We have our visas! All 4 of us are ready to get out of the city. We drive along the Nile and finally settle on a place to camp. There are a few heaps of sand and it is quite dusty, but we are happy to be away from the noise. Sammie is the happiest, and he looks like a little dust whirlwind as he runs as fast as he can along the water’s edge. We sit around a campfire and by 10 pm we are in our tents. The sound of a truck wakes us up and we could not believe it, but as we watch it unloads a load of sand and then every 45 minutes all through the night! Our tranquil campsite transforms to a dust pit!
3 – 6 April, See Caren’s Conundrum - \"hey ma chillax - dis net \"another day in paradise\")4/15/2011 3 – 6 April, Aswan (see Caren’s Conundrum - "hey ma chillax - dis net "another day in paradise")
We meet the Brits again at the office of an official who makes all the arrangements for the barge and the ferries. We book our place on the barge, and do what we can with good faith that we will receive our Sudanese visas the next morning.
We bush camp next to the Nile the evening with the Brits on the property of a farmer/fisherman – Mohammed who is very friendly, helps Hugo and Andrej to make a fire, and offers us tea every 15 minutes. A warm wind blows in from the desert and it is definitely the warmest night we’ve had this far. This is only a side-note and not a complaint! We are definitely still enjoying the getting warmer weather. We have to watch Sammie closely because there are a pack of dogs running around and not friendly with outsiders! Tomorrow is the big day! 31 March – 1 April, Friday We explored the area a little, drove to the Aswan dam decided that we would like to visit Abu Simbel, a temple in the Nubian Desert built by Ramesses II. It is only possible to go with a guarded convoy – the first one leaves at 3am and the second 11 am. We find a spot by the river, pitch one tent for Willie and me, and the boys sleep in the car till 2:30 when we get up, pack up and drive to the convoy meeting point. 3:45 tour buses and mini-vans arrive filled with tourists. This is definitely the most tourists that we’ve seen since we’ve been in Egypt. We are not exactly sure what convoy means, because once we have the green light to leave each one goes their own pace and maybe even own way! The trip through the desert is beautiful and we are so close to the border of Sudan at one point – 50 miles away if not closer. Map: Wikipedia  Abu Simbel: Not only is Abu Simbel steeped in ages of history, but it also boasts with quite a miraculous “modern” history. Abu Simbel is a Unesco World Heritage Site and refers to 2 massive temples built in the Nubian Desert by Pharaoh Ramesses II during the 13th century before Christ. The twin temples were built to commemorate Ramesses’ victory at Kadesh, to intimidate his Nubian neighbors and to serve as a lasting monument to himself and his queen, Nefertari. The temples fell into disuse with the passage of time and by the 6th century BC was long forgotten and covered in sand. A Swiss orientalist re-discovered the temples in 1813 under the guidance of a young, local boy, Abu Simbel, who has seen the temples emerge as sand shifted during sandstorms. Eventually the complex was named after him. Picture: Wikipedia  As water started to rise from the Nile as a result of the Aswan dam complex the monuments were under threat to be submerged by water and an international salvage campaign began. A multinational team of professionals started the salvage project in 1964 under the banner of UNESCO. It took 4 years to carefully and skillfully cut up the entire site into massive blocks, dismantle, lift and relocate it to the new above water location. (65m higher and 200m further back).  We arrive in Abu Simbel village convoy-less!?, find parking in the shade for the ‘kelp’(Sammie) in the car, maneuver our way through the tourists traps quite skillfully – almost 4 weeks in Egypt have trained us well, “No, we don’t need postcards, water, hats, suntan-lotion, … or a guide!” That one did not go over very well, because after Willie bought the tickets do we realize the price include a guide! and now they tell us to go find a guide in the bush, because we said we do not need a guide. We have to check ourselves, because all 4 of us have less tolerance with the constant hassling and bickering you have to deal with almost everywhere. We walk around the man-made hill-mountain surrounded by the dam and then suddenly there they sit: 4 humongous carved-out of stone statues of Ramesses II! It is almost unbelievable – the size, the dimensions, and the age…and added to what is already a miracle the modern-day miracle of successfully moving the colossuses from one location to another! As in the Valley of the Kings we are not allowed to take any pictures inside of the temple. The hieroglyphics are stunning and well-preserved except for the graffiti of visitors in the 1800’s whose names are now immortalized next to ancient writing dating from before Christ. Ramesses II also built a temple, on smaller scale, for his beloved and beautiful wife – Queen Nefartati. The hieroglyphics are remarkable and of a kind that we’ve not seen before. It is a very warm day and the 4 of us are like drowsy flies. We drive to the town, buy provisions for the evening meal and eat our lunch next to a gas station in semi-shade. We are not allowed to go back to Aswan without the convoy which means we have to wait till 4pm! Click on Play to Start: I cannot tell you too much about Aswan other than it is one of Egypt’s southern most cities and its life is built around the Nile. We arrived here from Luxor Thursday of last week – the 31st March. Our first stop was the Sudanese Embassy. We were full of hope that the permission from Khartoum was faxed to Aswan as was told to us, but there was no fax. This was the beginning of such an up and down ride for us.
Willie called “our man” in Khartoum (“our man and the information he had was that the permission was granted and faxed!) Since the embassy was closing and it was Muslim weekend, there was not too much more that we could do before Sunday. |
AuthorCaren "There is something about safari life that makes you forget all your sorrows and feel as if you had drunk half a bottle of champagne - bubbling over with heartfelt gratitude for being alive. One only feels really free when one can go in whatever direction one pleases over the plains, to get to the river at sundown and pitch one's camp, with the knowledge that one can fall asleep
beneath other trees, with another view before one, the next night." - Karen Blixen - Out of Africa, Kenya 'Of course as I am reading this, I know that you DO get your visas and the container DOES get released, but oh the internal struggle we face even though we should trust (as Hugo does) that God has His hands on all things and is constantly taking care of us.'
From a Friend: :) Crazy to think that we are ALL made of blood, bone and water yet we speak in so many tongues that getting along together becomes a massive task within itself. Archives
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"Julle sal dit maak! Opwindend, dis 'n geleentheid 1x in 'n leeftyd. Ons wens ons kon deel wees daarvan. Sterkte en ons bid vir 'n veilige reis!"
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