Crossing Lake Nasser So time to leave Egypt and enter the real Africa. The only way to enter Sudan from Egypt is by a long ferry trip across Lake Nasser behind the Aswan dam. There is a road to Wadi Halfa over the border but it is closed. Thus began the long voyage through paperwork and water to move from one country to another. Egypt has to be the worst in the world for the convoluted morass of red tape. We left the Nuba Nile Hotel at noon and arrive...

Aswan We were obliged to join yet another police convoy from Luxor to Aswan, so we fronted up at a car park to join the tourist buses and minibuses and a few private travellers like us very early in the morning. We were not as big a convoy, only about 50 vehicles, as the one from Hurgarda to Luxor which numbered in the hundreds. We were the last in the convoy so had the police truck right behind us. When they felt we weren't going fast enough they would sp...

The Train back to Luxor The night train trip from Cairo promised to be interesting right from the start. First one must catch the eye of a cab driver right in the middle of peak hour traffic one of the busiest areas of town, then, with horns constantly honking all around, get all the luggage, then all the people in. A jouney not dissimilar to the trip in from the station made us, by turns, close eyes tight and hold breath. The distance to the station is actu...

Cairo There are no reasonable ways to describe the chaos that is Cairo. Words fail me! Cairo is a huge, polluted, dirty city and our hotel was right in the thick of it - just around the corner from the huge Sadat Square, a block or two from the Nile, next to the Museum of Antiquities and right in the middle of a shopping and market precinct. The city has a faded air of Paris in the Art Deco buildings and riverfront corniche. It must once have been very...

Travelling to Cairo We thought, before we started the trip, that we were to drive into Cairo. But as you have read we have come from Sinai travelling south to Luxor. Driving in Cairo is suicidal rather than ill-advised and so we left the trucks in Thiemo's care in Luxor and took the day train to Cairo. Now the train should take 9 hours to Cairo, all going well. But an Egyptian train on time is akin to miraculous and we resigned ourselves to a wait. A...