai, which is just behind
it.
From here we persisted
in our idea of taking direct routes, which can include some off-roading.
In a German guidebook we had a very good description of a track
linking St. Katherine with the 100 km away Dahab on the Red Sea
(where we planned to stay) so we decided to follow it. It was not a
good decision... It all
went well through very nice wadis for about 60 km. Some passages
were so narrow that the car just fitted and had it not been for the
track we were following we would have never guessed there was a way
through the mountains. And then it happened... After a sharp curve
we were standing at a check point. The usual "wait one minute"
started while they looked at our passports and called on the radio.
Another minute, or 10 or 30, went by while waiting for the return
instructions from the voice in the radio. After about an hour
discussing they tell us we have to go back to St. Katherine to speak
with their commander... We energetically refused and the guy was
quite puzzled, so after radioing some more he comes back saying that
their commander was coming to meet us... We were in the middle of
nowhere and the commander was coming from St. Katherine. It was
again such a waste of time... after three hours the guy arrived just
to tell us that they will escort us back and that we can not
continue to Dahab... I even
flipped
out and started walking with the result that I had two soldiers
following and asking me to go back. It got so late and we got so
angry with them that they were willing to pay for our dinner and for
a room in one of the best hotels in St. Katherine's little town. The
sensation we had was again that the military can not cope with
individual tourists, who they can not control as well as package
tourists. We either go on the tarmac or with a guide, but never
alone. They kept on saying it was for our own security, that we were
not arrested or anything like it, while they would not give us back
our passports until they finished their extensive amount of reports.
For us this has nothing to do with security for us (the beduins we
met on the way were all nice and helpful) but security for them...
as they need to know were we are at all times. We had seven check
points a day in Sinai and even when they allow people only to one
town at an intersection, they continue trying to be friendly and
asking "where are you going?". We decided to have dinner in St
Katherine but not to sleep there. We drove after midnight about 40
km on the asphalt road towards Nuweiba and slept in the desert.
In Dahab the next day we
spent time shopping for diving masks and some groceries. Although
Dahab is really
nice, we did not find any spacious place to camp so we continued to
Ras Mohamed National Park, just South of Sharm el Sheick. We just
wanted to relax and see no one (especially no police or military
officers) for a couple of days... It worked out perfectly. As I had
imagined, the park gets some tourists during the day (90% of them
come by boat, to dive or snorkel) and there are very few people in
the camping area. We stayed four nights there just snorkeling,
reading and checking our water system (again), with the result that
we discovered what was wrong with it. So we added an excursion to
Sharm el Sheick with the mission of getting new water tabs, which
Reto installed on the spot. Ras Mohamed Nation Park is probably one
of the best places to snorkel in the
world.
It has so much to see, we did not even need to swim far. Just meters
away from "our" little bay there were lots of corals and fishes of
all colors and shapes. We even saw one of those very spiky ones,
whitish and red, that are meant to be poisonous. The last day was
windy, so windy that the tent of one of the French girls that was
camping on "our" bay, went flying... We wanted to take the ferry to
Hurghada, but we found out that 10 days before they had sold the
boat and they did not know if the service was going to run again.
This changed our plans as it forced us to drive a 800 km detour.
On our way down the Red
sea we made an overnight stop at St. Paul's, a Coptic Christian
Monastery. It is
together with St. Anthony's one of the oldest existing monasteries.
It was created in the 4th century after some hermits started
gathering around the cave where St. Paul, who is considered the
earliest Christian hermit, had lived during 90 years. Paul fled to
the Eastern desert in the middle of the 3rd century to escape Roman
persecution. Just before his death, St. Anthony, another hermit who
was living about 35 km away, had a vision of Paul and visited him in
his cave getting to know Paul's story. We were welcomed by Father
Thomas, who with his very gentle and tranquil manners showed us the
premises, gave us some fruit and invited us to visit again whenever
we wanted. We hurried to Hurghada, just to realize it is holiday
resort with little local character, that could be anywhere. It is
basically a very fast grown town for package tourists, with half
it's resorts being constructed or unfinished. We did have an
excellent fish dinner there though and for a cheap price.
The Nile
Valley
In Luxor we stayed at
the Rezeiky Camp. As we do not often go to camping places, we took
the opportunity to
use
our drill and make a few improvements in our car. Then we set out to
discover the Egyptian history through the temples and tombs. Luxor
temple we visited at sunset when it gets beautifully illuminated.
Karnak was the most important temple in Luxor. Dedicated to the
Theban gods Amun, Mut and Khons many different pharaohs had
contributed to it adding different temples, pylons, chapels, etc. We
visited at midday
when there are not too many people and it took us about four hours
to see it. We found remarkable the fact that most pharaohs
scratched away the faces of their ancestors portrayed in the temple
and destroyed their names (cartuches) as well. They believed to
thereby cease their existance. It seems like nowadays where new
regimes destroy evidences of previous regimes, declaring the old
ones were thieves etc. On our way out, it was tour time and it was
quite amusing seeing thousands of people, from Korean (umbrellas,
masks over mouths and noses and white gloves) to Ukranians (shorts,
miniskirts, high heels and tank tops), coming at the same time.
We
also went to the Valley of the Kings, where we visited the tombs of
Ramses III, Ramses IX and Tuthmosis III. It is organized so that
each ticket entitles to visit three tombs from all the available,
excluding the Tutankhamen tomb, which costs extra. It is an
experience, although some of the mysteriousness is somewhat
distracted by the many tourists. That might be why we enjoyed so
much the Valley of the Queens the next day, as in most of the tombs
we were completely alone. We also thought these tombs were better
preserved and with nicer drawings and colors, but maybe this was
just our impression. We liked seeing Hatshepsut's temple with its
peculiar architecture and Medinat Habu, the temple of Ramses III,
who carved his name so deep in the rock that it is undeletable. The
hotel competition in Luxor is fierce so the last two nights we took
advantage of this and of the fact that with the Egyptian car license
we were considered residents in Egypt (which entitles to non-tourist
prices) and went to a three star hotel for about US$ 22 per night.
I think
I'll make a brake in my narration in order to tell you what is
happening right now as I write these lines. Today is Monday, 23rd of
April 2007. Our plan was to exit Egypt towards Sudan. Now, looking
at a map of the area everyone would conclude that this is quite easy
as there is a long border between the two countries. Looking closer,
you might think "oh there is Lake Nasser, so in the lake area there
is probably no border"... Well, this is totally wrong. In fact the
only way to get from Egypt to Sudan is by ferry through Lake Nasser.
There is soooo much desert and soooo little water, but everything
has to be shipped. Even having cars, the only way of leaving this
country legally to Sudan is the waterway... So, to make the story
short, thanks to other overlanders that we met along the way we
figured out the best way to ship the car and ourselves: as we are
many (four cars, one
truck and two motorcycles) we rented a whole barge that departed
before yesterday and we passengers are going with the regular ferry
that leaves every Monday. The Nile Navigation Company would not
allow us to go on the barge with the cars for security reasons...
The only one allowed was the truck owner and not because of the
truck but because he has a dog in it that needs to be fed (and I
believe Muslims have an issue with dogs, so it would not be allowed
to come on the ferry). So here we are now at the boat since 10 am
(now it's 3.30 pm) waiting to load all the passengers plus goods on
a small barge attached to it. We were lucky enough to be in contact
with some of the others since a while and that they reserved us a
cabin in first class on the boat as it is really getting crowded now
and the cabins got sold out quickly (in fact there are about 10
other foreigners sleeping on deck tonight). From my window I can see
how the barge is being loaded. At this time there are seven trucks
ashore with people directly throwing the goods on to the barge. I
see cases of drinks as well as refrigerators, air condition
machines, washing machines, children's bikes, furniture, big sacks
of what could be cereal, boxes with oranges, anything, not pilled or
stacked up but just thrown there. And about 20 people are climbing
on the goods,
and
rolling some of them further down, in order to make space for
more... all these is accompanied by constant shouting of course. The
smell I can not describe as I am in my cabin, but in any case the
whole boat smells like diesel... We are supposed to leave in less
than two hours but I still see fully loaded trucks waiting to
offload... It is hard to believe but it seems it is the way it's
done here since probably 10 or 15 years... I am happy we finally
came early with the others as it is important to be on the boat
first to get a space... The cabin is absolutely luxurious in
comparison to the rest. Frankly speaking it's quite dirty and it
does not even have a lock, but it does have air condition (it is
about 43 Celsius outside) and electricity to plug the laptops. We
could imagine how it could be, so we took a sleeping bag and our
polar blanket from the car, so we'll be fine. Second class has seats
as in the old trains full of big mamas with their children, who do
not even stand up as they don't want to loose their spaces. We are
developing quite some solidarity among the foreigners... Two Dutch
backpackers just dumped their luggage in our cabin and we will
probably lodge one of the girls who is supposed to sleep on deck
tonight.
Aswan was our last big
town. There we joined the other overlanders and prepared for the
Sudan part of our trip.
We got our visas first thing, in about 40 minutes. It went really
easy. We also shoped some yoghurt and dairy products to fill our
fridge as we don't really know what we will be able to find along
the way to Khartoum. We could also buy good quality oil and make the
service in the car. On Thursday we drove together with the Danish
Land Rover, from Kevin and Kristina, in the convoy to Abu Simbel.
The convoy is quite a joke. It is meant to be "for our own
security". There is a soldier in the first bus and a soldier in the
last one and because they have tourists to take (who sometimes come
back in the same day) they drive about 110km per hour, when the
speed limit is 90. So we were almost the last ones and had this
soldier in the bus behind stuck to our tail telling us to go faster.
We don't really have a problem with it but the others with the older
Land Rovers do, as they don't drive more than 90.
Arriving
in Abu Simbel, it was very hot so we relaxed during the afternoon
and then went to meet the officials to find out why it is not
possible to cross the border into Sudan by land. After all we knew
there is a road to the border. We had two meetings, one with the
tourist police and one with the intelligence officer, who told us
first that there is no road, to what we replied that we did not
really need one, after all there were no roads on our 2000 km tour
through the western desert and we were confident to be able to make
the 100 km it takes to Wadi Halfa. Then he said that there is no
customs officer (this is the key issue as we needed our car
documents stamped proving that we are exporting the car out of
Egypt), but we knew there is the camel business going on, they come
from Sudan, and at some point the camels have to clear customs. So
we discovered they do customs about 40km from Abu Simbel. We were
told the camels come walking from Sudan and are loaded onto trucks
at that customs post, but there would not be an immigration post for
people and they would not do customs for cars. We then asked if it
was possible to clear customs and immigration in Aswan and then
cross the border by land to what they replied that crossing the
border by land was dangerous for us and after some back and forth
arguments it turned out that it is a highly militarized area and
that the Egyptian soldiers would shoot us if we tried it... Anyway,
we knew it was not going to work out but it was fun listening to
some changing arguments that ended up making no sense at all. After
all this is the rule, the same rule that says that 90 is the speed
limit on the road...
Reto and I then went to the Sound and Light Show at Abu Simbel,
which we really enjoyed. The text does not say that much, but it
explains a bit how the Unesco made an effort to save the temples in
the 60's when the dam was built and the area where the temples were
standing was going to be flooded. It is unbelievable that such an
architectural project took place. The temples illuminated at night
look fabulous in any case. The next day we also saw them inside and
we concluded they are the best preserved temples in Egypt. Most
likely the reason being that they were only accessible by boat or
through the desert during ancient times and being beyond the first
cataract in the Nile, the area was quite restricted. In the Middle
Ages the temples were covered with sand. It was not until 1813 that
Jean Louis Burkhardt, a Swiss explorer, discovered one of the heads
showing above the sand. The temples were built between 1274 and 1244
BC by the great Ramses II and are a demonstration of his power.
Inside they are very well illuminated and all drawings and paintings
are almost complete. They are really a pleasure to see. A separate
line deserves the smaller temple dedicated to Ramses' beloved wife
Nefertari, which funnily enough has four statues representing
himself and two representing her in the façade.
On Saturday we had the
whole customs procedures and we loaded the cars onto the barge as I
explained above,
but
when we were finished, at around 4 pm, we did one of the most
enjoyable things we've done so far. Graham, one of the English guys
in Land Rovers reserved a felucca (a wooden sailing boat) for
an overnight stay. We could join together with the other English
couple and being six of us, we dedicated the rest of the afternoon
and evening just to chat and see the landscape go by while enjoying
a cold beer or a glass of wine. Captain Ahmad, a very discreet
Nubian, who kept himself busy between steering and cooking for us
most of the time, turned out to be excellent. We did not get very
far, but far enough from Aswan to have a good nights sleep on the
bank of the Nile. The next morning we could have a closer look at
the valley's agricultural life that is so present everywhere between
Luxor and Aswan and that is such a pleasure to observe.
Now it
is almost 6 pm. The view from my cabin is almost totally blocked by
the goods in the barge by now... but I can still see one truck
almost fully loaded on the other side. And an overlander Toyota from
Finland appeared about 2 hours ago; it seems they are loading it on
the barge as well. A while ago, Reto found out that the goods in the
barge are actually not cargo but just the luggage of the people
going on the ferry. The barge is not going to sail attached to us,
but they need to load all the "luggage" on it before our ferry can
leave. The sun is setting in half an hour and the captain is blowing
the horn. Outside everybody seems to be getting more nervous so we
seem to be leaving soon... We'll keep you posted about our 500 km of
lake crossing...
Meanwhile we hope all is
well there, wherever your are.
Till Sudan!
Victoria + Reto
PS: We started sailing. It is 6.40 pm now.
Link to Travel Report
4 Sudan
Our
last weeks in Egypt