Strangely, leaving Sudan was a more time consuming process than entering the country. We had all the right paperwork and all we needed was an exit stamp in our passport and carnet de passage. Four hours later being sent back and forth from and to the same people it was obvious they made a simple thing like this as hard as possible on purpose. Only because they did the same on the Egyptian side and it would look stupid if they wouldn’t, plus there is more pocket money involved. They make it hard purely so it would be time consuming therefore easier to hire a person(fixer) that can do the process in minutes, greasing the right pockets here and there.
After leaving the endless paperwork bullshit behind in Sudan we were heading for the Egyptian border, where our fixer Gamal was waiting for us. From other overlanders we have heard that crossing this border is not something you want to do individually, as we normally always do. Why pay for a service you don’t really want? Egypt is different. We have read stories where people got their vehicle impounded and sent out the country because they were missing the right paperwork. On recommendation of various other overlanders, Gamal was supposed to be one of the best around without screwing you over or missing a few papers here and there. This was our last African country, yet the worst to get in with your vehicle. We didn’t want to screw it up now right? Luckily we had a carnet de passage that’s valid in Egypt, otherwise it would have been a much longer process.
Once into Egypt we crossed Lake Nasser with a ferry. Because the area was still mostly a military zone we had to take a security guard with us in the car. I’m not sure whether that was required or he just needed a ride as when we had crossed over the lake both our fixer and security guard found themselves a nice place in an air-conditioned bus. Now completely alone we decided to go wild camping in the desert under the thousands of stars creating the Milky Way.
After leaving the endless paperwork bullshit behind in Sudan we were heading for the Egyptian border, where our fixer Gamal was waiting for us. From other overlanders we have heard that crossing this border is not something you want to do individually, as we normally always do. Why pay for a service you don’t really want? Egypt is different. We have read stories where people got their vehicle impounded and sent out the country because they were missing the right paperwork. On recommendation of various other overlanders, Gamal was supposed to be one of the best around without screwing you over or missing a few papers here and there. This was our last African country, yet the worst to get in with your vehicle. We didn’t want to screw it up now right? Luckily we had a carnet de passage that’s valid in Egypt, otherwise it would have been a much longer process.
Once into Egypt we crossed Lake Nasser with a ferry. Because the area was still mostly a military zone we had to take a security guard with us in the car. I’m not sure whether that was required or he just needed a ride as when we had crossed over the lake both our fixer and security guard found themselves a nice place in an air-conditioned bus. Now completely alone we decided to go wild camping in the desert under the thousands of stars creating the Milky Way.
Visiting Aswan we needed to do some stocking up on food. Strangely we ended up in a little shop sipping away some strong and sweet Egyptian tea speaking to Ahmed whom had studied in Cairo and set up his own little tea shop in Aswan. The locals liked it very much as it was full of people. The entrepreneur himself was to our surprise even younger than us and spoke very well English. He showed us around where to buy our food and produce as they don’t really have proper supermarkets yet. We eventually found ourselves in a one of a kind market, just like you would imagine from the Walt Disney movie Aladdin. It was clean, busy but not overcrowded and most of the merchants were welcoming us to Alaska. The sun was shining really bright and hot, but they had hung up big sheets creating pleasant shade. We had fun but some of the vendors really tried to rip us off with outrageous prices. We could read some of the Arabic numbers by now, standing right in the produce marking the prices, so we just laughed and moved on to the next one giving us the local prices.
Our first real mass tourist destination in a long time, we arrived in the famous city of Luxor. We had heard a bit here and there but we never expected the beauty of this place. We were very surprised when we just drove by the Luxor temple, amazed by the size of the pillars. Finding a place to camp was a bit of a struggle so we bargained for a room at the Rezeiky hotel where they also had safe parking. This appears to be the place to stay for all the overlanders, but again we were the only ones. When the night fell, we walked along the Nile River being surprised again about the beauty of this place. The mountains on the other side were fully lit up in the night displaying other places to go to. We really had to do some research now!
Our first real mass tourist destination in a long time, we arrived in the famous city of Luxor. We had heard a bit here and there but we never expected the beauty of this place. We were very surprised when we just drove by the Luxor temple, amazed by the size of the pillars. Finding a place to camp was a bit of a struggle so we bargained for a room at the Rezeiky hotel where they also had safe parking. This appears to be the place to stay for all the overlanders, but again we were the only ones. When the night fell, we walked along the Nile River being surprised again about the beauty of this place. The mountains on the other side were fully lit up in the night displaying other places to go to. We really had to do some research now!
Luxor has many places to visit, lucky for us it was off season so hardly any other tourists around. Besides that we used our fake student ID’s, so the visits were half price too! We visited the Luxor Temple, Karnak, the valley of kings, the colossus of Memnon, the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut and most importantly for Jasmin the McDonalds! Luxor was an amazing surprise for us and I would recommend this city to everyone. The city runs mostly on tourism now, but it’s great to see they are still recovering new things any places every year. The money collected is being used well and at the right places. Like now they there was a big excavation and restoration on the Avenue of Sphinxes connection the Luxor temple to Karnak. Or even more recently, three weeks ago they have discovered another chamber in the tomb of Tutankhamen! Treasure!
For a little relaxation we went to Hurghada for some snorkeling. It was all very cheap, but you really get what you pay for. The reef wasn’t that great and the tour group cameraman following us around in the water was a real pain in the ass. Needless to say we didn’t buy the pictures.
We moved on towards Cairo to see the pyramids of Giza, the sphinx and pay a visit to the Cairo museum. Our visit to the pyramids was a bit of a bummer as when we entered the pyramid of Khufu it was one big line of tourists going up to the chamber in a very narrow tunnel going up. Nevertheless it was amazing to be inside such an old structure. As stunned as we were to see the size of the pyramids we were also surprised how the time has stood still in the museum. It was really like how I imagined a museum would have looked like from a hundred years ago. Not surprisingly as it has been there since 1902. Unfortunately the museum is being moved to a new building soon, but I hope the collection will be better presented as most mummies have been stacked on top of each other, sometimes unmarked.
We moved on towards Cairo to see the pyramids of Giza, the sphinx and pay a visit to the Cairo museum. Our visit to the pyramids was a bit of a bummer as when we entered the pyramid of Khufu it was one big line of tourists going up to the chamber in a very narrow tunnel going up. Nevertheless it was amazing to be inside such an old structure. As stunned as we were to see the size of the pyramids we were also surprised how the time has stood still in the museum. It was really like how I imagined a museum would have looked like from a hundred years ago. Not surprisingly as it has been there since 1902. Unfortunately the museum is being moved to a new building soon, but I hope the collection will be better presented as most mummies have been stacked on top of each other, sometimes unmarked.
Not sure what to think about our next destination in the Sinai, we went and tried anyway. Officially it was supposed to be closed to tourists after several ISIS attacks, we have heard different stories from travellers being sent away and of other having no problems. For us it was absolutely no problem, except when it started getting dark one of the police checkpoints stopped us to tell us we had to continue in a convoy. We didn’t want to drive in the dark anyway so we asked whether we could sleep at their camp, which was no problem at all. They even let us continue without a convoy the next morning.
When we arrived at Sharm El Sheik we had done some research and booked a 4 star resort on the beach. Time to relax our sore bodies and catch up on all the bodyweight we had lost. We both stuffed ourselves with the amazing food and basically did nothing else than snorkeling and relaxing. It was really eat sleep swim repeat. It only took us three days to get bored doing this so after three nights and ten gigantic meals we moved on towards Israel. We found another tourist destination on the way called Dahab. A relaxed version of Sharm El Sheik where you could really lose time and do nothing! We decided we had to do something so we did an introductory scuba dive right off the beach. We saw many fish including two squids fighting and changing colors.
When we arrived at Sharm El Sheik we had done some research and booked a 4 star resort on the beach. Time to relax our sore bodies and catch up on all the bodyweight we had lost. We both stuffed ourselves with the amazing food and basically did nothing else than snorkeling and relaxing. It was really eat sleep swim repeat. It only took us three days to get bored doing this so after three nights and ten gigantic meals we moved on towards Israel. We found another tourist destination on the way called Dahab. A relaxed version of Sharm El Sheik where you could really lose time and do nothing! We decided we had to do something so we did an introductory scuba dive right off the beach. We saw many fish including two squids fighting and changing colors.
We had such a lovely time in Egypt and didn’t see anything of the threats that come along the news. All we saw were mass tourist destinations in need of tourists and a few friendly police check points. Ever since the revolution in 2011 the country has struggled getting tourists in. Recent messages like the Mexican tourists getting shot down by the Egyptian army on the 13th of September are not helping either. I hope the country can obtain a better security situation as it’s really a unique place to go and see in this world.