Day 88: Aswan to Abu Simbel 280km
On the road at last.
...
After Mo took us to get our visas at the Sudan consulate we went back to the Old Cataract Hotel to load Fatma aka Orlanda.
We value Mo's help to us and would happily recommend him to any one who needs an excellent guide and helper whether as a tourist or overland traveller like us. MO's contact phone number is +201224421767.
Water purification pots in use at every place we stop in the desert. The stainless steel mug is used as a communal drinking mug. Precious water filtered by the clay pots.
We crossed the Aswan high dam.
A huge embankment dam built during the 1960's during Nasser's era to provide electricity and to control water flow in the lower Nile and prevent annual floods...
... it drowned the homeland of Nubia and Nubians, the ancient people of the pharaonic age, were displaced. Some live in villages near Aswan and other are scattered in Egypt.
Retention of the Nubian language is becoming a challenge. During the 1973 war with Israel the Egyptian army effectively used the little known Nubian language for communication.
We rode through desert.
Straight roads.
Flat desert landscapes.
Golden sand.
Until a couple of months ago independent travellers were escorted in convoys on this road.
Occasional pink military sentry boxes dot the landscape.
We found one place to stop for a drink midway to Abu Simbel.
We had tea.
Age old clay pots filled with water were lined up.
Water in the pots is cooled by the evaporative cooling effect of the water on the outside of the pots.
A freely used communal drinking cup didn't tempt us.
We went to the stunning sound and light show at the Abu Simbel temples built by Ramses 11 in 1300BC.
There is laces for thousands of guests on the bleachers but the only other guests were Japanese folk in a tour bus. A sign of the severe downturn in tourist numbers in Egypt.
We felt completely safe in Egypt. There is a high level of concern about the perceived risk to travellers that is putting people of visiting Egypt.
If you are at all interested in going to Egypt. Go now while it is not crowded.
The experession on these girls faces reflect our own delight at being on our way south.
Photos not allowed! At the military check post on the Aswan High Dam.
Continuous desert.
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