Vom Zytglogge ans Kap der Guten Hoffnung

Leaving Egypt, we took the ferry from Assuan to Wadi Halfa. It's a 36 hours experience worth all its money, costing lots of nerves when loading bicycles, a lovely place to meet people and an awesome loading and unloading watch experience! And as it is the only way into Sudan we are not the only passenger nor are our bikes the only goods transported...!
But lets start from the beginning:

make a reservation for the ferry
buy the ticket, only available 2 days before departure. (un-)fortunately we got only a third class ticket...
be at the ferry port Monday at 8 am
wait and queue for hours to pass through custom, passport control, x-rays, luggage check, passport control again, ticket check and transforming your ticket into a food voucher..... : by then it's 12 am
wait two hours until the top deck is unlocked. Somewhere stuck in between the gateway, squeezed in between luggage, bicycle, shouting people, busy porter... did i mention that it's really hot down there? and that standing in a queue is a word that does not exist in arabic?
fight for a place for the bikes, our luggage and a space for us to sleep under the lifeboats...
wonder at the filling up of the boat to the rims, ever more people coming onto the boat, even more luggage and boxes piled up on the top desk, blankets and thin mattresses enrolled to reserve a space for the night.
did we mention wait....?
wave goodbye to the shores of Egypt (and the first world khawaji observing "our" boat) and watch the disappearing of the docks at 5 pm just before the sun sets. there are 470 people on the boat instead of the 300 allowed...
The boat set off : such a nice place to meet people! Sudanese culture is so warm and welcoming!
prepare to register for the Sudanese customs and wait in line.
settle down on your squaremeter for the night, listening to the noises of all the people getting ready for the night, some peacefully, others quarreling over space, and finally fall asleep to the roaring of the engine and the passing by of the shores of Lake Nasser...

You need to go to the toilet at night in the dark? well, be prepared to climb over some bodies. No, they are not dead, just sleeping. And yes, under this blanket there is a human, so don't step on him!

Sudanese bureacracy: stamp the passport, send the khawaji to sleep and wake them up at 1 am when you realize that February does not have 31 days. Shukran!

Morning: ful for breakfast is a hard hit for the stomac, and it's the worst ful we will ever have had until Khartoum!

Approaching Wadi Halfa, all the luggage is transported to the top deck. It's hard to keep some space to ourselves. Every square-inch is used up and the boat starts tilting to the unloading side.

for us a small step on our way down south, for others the boat that will bring them home. joy is wonderful!

Yes, that's just our luggage ( and the one from Tom, from Matt, from Will and from Jacob, so nothing to worry about)

the only entrance to the boat is a 2 x 2 m hallway ending either in the water or in front of this grid (which is pulled closed whenever the porters push too hard...): better than any action movie! or was is horror movie?!

liveboats

There is so much to see...

isn't arabic beautiful to watch? (even when you don't understand what's written)

shore of Egypt

there is not so much to do on the boat, buts LOTS of people to meet!

third world watching first world - or the other way round?

make yourself comfortable...

...and get the blankets ready, it's going to be cold.

Cyrano de Bergerac would turn green with envy

Waking up the next morning, after traveling for some kilometer during the night, to the impressive and glorious sight of Abu Simbel, what a treat.

Prayer time

who said the desert was hot?

luggage , people, blankets, luggage people, blankets......

where is the land, are we almost there?

unloading from the top deck to the pier, all human powered. done in 30 minutes: impressive!!!

unloaded top deck...

...loaded pier!

After 36 hours of meeting wonderful people, sleeping on lake Nasser, unloading and passing customs (the customs officer actually forgets us for 45 minutes!!) we are in Sudan.

Marhaba fil Sudan!

After 1'400 km in the desert we join the Nile again to cycle the remaining 200 km to Assuan. Encounters are switching between excellent and stressful within days.
Coming out of the desert we ask a family if we can set up our tent on their land for one night. The answer is yes, but not only that: everyone comes out and we are invited for tea, then hot milk with sugar and an excellent bread and then to eat. This means that Chantal and I do eat alone in the house while all the family is waiting outside and the kids spy on us to see how we eat. ;-)
There is no way of having them eat with us!!!
We spend the evening talking around the fire sitting on benches. These description don't show how welcoming and warm the ambiance is. We spend one of our best evenings with some strangers who have taken us into their family and leave friends in the morning! There is a tear or two left on their ground...

The day we leave this lovely family then turns out to be a pretty stressful day with alot of kids and teenagers yelling "hello, how are you? what is your name? money!" all along the next 70 km to Edfu. The increasingly aggressive traffic and our empty stomacs don't help to relax.
We are tired and spend the night in a hotel. The mosque is within reaching distance! The night accordingly of rather light sleep! "Allah al akbar!"

Traffic eases the next day as the main road takes another way than ours. We relax and enjoy the scenery just to end up with another very welcoming family living just beside the Nile. It's lovely to sleep and be woken up by singing birds!

We reach Assuan the next day.
It's Sunday evening: we have a visa for Sudan, we have a ferry ticket. We have money. We are setup for new encounters in a new country. Ma'asalame Egypt, Salaam Aleikum Sudan!