18 -19 July 2011
Aswan on to Luxor
We have been spending some time in Aswan in anticipation of our vehicles arriving. No news on Friday or Saturday, eventually on Sunday morning the guys were contacted and fetched to go to the harbour to retrieve their vehicles and do the carne’s, licence plates, insurance and road tax. The 8 guys, our 6 and Jo and Andrew from Europe who we met on the Wadi Halfa ferry, had to squeeze into 2 taxis of whom 1 broke on the way to Aswan harbour which is approximately 20km from Aswan town. Almost all cars in Aswan are either Peogeot’s 404, 405’s or Fiats. No wonder carne’s cost so much, entering from the North it is 800percent of vehicle value unlike from the South which is only 200percent. The guys arrived at the harbour only to realise that the captain and staff of the ferry disappeared without off loading the vehicles. Apparently the captain was upset because he never received the extra US100 that Ali, the Sudanese runner was given. To top this all offloading ramps were missing and the 8 guys had to make a ‘Boere, Belgium and British’ plan to move the vehicles off the boat.
After hours of battling in the hot Egyptian sun they eventually got all 4 bikes and 4 vehicles from the barge, apparently the barge was empty except for our vehicles so why ‘extra’s’ for assurance of loading were charged only Ali will know. To top all this, the Egyptian police informed our team that they only work from 10am – 2pm and they must come back Monday to do paper work. This meant another night in Aswan, a day that could have been spent either in Luxor or on the Red Sea.
While the guys were sweating out organizing the vehicles the girls went shopping or rather bargaining in the Aswan market. Although we loved Aswan, Hanan and her team at Philea Hotel, the harassment by the Egyptian men started to get to us. They blatantly made comments and passes at us while their own wife’s were at home with barely enough space to peep or breath through their head gear.
We spent the rest of the day packing and met up with the younger crowd from London and Belgium for a couple of beers and some wine at our hotel reminiscing about the day, the guys about the day’s adventure of making plans to get vehicles off the barge and girls about being ripped off and some of the Egyptian men that are real perverts. We had a nice meal at Si Haad restaurant on the Nile and went to bed.
Monday morning we all waited for Kimal to contact us. The men were fetched, once again with Peogot 504’s and at about 11am we finally received our stamped carne’s, Egyptian number plates and importation documentation. All vehicles arrived back at the hotel around 2pm with their Egyptian number plates. We packed and left for Luxor.
Luxor is about 210km further north and we started our journey along the Nile and beautiful bougainvillea plants along the road. Egyptian drivers are not the most well behaved and a few finger signs were thrown at them along the road. Along the210km of road there were many villages, mainly men sitting doing nothing, but then this is not unusual in Egypt. One thing is clear, I now know where the expressions ‘ gippo guts’ and to ‘gippo something’ comes from. Gippo guts from the Egyptian water and to gippo something is to do something perhaps unethical and in the shortest way possible. The British have not been wrong....
We arrived in Luxor after 7pm, booked in at an amazing 4star hotel, Iberotel, arranged by our hostess in Aswan and all excited and ready for the Valley of the Kings, the Luxor Temple and many more sights on Tuesday. Apparently Luxor is the ‘biggest ‘open air’ museum in Egypt.
Hanan and girls to Philea Hotel
Road to Luxor next to the Nile
Finally our Egyptian number plates.....
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