Day 36 – 10 November 2009 (Tobruk, Libya – Marsa Matruh, Egypt)
The dreaded Egyptian border day! Again, we had read that this border is a complete nightmare with a car – just because of the sheer number of different hoops you have to jump through, not to mention the cost – and it didn’t disappoint! That said, we were prepared for the worse and actually it wasn’t that bad – everyone is very friendly and helpful and if you accept that Egyptians insist on a level of bureaucracy equivalent to arranging an audience with the Queen, it all goes rather smoothly – 3 hours later we were through! Other overlanders – see Top tips section for a summary of the border formalities.
Unfortunately, it then got a bit scary …
Feeling rather pleased with ourselves having successfully navigated
through the border (with a little help from the locals!), we approached the
final checkpoint and the expanse of Egypt was in our sights. The final border
control policeman confirmed all our papers were in order and happily signalled
to us we could go through … yay! … and then he pointed to a blue van loaded
with police and said follow that car. We assumed this was to help us get to the
correct road and praised the Egyptian police for friendliness … until they
stopped, took James passport and sped off at 80mph! Needless to say, we were
not amused (particularly William as he valiantly tried to keep up with them but
failed miserably) and the amusement factor was not helped as they sped through
the small town of Sidi Barani, 75km down the road, where they said they would
hand back the passport. It turned
out that, rather bizarrely, the Egyptian police thought they were doing us a
favour by doing this to make us feel safe (although I have no idea how your
safety is enhanced in a foreign land by a policeman disappearing with your
passport!!). We eventually got back James’ passport when we got to a hotel
200km down the road in Marsa Matruh and, through very gritted teeth, James said
his Shukran’s to the police chief – this was obviously a sign that we
appreciated the “escort” and they started to interrogate us about our plans for
the next day …
Then we had our first (and much appreciated!) beer after a dry two
weeks – happy days again!
Miles travelled: 260 miles (total 6,031 miles)
Highlight of the day: Getting through the Egyptian border with
William just shy of three hours Comment of the day: Big Egyptian police general on inspecting the
rather large Gurkha kukhri (knife) we are carrying with us “I will let you keep this if you promise not to kill anyone in my
country”
James “I promise …” Tune of the day: No tunes – they don’t seem to like them at
border crossings
Day 37 – 11th November
2009 (Marsa Matruh – Alexandria, Egypt)
After explaining, at length through the hotel receptionist, that a
police escort was really not necessary for us (although they still escorted us
to the outskirts of town presumably to make sure we actually left), we headed
for El Alamein for 11am Armistice Day – which we managed to miss by wasting 15
minutes searching for the Commonwealth War Cemetery. This turned out to not be
a bad thing as about 10 coach loads of mainly American and Japanese tourists
seemed to have the same idea! Still over 7,000 graves, once again in an
immaculately kept cemetery, was a sobering experience. Then it was off to
Alexandria and dinner over looking the harbour in the Greek Club!
Miles travelled: 207 miles (total 6,238 miles) Highlight of the day: El Alamein
Comment of the day: “Oh my god, there’s a MacDonald’s drive thru in the middle of the desert”
Day 38 – 12th November 2009 (Alexandria – Port Said, Egypt)
Alexandria is a busy town with no camping and only expensive hotels so,
having had our fill of large latte’s at Starbucks (yum!), we decided to push
onto Port Said and check out the start of the Suez canal. Continuing in our
“going local” vain, it was Pizza Hut for dinner :)
Miles travelled: 178 miles (total 6,416 miles)
Highlight of the day: Starbucks over looking Alexandria harbour! Comment of the day: “Oh my
god, it’s a Starbucks, yay!”
Day 39 – 13th November 2009 (Port Said – Cairo, Egypt)
We think we have the winner for the Trip’s Smelliest Road (the whole of
Egypt’s sewer system must culminate here) but eventually made it to Cairo,
trying to avoid breathing through the nose, only to encounter more serious
contenders for the prize of Trip’s Worst Drivers. These guys need serious
lessons in driving lane etiquette – if it was up to me, I would make it a compulsory
course at GCSE level. Our impression of Cairo was probably not helped by the
fact we arrived the night before Egypt’s football world cup qualifying game
against Algeria … being played in Cairo! Having made it through the hoards of
Egyptian flag sellers and the convoys of horn blaring taxis (someone should
also mention that, no matter how patriotic you are to your football team, it
really is not a good idea to cover your entire car in Egyptian flags including covering
the lights and drive at 80mph at night in stealth mode). By the time we made it
out of Cairo, it was pitch black and the hunt for the campsite began …
Miles travelled: 183 miles (total 6,599 miles) Highlight of the day: Eventually finding the only campsite in Cairo!
Days 40-43 – 14-17th November 2009 (Cairo)
Four days in Cairo including the obligatory trip to the Giza pyramids (William
having a much deserved rest and swapped for horses for a few hours – Ness happy
but unfortunately James’ steed was pretty much bare back so not the most
comfortable ride for a bloke!), then the visa runs for Sudan and Ethiopia and
finally a much deserved trip to the Land Rover doctor for William!
Oh and not to mention the small football match which Egypt won with a last
minute goal in extra time meaning their world cup qualifying dreams have been
thrown a lifeline in the guise of another play-off match against Algeria on the
18th … anyone would think they had actually won the World Cup with the
mad celebrations in Cairo continuing most of the night and seemed to involve a
lot of flame throwing. To make matters worse, the play-off match in held in a
neutral country … Sudan – not very conducive to fast visa applications!
Miles travelled: 0 miles Highlights of Cairo: Galloping towards the great pyramids of Giza on horseback and having a
cold beer and good food overlooking the Nile at Sequoia (a chilled out
restaurant in a quiet spot at the northern tip of Zamalek).
Tune of the day: Walk like an Egyptian by the Bangles
Day 44 – 18th November 2009 (Cairo – Ismalia, Egypt) William went to the Land Rover doctor today – thankfully no major
problems resulted from the service, although it still took over 6 hours and I
think we were actually rushed through as it was the World Cup play-off football
match that night – by 4pm we were being ushered out of the garage and the
mechanics were running for the nearest minivan taxi. Unfortunately, Egypt lost,
their World Cup dreams in tatters … 4 days later, the protests are still going
on in Cairo! These people really need to find something better to do … Miles travelled: 116 miles (total 6,715 miles) Highlight of the day: over 6,500 miles and William still going strong Comment of the day: from the manager of the Land Rover garage in
Cairo “we’ve been expecting you, aren’t
you on your honeymoon?” … they’d been following our progress on the website Tune of the day: The Gladiators
theme tune (unfortunately not the Ridley Scott epic but the TV programme from
the 90’s with Ulrika Johnson – the highlight of the TV entertainment at the LR
garage) Day 45 – 19th November 2009 (Ismalia – Al-Milga, Egypt) We had planned on getting the weekly ferry from Aswan-Wadi Halfa in
Sudan (the only open border crossing) on 30th November,
unfortunately our ingenious planning skills failed to take Eid into account, a
four day public holiday in Egypt and the next ferry is not until the 7th
December. So we decided to cross
over the Suez Canal into the Sinai peninsular – in slight trepidation with
visions of Sharm El Sheik package holiday hell, we found ourselves driving
through spectacular desert sand mountains and arrived a serene campsite at the
foot of Mt Sinai. Half an hour later, we were drinking beer with the manager of
a Dutch symphony orchestra and his illustrator friend from Amsterdam and an
Aussie mechanical engineer around a campfire … Miles travelled: 281 miles (total 6,996 miles) Highlight of the day: Watching the big ships looking like they were
sailing on sand in the Suez canal (whilst being closely watched ourselves by
several Egyptian Army soldiers with .50 calibre machine-guns) Comment of the day: discussing remedies for constipation and
Holland’s rather mad anti-smoking laws with our new Dutch friends Tune of the day: something by Girls Aloud, much to James’ annoyance
again Day 46 – 20 November 2009
(Al-Milga – Dahab, Egypt) According to all accounts, the best time to climb Mt Sinai is in the
early hours of the morning, so that you can watch the 5am sunrise from the
top. This means starting the trek
up in the pitch black at 2:30am, along with 500 other tourists that had also
read the same accounts. We decided
against this and started up at the much more reasonable hour of 10:30am – 3,750
(rather warm) steps of repentance later, we were looking out over the
spectacular Sinai desert mountain range where Moses received the ten
commandments, with just four other equally sane minded trekkers… bizarrely, one
of them noticed James Pegasus logo on his t-shirt, he was the one wearing a
green t-shirt, green shorts, desert boots and a maroon and sky blue charity
wristband. It turned out he’d been in The Parachute Regiment for 20 years
having left in 2000 – it truly is a very small world. He is also in the process
of setting up an army charity and looking for lawyers … Miles travelled: TBC Highlight of the day: Conquering Mt Sinai, the hard way (up and down) Comment of the day: Para Reg. Major “people are at their most productive between 40 and 60 years old” James “Shit, I was hoping to
retire by 40…” Tune of the day: The Ride of the Valkyrie by Wagner Days 47-50 – 21st-24th
November 2009 (Dahab, Egypt) Dubbed by Lonely Planet as the Thailand of Egypt, James is contemplating
growing his hair and smoking sheesha by the sea for four days R&R in Dahab.
Ness might even get a henna tattoo … Miles travelled: 0 miles Highlight of the day: Finally getting
a pod on the beach, having previously attempted at 8am only to find a lot of
German towels … Comment of the day: Ness “where’s
my five star hotel????” Tune of the day: Jack Johnson, lounging in a café on the beach
(with free wifi – we were there for over four hours and in true traveller style,
had two cups of coffee)
Day 51 – 25th November
2009 (Dahab – Cairo, Egypt) A mammoth drive today back through the Sinai desert, across the Suez Canal
and a race back to Cairo to get to the Land Rover garage before they closed for
the five day Eid holiday. Typically, having been fine before his service,
William has now developed two leaks. Coincidence… I think not! Equally
unhelpfully, the Land Rover guys seemed more interested in getting home for Eid
than sorting out the problem we think they created in the first place and after
a quick look, the manager told us that there was nothing to worry about. Needless
to say these guys will not be getting our recommendation! To make matters
worse, William was coated in a thick layer of tar that had helpfully been just
left on the motorway. This would appear to be a pretty common problem in Egypt
as we watched the man at the local garage down the road expertly clean William,
first with oil and then, lovingly, with soap - after which, he was pretty much
tar free! Locals - 1 v LR authorised dealer - 0. Then we faced the nightmare of driving around Cairo’s equivalent of the
M25 at night, on the Egyptian equivalent on Christmas eve – not an experience
we would recommend and one which almost broke James… all in all, not the best
day for Team CM! Miles travelled: 422 miles (total 7,523 miles) Highlight of the day: going to bed L Comment of the day: James “I
think I want to go home now …” Day 52 – 26th November
2009 (Cairo – Minya, Egypt) Being Eid, Cairo’s ring-road-of-death was gloriously free of cars and, with
William laden with goodies from Carrefour (including a singing plastic santa
clause) and the rest of the team full of starbucks, morale is once again high!
We headed South down the Nile towards Luxor and the famous Valley of the Kings. Miles travelled: 205 miles (total 7,728 miles) Highlight of the day: Watching the locals dance to gangster rap in
the Vodoo nightclub, Minya … I dread to think what these guys would be like
with beer Day 53 – 27th November
2009 (Minya – Luxor, Egypt) For the first couple of hours, the drive down the Nile was stunning …
the Nile seems to produce a permanent misty haze that gives it and everything
around it an ethereal quality. Far from the fast road we were expecting, the
main road from Cairo to Luxor follows the Nile through village after village.
One of the joys of overlanding is that you get a real insight to how local
people live outside the main tourist towns – being Eid, all the kids were
dressed up in their sparkly best, waving and shouting as we drove past, many with
new toy AK47’s (together with fixed bayonets) – James was most jealous! Every few miles there was a police checkpoint but generally, as they had
yesterday, if we smiled lots, they just asked us where we were from, where we
were going and waved us through. Northern Upper Egypt was the centre of an
Islamist insurgency during the mid 90’s that saw more than 1000 deaths, mainly
policemen and local militants but some tourists were also attacked meaning
travel in the area was severely restricted. There have been no attacks since
the late 90’s and although the restrictions have been lifted, the ultimate
decision lies with the local police chief … just north of Asyut, we started to
hit the bored ones who insisted on convoying us – some for just a mile or two
through their village, another for a couple of hundred km. Typically though,
when we managed to get lost and ended up in a village where I don’t think they
had seen a white face in years (particularly not two together with an
attractive looking Land Rover filled with goodies) the police were nowhere to
be seen … Miles travelled: 297 miles (total 8,025 miles) Highlight of the day: two kids staring at us so much that they fell
off their bike Comment of the day: Local policeman “Welcome to Egypt” for
the 40th time today Days 54-56 – 28th-30th
November 2009 (Luxor, Egypt) A few days in Luxor, visiting the Valley of the Kings (a bit of a
tourist nightmare), the Valley of the Queens (more chilled but still a lot of
hassle) and the Karnak Temple … oh and Murphy’s Irish bar for the rugby!!
Miles travelled: 50 miles
(total 8,075 miles) Highlight of the days: seeing the springboks getting beaten (sorry to
any Saffers reading this)! Comment of the day: “La,
shukran”(meaning no, thanks) about 100 times each day to locals offering you
everything from horse drawn carriage rides to alabaster scarabs!
Day 57 – 1st December 2009 (Luxor-Aswan, Egypt)
Another day of convoy dodging, a quick trip to Edfu Temple (very few tourists and well worth a stop) and then full steam ahead to Aswan and Mr Saleh, the man in charge of the Aswan/Wadi Halfa ferry (probably the most popular man in Egypt at the moment). Unfortunately, we had the wrong GPS co-ordinates for his office and ended up in a market on the opposite side of town (this seems to happen to us with amazing frequency!). It didn’t make any difference though since we found out later, Mr Saleh only seems to work from about 10am-2pm – nice job if you can get it! The supposed only campsite in Aswan was also closed but luckily we found some bikers outside the ferry ticket office that had found another – in a small Nubian village on the opposite side of the Nile – very chilled, at least for the first couple of nights. Little did the locals know that they were about to bear witness to something akin to an International Overland Convention 2009…
Miles travelled: 165 miles (total 8,240 miles)
Highlight of the day: Ness being approached by a local family at Edfu Temple thinking she was being asked to take a photo of them - she said “of course, no problem” went to take their camera and was promptly handed their baby and they started snapping away - one for the family album!
Days 58-63 – 2nd-7th December 2009 (Aswan, Egypt)
Because there was no ferry to Sudan last week, every overlander who has arrived in Egypt at anytime over the last month seems to want to get on the ferry this week – this is fine for passengers (the ferry takes over 500 people) but your vehicles have to go on a separate barge which only takes about 8 cars – more than enough in your average week – but this week, Mr Saleh has about 29 vehicles to get to Sudan (I suspect this is a bit of an exaggeration on Mr Saleh’s part but there are quite a few). Aswan is awash with overlanders! However, Allah seems to be looking kindly on Team Charlie Mouse and we caught Mr Saleh in a good mood - William is now floating his way down Lake Nasser (hopefully still in one piece on the barge …) and the rest of the Team even got the last first class cabin on the ferry… happy days! Having spent almost a month in Egypt, the Team is looking forward to getting to Sudan!
Miles travelled: 185 miles (8,425
miles) Highlights of the days: Getting a place of the ferry to Sudan, watching
movies on the Dutchies “beemer” (a projector to us) and dinner/beers on the Nile
with Lutz (a German overlander who has been on the road for 8 months
already with his Land Rover lil’ Elephant) and the English guys (Ben, Tom, Matt & Ollie) – 26 beers in a couple
of hours, sterling effort!
Comment of the days: Mr Saleh “Can I come with you?” when he realised the vehicle is registered in Ness’ name (seemingly very unusual for a woman in Egypt)
Street Hawker to James “You are a
very lucky man [typical approach to try and get you into their shop,
usually referring to a westerners wife]… you
have a very nice T-shirt” Tune of the day: Is this the way to Amirillo by Toni Christie
** Egypt – Top Tips**
1. Despite what some websites say, Egyptian visa’s are available at the border between Libya and Egypt for $15 per person (very easy – it is just a kiosk, no formalities). We made the mistake of getting ours in Tripoli (b/c we’d read they weren’t at the border), which not only was expensive but they did not recognise them at the border and we had to spend 40 minutes convincing them that the visa was real!
2. Police convoys: are a pain, they either speed off at 80mph or drive at 20mph so we have spent a lot of time trying to avoid them – the country is perfectly safe now, but I think the police get bored sometimes. If they do insist and want to take your passport (this happened to us) apparently a copy will satisfy them. See Country Info for a summary of what we found.
3. See country info for border formalities and info on the Sudan ferry
4. Unless absolutely necessary, avoid MTI (the Land Rover authorised garage nr Cairo) – an oil change cost us UK£100, not to mention we seem to have more leaks after their service than before!
5. Luxor – we felt like this was a bit of an expensive tick in the box in the end. Check which tombs are closed before you pay – when we went to the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, the best tombs were closed for refurbishment. The Temple of Horus in Edfu and Abu Simbel (which you get a good view of from the ferry) are just as spectacular, cheaper and with very few tourists, we found much more enjoyable.
6. Avoid the Eid holiday – it plays havoc when trying to get out of the country!