Luxor to Aswan (Days 8 and 9)
By admin. Filed in Egypt |
The last two days to Aswan have been fairly light. Both days were 115km, with an overnight on a football pitch (soccer field) in Edfu.
Edfu is one of the stops made by the Nile cruise ships. A group of us wandered onto one of them. It wasn’t departing for 45 minutes, so we decided to stay for some drinks. No surprise, the lounge was already occupied by Gerard, who has a pension for luxury. He also is known for having a lot of gadgets–even more than me. We moved to the top deck, which was complete with an infinity pool and full service bar. Hungry as usual, we took full advantage of the free chips and peanuts with our overpriced pina coladas.
I also managed to source the seven beers needed to pay the staff for the privilege of buying back my headlamp and tent bag at auction. The shop keeper gave them to me in a plain brown box. “You didn’t buy from me. Trouble from police.” Hmm. I didn’t realize beer trade was such an underground activity here. Alcohol is illegal in Sudan, though, so I’m glad to be finished with this task.
Now in Aswan, we’re all running around sourcing food for the ferry and things that will be harder to find in Sudan. I stocked up on sunblock and toilet paper. In the late afternoon, I went to a botanical garden on an island with Andra, Sherrif, and the two Muhammads. The aroma of the flora and all the greenery was a pleasant change from the pollution of the city.
Our trucks left us yesterday in Edfu to catch the ferry to Sudan. They travel on a separate ferry from the one we take tomorrow. That means we had to break from our regular messy packing routine and come up with a different system for these couple days to keep our valuables and necessities with us while the bulk of our stuff crosses with the trucks. This is all necessary because there are no open roads between Egypt and Sudan yet, and only one set of ferries per week.
As we’ll be in Sudan starting tomorrow, I have no idea when I’ll have Internet access again. Sorry again for the lack of pictures. Check out Gerald’s blog for a great collection in the meantime. The official TDA blog is also regularly updated (they have a satellite Internet connection).