The Travel Hole

The sign at aswans port

An 03:00 start on thurs had us head into town to form up a convoy. Aswan now has a lot more military presence since the revolution/coup. Although it feels safe enough there.
After some waiting about for all 4x4's we headed out of town with out egyptian customs guy into the desert for the sudan border. The cool moring air made it a plesant drive and the check points posed no real hold ups as we headed into the military controled road past Abel Simbul.
Reaching the boarder by 10:00 we had high hopes of swifty passing the boarder into Sudan and on.

Forming up for the convoy - 1 English, 1 Scots, 1 Irish & 2 Dutch

As the hours ticked away it soon became clear theis wasnt going to be the case. The was border due to close at 18:00 and not reopen until Sat being the weekend. I say close but in reality the two old gates breaking the delapadated wire fence were firmly entrenched in the mud and showed no sign of having been closed in a long time. The small army posts on either side look like a bleak place to spend their month long duty with only 8 days home before they are out here again. Its a long way from any where and nothing but rock and sand surround the 6 or so guys there.
By mid afternoon I decided to enter Sudan on foot at least, it was very simlilar to the egyptian side. The soliders from either side went back and forth freely as they came to see probanbly the only mild intrest in their day. And did at least keep give us a few cups of tea after they had relaxed and put most of the guns away from their intial stance of trying to look busy and authoritve when we first rolled in.

They did also promis some food and said we could camp there if we were delayed there long enough. Which i though was prety good of them.

The passeger ferry

Eventually as the clock approached 18:00 it became clear we werent going to see the Sudanese officals we were waitng for to get over the border. The egyptian officials had come down with us from aswan to stamp us out but we wouldnt be allowed over the fence until Sudanese officals were present to recive us. After a few people had vented their frustrations, we were informed we could stay at Abu Simbel or at the border but must go as a group as our paper work for the military road onlt allowed all of the group to travel or something similar. Faced with the prosepect of 3 days + in a desolate desert out post we headed for Abu Simbel some 90/100 miles back.

Camping up in the car park to the famous monument at least give us lovely views across the lake for the next few days.  Where we could watch the ferry we arnt on go south to Wadi Halfa and a the big barge we think head north. At least we havent seen a barge go south yet or we would be kicking ourselfs!

The Barge (big we think)

Exploring the town for supplies has proved fruitful tracking down transmission oil and meeting a nice guy who got us a local price on our shopping needs and sold us lovely fresh pressed mango juice for only £15 EGP for 1.5ltrs thats £1.50 uk. Its so delicious we will be back for more.
Most of the convoy took the chance to fuel up at uk £0.11 a litre and were almost shocked at being able to use a fuel station withouth having to queue, fight for a place or a black market transaction from dubious barrels. There are some benifits from being all the way down here. And of course some beer was tracked down!
The othe big bonus is we get to see the temples at Abu Simbel  that we would have otherwise missed. We are now waitng for a call to confim the new departue date when the Sudanease officails have been arranged for definate (we hope) this should be Sunday but who knows. We are just sweating it out in the heat waitng and doing what jobs we can find the energy for. Have givin our spare water pump to the Irish boys as this is hopefully whats causing their overheating problems, aside from running about in 4th at high speeds. They have removed their bonnet for extra cooling! I like the way no one bats an eyelid at them driving about with no bonnet and pusing it back everywhere. (they have lost reverse)

So sunday, inshallah.