Luxor/Egypt – Aswan/Egypt
Good Morning!
this time from Khartoum. I hope you all are fine! Thank you for the first comments on the new picture posts! Maybe we will still manage to set up a page for all of them, for you to read, so that it would be easier to discuss the one or the other topic.?
Well then, back to Luxor, where we left on Wednesday, the 31st of January. We decided to cycle along the West bank to Aswan, passing the towns Esna and Edfu on the way. There is not too much traffic on this side. It is a more rural area where the people harvest sugar cane. Their houses are often very simple, not to say poorly built, lined up along the side canals of the Nile. But still, many satelite dishes on the roofs as well!
Esna! The town were we stopped to have some lunch and were Tom and me lost our faithful little bike computers – some kids must have seen how to release them quickly and when we stopped again to buy some bread, they were gone within 5 minutes. A bit frustrating, because they have no real use for them and also all the men who were watching us all the time, from the teahouse on the other side for example, they didn’t see anything of course. Even when we offered money to some other kids – nothing. Alright, so we got to go on without them.
It was already late afternoon and we still had to find the way out. Checkpoint. They told us to wait. So we were waiting. 5 Minutes. 10 Minutes. Still a bit frustrated. The sun was setting quickly. Alright. A few words among us, we turned the bikes arround and off we were, ignoring the calls behind us, taking the first side street, then another one, passing by the bread shop again ;) A bit further we asked some people on the street for another way to Edfu and a young man on a motorcycle, who touched my hair first, smiling, gave us a sign to follow him. So we did. The four of us. Passing through a lively neighbourhood, on a dirt road. Kids were yelling of excitement and running behind us, pushing us. More and more came out of the houses and side streets and ours was getting narrower and narrower! But it was fun! All this noise and excitement! What a short cut! Thanks!
The road was good again and we wanted to make a few more kilometers, following another canal to our left. It was already getting dark and we had to go on, because there was also water to our right now. You just could see the people and their houses in the light of these fires, on the opposite bank of the canal. We felt a bit like in a movie, set back in medieval times. Very intense impression. Then we found a path to the right, straight into a sugar cane field. Let’s call it a bed and breakfast place ;) It was a pleasure, already before we went to sleep, to figure out where the jucier cane sticks grow, peeling them with our teeth, which needs a bit of practice (a men showed us how earlier) and chewing them properly with the juice running down your cheeks…
The next day we were passing through Edfu, had a quick look at the temple from outside, after our midday break and continued south, direction Aswan. The road was narrower now with unpaved sections, sometimes leading us through the bordering dessert. From time to time we see the Nile again, pass through a few villages.
We arrived in Aswan on Friday, where we quickly found a nice and simple hotel for us to stay our last three nights in Egypt. Saturday morning. Time to pay and collect our ferry tickets. But when I entered the office, I was told in a firm way, that there are no tickets anymore. Sold out! „That’s not true“ is what I replied automatically, a bit shocked and the man(ager) was getting a bit angry about me, questioning his statement. So I tried to calm him down again, said that I did call from Luxor 3 days ago and that a nice and friendly man with a very good English (I didn’t write down his name of course), told me that there are enough tickets and that he is doing a reservation for the three of us and our bikes and so on. But he told me to leave the office…
Phh. There is only one ferry each Monday, our Sudan entry Visa expires next Saturday and anyway, we don’t want to spent more days waiting in Aswan. So our angel in this moment was one of the employers there. We explained him our situation and he went in to smoothen the waves (can you say that in english?) Well, then, 10 minutes later I went in again. I excused myself. Surprise. He was the man I had talked to on the phone from Luxor and he was also excusing himself! He said, I should have told him right away, that we have a reservation! ?? Whatever you want. We just need these tickets! Half an hour later we paid the 799.50 LE (ca 105 EUR) for the three of us and held the tickets in our hands! Thank you and Good bye! Phh.
Maik
pictures to this article: Luxor/Ägypten – Assuan/Ägypten : Fotos
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