DAY 78 - 81 LUXOR It was a bit of a shock to the system staying in a noisey campsite in the busy town of Luxor having spent a silent week in the desert. We were kept up by barking dogs and then awoken at 5am by the mosques around us. However, Reziky Camp where we stayed, although expensive by Egyptian standards (and for our budget!) at about £4.50 per night, was a lovely campsite. We made the most of the shade, hot showers and the bar! It was also a great place to meet other like-minded overlanders. We met Ineka and Darren, an Ozzy and Zambian who got married in August and are travelling from Scotland to South Africa on their honeymoon (www.onewayfourwheels.com); Wim and Sofie, a Belgian couple also on their honeymoon travelling to Cape Town in their Land Cruiser (www.grevytracks.be) and a lovely retired South African couple driving in the opposite direction! Jasper and Monique, the dutch couple in the orange IFA truck we met in Cairo also arrived in Luxor so there were quite a crowd of us. We hope to all travel together to Sudan, first choice would be in a convoy by road (which we don't think is possible but fingers crossed) and second choice to all club together to hire a barge to take us on the three day trip across Lake Nasser. During our few days in Luxor we visited the Karnak Temple and Valley of the Kings and also went to the excellent Luxor Museum. Somehow, I (Camilla) have managed to pull a muscle in my back which is actually very painful - hopefully it will sort itself out in the next day or so. Due to security we had to drive in a convoy between Luxor and Aswan which was a bit of a joke since the leading police car drove about 100mph and coaches and other cars sped past us leaving us on our own for most of the way! DAY 82 - 87 ASWAN - ABU SIMBEL - ASWAN We arrived in Aswan in the late afternoon and camped at Adams Home, on the west side of the Nile just north of the city. Also at the site were Eric and Sofie who we met in Cairo, and Jasper and Monique in the orange IFA. The following day Sofie and Wim arrived and also a fun German couple travelling in their homemade purple truck - they have worked for twenty years saving all their pennies and now, aged 40, have retired to travel around the world indefinitely. They have come from Tunisia and Libya, a route we would love to do one day! We spent several evenings having meetings with people from the ferry company to arrange our crossing to Sudan. Fingers crossed we have hired a barge for 7 vehicles: 2 trucks, 4 cars and 1 motorbike! We hope it will leave on Monday but are yet to know for sure. We spent a fantastic day and night at Abu Simbel - we drove the 700km round trip with Jasper and Monique and Wim and Sofie. You are supposed to only do this road in a bus or coach and as part of a convoy but since Sofie speaks Arabic we managed to blag our way and went in our own time and bush camped in the car park of the Temple, overlooking Lake Nasser. We got up at 5am and saw the sunrise over the Temples, a really magical experience. We spent a couple of hours there and left at 7am just as the convoy of coaches arrived with hundreds of tourists. Whilst they looked at the Temples we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast of pancakes in the car park and left after them in the late morning. It is very frustrating that we were only 40km from the Sudanese border when at Abu Simbel - and yet to get into the country we have to go back to Aswan and get a barge which takes 3 days and costs over GB250! We hope to be in Sudan by the middle of next week - having spent a month in Egypt we are really looking forward to getting there. Sudan is one of the countries we are most looking forward to on our trip and we hope to be able to update our website soon with more news...as they say overhere...Inshallah (god willing). As to the Ethiopian situation, we're keeping a close eye on things and will have to see how things develop over the next few weeks. Best wishes from us both as we head south into the African continent...Ma Sallama!