7 April

7 April 2011

We spent the early part of the morning having my bike repaired again!  Another of the pannier brackets / attachment points needed welding.  The rest of the morning was spent around the hotel waiting to be called by Mazaar for the ferry.  Eventually at about 3pm we were told that we could start getting our things packed and head for the ferry terminal.  Larry and I had packed things so that we would be able to take a small bag plus sleeping bags into the cabin with us and so we set off with the bikes piled very high to the ferry.  Once we arrived there Mazaar was like an old mother hen with his brood of European chickens (about 12 people) and our path was really made smooth all the through the customs and immigrations.  The three bikes were rushed off to the ferry and we managed to get out back pack and sleeping bags into our air-conditioned cabin which was right at the end of the passage.  We had to wait for all the passengers to board before we could even consider loading the bikes.  Loading the ferry is basically done by who ever brought the goods to the ferry and we were horrified to see that the loading ‘ramp’ into the ferry was a number of wooden pallets as steps and then onto a small barge and then down two steps into the ferry, Yves bike and my bike no problem but Larry’s bike another story.  With the help of Yves, Mazaar and another Swiss guy we managed to get all three bikes onto the barge.  In the meantime the other passengers had been putting all the bigger luggage into the passage area that had been set aside for the bikes.  The loading of the passengers and goods was total chaos with lots of shouting and pushing and shoving but eventually it was done and we could get the bikes onto the ferry at about 6.30pm.  But we were told once the ferry was under way we would have to move the bikes so that the two bigger bikes were in the door way where we had boarded and Yves was in the passage.  After the sunset prayers the ferry eventually started to move at about 8pm and we went down to the bikes to do the shuffle!!  Luckily we found the captain there as the local women had set up a souk (market) around and on top of the bikes and he got them to pack up and move while we moved the bikes around.

Everyone coming from the north had warned us of how terrible the ferry crossing is, one ferry had about 2000 people on it when it is only rated to carry 500!!  Sudanese refugees are streaming back from Libya in huge numbers but we were lucky that we were heading in the opposite direction and we only had about 250 people on the ferry but even so the next morning the toilets where absolutely disgusting.  Other than that our cabin was habitable and comfortable and we managed to get a few hours sleep.  We were due to reach Aswan by 12noon (now back on Central African Time) and Larry was called up to the bridge and handed a cell phone where the next fixer, Kamal, was waiting to talk to him, he told us that the traffic offices closed at 2pm and would only open again on Saturday as Friday it the religious day in Egypt but that he had started the process for us already.  We managed to speak to the Captain and he agreed that we must get the bikes off before any of the passengers.  Once we had docked the Egyptian immigration and customs officials come on board and no-one may get off the ferry until they are satisfied that everyone’s passport is in order, I was standing alongside the bikes when an official came up to me and introduced himself as the Traffic Court Official and that if we could get out passports stamped we could get the bikes off and start the process, Larry rushed upstairs got the stamps and we moved the bikes out (just one step this time) and Kamal started the process of getting the paperwork sorted out, we eventually got out there at about 4.30pm with our set of really tatty number plates that cost us LP40 (about R50) and we left for the hotel in Aswan.  I am sure without a fixer it would have taken at least three days to clear the bikes. 

Egypt is much more advanced than Sudan and the hotel vastly better and restaurants that serve food that we recognize and can eat!  The people constantly hassle you with whatever they are selling and become quite aggressive and angry if you don’t buy anything from them!  You have to bargain for most things, even down to a coke or a bottle of water!!  Very alien to us.

The traffic moves at a much faster pace than in the East African countries and no-one uses headlights and we are constantly being told that we have our headlights on and we can’t turn them off!!  So I am sure there is going to be lots of fun ahead of us!

We are heading to Luxor tomorrow and then onto the Red Sea for some diving and hopefully we will bypass Cairo and then to Alexandria and onto Venice.  Aswan has lots of tourists and they seem to be coming back.  We watched a march or protest ofsome sort past the hotel twice today but everything seems to be perfectly calm in Egypt. We are staying at a hotel called Hator, on the banks of the Nile, with a nice view, and a rooftop pool!  About R120 per night.

Tomorrow, 9 April, we will have been married for 28 years!!!!