As our readers will know, we are traveling with a forward-pointing webcam in Finn (the red one). Below is a compressed version of the 14 hour drive across Egypt a few weeks back. The video has been prepared since then, but we haven’t had a good enough internet connection to upload it till now. Enjoy.
“When you get to Sudan, then you are really in Africa.” Wise words, as spoken by Mr Saleh, who sells tickets for the once weekly 20 hour ferry from Aswan, Egypt to Wadi Halfa, Sudan. The week long process is the only way from Egypt to Sudan. Mr Saleh carefully explained the whole convoluted process, giving us GPS coordinates and directions to the various police and customs offices we needed to visit.
Revolution aside, the less said about Aswan the better. A city which normally lives off the fat of tourism, for 3 weeks it has had no tourists (we counted 5 others, all travellers like ourselves). The shouts of “Feluca! Carriage! One hour, good price! I sell you spices!” followed us like hyenas flocking to a carcas.
We had expected Sudan to be the hardest country en route, partially as the London Embassy stopped issuing all visas in December. We contacted Midhat Mahir, a fixer who told us that he could arrange visas to be waiting in Aswan, for $180/person. Believing this was the only way for British people, we paid, only to be greeted with a blank stare at the consulate. “Midhat Mahir I know, but I have heard nothing from him.” Our hearts sank, until she said “But visas I can give you, with no problem.” It took an hour, with no help needed from a fixer. We have so far received only hand-wavy emails from Midhat, but no response to our request for our money to be returned – we’re still waiting for a final resolution.
Negotiating the beaurocracy of getting on the ferry, we met Jesper and Tanya, a Danish/German couple in a rather lovely 1993 Toyota Land Cruiser (like Ian’s, for those who know him). Arriving 2 days before the first demonstrations, they had planned to spend 3 weeks exploring Egypt but, as the diesel ran dry, they ended up spending nearly the whole time in Dahab, Sinai.
On Monday, we boarded the ferry at 1pm, leaving our 3 trucks on the quay. At 4:30, Jasper, Frank and I disembarked again to drive the trucks onto a barge, which we had watched being loaded beside us. The barge left at the same time as the boat but travels more slowly, and should arrive in Wadi Halfa today (Wednesday). [in fact we have just heard that the barge has arrived, and are off now to try and unload the trucks]
View of Abu Simbal Temple from the Wadi Halfa ferry
Having read multiple descriptions of the ferry, made famous by Michael Palin’s footage of the toilets in Pole to Pole, we expected the worst. In reality it was rather pleasent; we opted for first class cabins (500LE (£50)/person), while Jesper and Tanya slept on deck (380LE/person); the cabin provided some privacy, but without a locking door we could leave no valuables there. The toilets were, of course, insipid. But we didn’t spend long there. Food was basic but fine, and the company was cheerful. We saw it at its least crowded – maybe 150 instead of 300, due to the fun and games in Egypt.
The Bradt guide book didn’t raise our hopes about our arrival: “Wadi Halfa is undoubtedly a disappointment.” This is perhaps fair when arriving from Sudan, but when arriving from Egypt it is like striking water in a desert. It may not be pretty, but the locals are welcoming, the kids delightful, the merchents happy to chat and show your their produce without hassle.
We bought a few bits and pieces in the market with no haggling, for a fair price. The restaurant brought us “food for 6″ for 28 SDG (£7), and a walk this evening ended with game of football (Jesper & Andy v. Sudan, Europe won 10-8), and a ride the 1km back to the hotel on a passing donkey cart.
This may be a backwater of Sudan, but compared to the Robbers’ Den of Aswan, we are in a dusty paradise.
As we reached Aqaba in Jordan, we filled up both fuel tanks on both vehicles and both jerry cans, to ensure we had maximum range, to limit the need to stops on our way through Egypt and because we didn’t know the fuel situation. 240 litres of diesel for about £80.
We arrived at Aqaba ferry terminal around 10 am, only to be told we needed to go into Aqaba city to buy ferry tickets. But as always, a helpful local taxi driver was there to aid us. Off Andy and Kester went to get our tickets. They returned at about 11:30, having been told the ferry was leaving at 12, with tickets but no guarantee that the border was open and that we could actually get into Egypt. Rushed to check point, only to be told no the ferry would go at 6/7 this evening. Entered through the gate getting our ‘blue sheet’ (customs) stamped and parked up. After reading some signs, the back of the ticket and asking we went inside to building to get sorted. Inside was a ferry ticket office and confirmations office, the man told us he expected the boat to arrive from Egypt around 3ish to leave at 6ish. Why we couldn’t buy tickets for our ferry inside this ticket office I will never know.
We decided to head into Aqaba city to try and find some internet to get as much information as possible about Egypt and returned to the port around 3:30. We then spent most of the next hour and a half leaving Jordan. Paying exit tax for each person and the vehicles, trying to get money changed to be able to pay this in JD and then getting that changed again because the custom guys had no change! Eventually boarded the ferry about 7.20 and it departed soon after. We were the last to be loaded, the only overland trucks on the ferry and two cars all others were lorries. Normally this boat carries fairly large numbers of overlanders. Having been told they were stacking up in Aqaba we wondered how many there actually are there, how much was exaggeration and if any had actually tried to get into Egypt in the last few weeks.
Got our visas validated as the boat pulled away and then found a deserted restaurant and set up camp in there, ate some food, read some books and maps. The boat seemed to dock around 12 but it was another hour before we were allowed off. Egyptian customs at 1 in the morning after a very long day – needless to say we were a little apprehensive.
Welcome to Egypt - bizarre road signs abound
Once we entered the customs area we were approached by a friendly tourist policeman who asked if we needed help, to which we replied “yes.” He directed us through the entire process, and each person we spoke to was very polite, welcoming us to Egypt and telling us repeatedly how safe it was. It’s funny how that doesn’t make you feel any safer. We were ready to leave the port at 2.30. We aren’t sure if it was a combination of how late it was, the lack of anyone else arriving (other than the two cars on our ferry) or making up for the whole situation in Egypt but we left the Egyptian customs area with own spirits slightly lifted! As we left we asked the tourist police man if we now owed him any money to which he replied, this is my job, I help everyone but it is up to you. We gave him 20LE (£2), as he was genuinely very helpful to us and we felt under no obligation to give him the money.
Once out of the port, we headed towards GPS co-ordinates of a campsite but it was all closed up. We camped there anyway! Alarms set for 6 am to leave for 12 hours of driving to reach Hurghda before the curfew.
With just under 2 half hours sleep it was time to set off again, the sun was just rising. We made it to Hurghda just after 7, we kept a running tally of the number of checkpoints between Nuweiba and Hurghada and got to 23 in total. The only hold up we really had was crossing the Suez Canal via the tunnel, where we spent 2 1/2 hours in a queue. It had been closed throughout the curfew time from 6pm to 6am and the army were checking every single vehicle in the remaining 12 hours.
The next morning we met Lorraine and Frank at Hurghada airport and said goodbye to the 3 de la Haye brothers, leaving them to find a beach hut and some good snorkelling for a couple of days. The 4 of us headed South for the next leg of our journey.
[wrote this at 20:00 but the internet died on me, only able to post it now]
Grab your banner. Wrap yourself in a flag. Get your children and throw them in the taxi. Turn on your bling. It might even be worth turning on your headlights, if they work.
Out for a quiet evening stroll an hour ago, all hell broke loose around us. Within seconds, car horns started blaring and empty streets flooded with shouting people, in a scene reminiscent of an extravagant Egyptian version of the Truman Show. 100 yards away, a group of riot police broke out from a walled compound and ran at the crowd, but quickly disappeared again as the crowd swelled around them.
Police confronting the growing crowd
What felt like a threatening situation quickly became obvious, as people shouted to us as they passed – “Mubarak finished!” “We have won!” “It is over!” “He is in Deutchland!” (don’t know where that last guy got his info from). I have never felt safer in a crowd anywhere – the atmosphere was (and still is) of shear jubilation all around us.
The police headquarters, across the road from where we were standing, was quickly “re-enforced” with army protection and the police have since melted away (the people love the army, but the police less so). The army are standing around, shaking hands with people, honking their horns with the traffic all around them. With the crowd in this mood, there was no need for protection.
An hour ago, Aswan was a dead town, at the end of the Sabbath day and having seen no tourists for 2 weeks in a city supported entirely by them. Now, it is as alive as any Spanish town during a carnival – every car is on the streets, horns blaring, the people are dancing and cheering in spontaneous groups of 100 or 200 all over the city.
The Aswan Crowd turning on us
In case anyone reading this doesn’t realise why the people are so happy, have a read at this description of the man Mubarak appointed as Vice President 12 days ago, to try and appease the people: Sulieman, the torturer.
A very quick update to say we arrived safely in Egypt in the small hours of yesterday (Tuesday) morning and, after clearing customs and having a 2 hour nap, left at 6am for the 13 hour drive to Hurghada yesterday. We passed 23 checkpoints (only 3 or so seemed unofficial, the rest were army run) and arrived just after curfew, which is not enforced in tourist areas.
The people at the checkpoints have all been professional, polite and friendly, with none of the corruption we had been warned about – not a single time were we asked for, or even hinted towards, a bribe. Even the unofficial ones, despite being less professional, were comedy rather than threatening.
The police appear to have been disbanded – so far we’ve seen no hint of them since the border.
As posted here, our current route was highly improvised in order to avoid Tunisia which, 2 weeks ago, descended into revolution. We instead decided to route through Eastern Europe and the Middle East to enter Egypt from the East, instead of the West.
We are now in Aqaba, the port city in Jordan, at the point of entering Egypt. It’s been a hard couple of weeks, covering enormous distances in countries we were totally unprepared for. But it’s been incredible. We’ve seen a lot of sights and places we were never planning on this trip, and met some fantastic people (like the Turkish farmers who hosted us for a night). Lunch beside the fortifications of Dubrovnik, a couple of days with Angela and Paul in Kosovo, visiting Istanbul, where Louise and I honeymooned, camping beside Crusader castles, climbing the height of Ben Nevis in 40 minutes through Jordainian desert, exploring the ancient rock-carved city of Petra, sleeping out in Wadi Rum – the days have been eventful to say the least!
Our camp site in Wadi Rum. Sunrise was spectacular.
The irony is that Tunisia is now relatively safe, and Egypt is in turmoil. We are booked on a ferry there tonight, but with no guarantee that we will be allowed into the country when we land. Assuming we are, we have a route planned to the Southern border with Sudan which should avoid all the trouble spots: Across Sinai from Nuweiba where we land, up towards (but not into) Suez to cross the canal, then South to Hurghada, where the de la Hayes fly home and we meet Lorraine and Frank. From there, we will travel down the coast as far as possible before crossing inland to Aswan, from where we can get the ferry to Sudan (if it is running).
Family back home have been in direct contact with the FCO, who have said that our route, in current circumstances, should be plausible. There are no internet and only dubious mobile connections in Egypt at the moment, so expect the site to be quiet for a few days. We will attempt to update Twitter via family back home if we can. See you soon!