Ferry to Sudan

Place: On the lake Nasser.

Tunes: Shouting from the levels below.

Outside the port. There were dozens of people there trying to get in as porters.

And inside the gates waiting to be inspected by the police.

More running around Aswan, starting at the traffic police place we already visited once. We unfortumately had to give up all of our documents and the beautiful Arabic licence plates. Then waiting and waiting and suddenly someone told us to follow his car to the terminal and left. 

I think one person might have gotten their helmet on as he already disappeared. Fantastic! He made a second round afterwards and all of us (9 bikes, one Land Rover and one VW Minibus) followed him to the harbor. He was not even racing? What the hell is this? And where are the German dudes? 

In the port there was a bit of a crowd outside the gates trying to get in. People are desperate for work and as the ferries are all loaded by hand, they need porters (or is it "loaders"?). In any case, they need a lot of people but there's yet even more supply than demand.

We then had to pay some questionable fees to some random officials for reasons that could not be explained in English. We also paid the police to come out of his office and to check our bikes for weapons. He had to be paid as otherwise it might have taken hours and hours for this guy to come out of his office to do his job. The other overlanders did not pay and got through just as fast as the policeman was there. Did we pay unnecessarily, probably but we’ll never know. We had all day, but I would rather spend that day in the cabin than out in the sun.

And of course there were the formalities of getting out of the country. It turned out to be much easier than getting in.

Despite all this running around with little bits of paper collecting stamps and throwing money around, this place at least seemed organized in some way. There is no public allowed inside the port, so the parasites stay out. Of course the staff will try to change money etc, but it could be a lot worse as someone will always tell you where to go next. Some of the senior officials with the stamps have turned the act of stamping a paper into performance art. It was good to have a laugh with them.

The whole process took hours of course and finally we got cleared to go to the boat. In total, we must have spent 10-12 hours doing various bits of paperwork to get in or out of Egypt and running around in different offices. It is organized but there is such a ridiculous amount of completely pointless things that you have to do and to fill out that it defies belief. 

The loading of the boat was another circus as expected but we were not involved. The whole boat was packed full of all sorts of shit you can think of though this one tiny opening with everyone trying to force themselves through it simultaneously. The passenger and the cargo ferry were already packed when we got there, and completely covered with busy people packing more stuff in. Surely that ferry will sink if you load it more? It did not and there was a constant flow of people into the ferry and out to pack in yet more stuff.

Loading the cars and bikes to this extra barge thing they called was simple, but when will we see the ferry again, time will tell.

On hindsight, I don’t think I will come again to Egypt. I have heard that there are pictures of the pyramids in the internet. I simply do not want my money to support a system like this. It is less stressful to have a holiday when you do not have to get into an inch from a fistfight to get out of a shop after saying “no” for 56 times or to spend 10 minutes “negotiating” with someone to buy a can of sardines. I do not want to come to a place where ripping tourists off is a national sport. I do not want to give my money to the local police just because they want it. All of this of course makes Egypt more adventurous, but it's not a place for me.


The people – outside all sorts of official or business situations – were friendly and warm, but we do not have any time for this kind of touchy feely hippie crap, like talking to anyone. Others can write about how excellent it all was in that wonderful place.

I want one of these!

Other overlanders are of course an exception as they are dealing with the same BS we are. In the traffic police office thing in Aswan we met the couple from Sweden and the two guys (father and son) from Antwerp that we came across before. Also, a Swiss guy going to Cape town solo was there. The Belgians have a properly pimped up Land Rover and we are all jealous. The Swedish VW Caravelle is not as manly, but it probably has aircon. The big Swiss BMW needs some stickers. Otherwise it just won’t look right.

http://beyondthehorizon.be/
http://swedenafrica.blogspot.com/

Even adventure travelers need to rest and you must do so in the most manly way possible. It is not allowed to set up a hammock on the deck, so we must take the other extreme and we have some 1st class cabins with air conditioning. I love air conditioning.

There is however only the on/off switch in this phone-booth sized unit and the cabin is freezing after a while. So, you sweat or
freeze. Of course, we froze as this is more manly than sweating.

The Saagalnaam was originally registered for 300 passengers, but now there is an extra thousand people on top of that. Inside it was like inside a sardine can except without the tomato sauce. The third class looked like something from a book written by Dante, the second one was not far off and the first one (which actually had beds) was a relief.  

  There's something wrong with this picture, or that is a very small man.

A box with legs!

The cargo ferry was packed pretty full. More stuff was piled on top of this stuff. Everything by hand.

  

More packing chaos. I wonder if they will just throw the bikes on top of this pile.

During the loading, the chaos also inside the ferry is really something quite special. There was a constant flow of luggage going into the boat. Suitcases, big boxes, sacks, anything you can think of short of livestock were going in. It is piled in the rooms, corridors and whatever empty space there might be available. This is going to be one cramped boat.

The food on the boat was a bit of a lottery. If you were hungry, you could get some rice and chicken when you first got onboard, but that run out quickly. Afterwards, Gordon Ramsey arrived with a helicopter to prepare us some delicious bread freshly made somewhere, jam that must have been bought from Harrods, locally sourced soft cheese, home-made crisps and a beautiful bean soup.

The beans were really the star of the show. After Gordon flew away, one of the staff secretly told us the recipe. You take some dry beans and water. You boil the beans in the water untill they get soft. Wait until the soup gets lukewarm and serve immediately.

Peter got lucky with his food.

This is the escape plan. Or it could be a map to the disco?