In Luxor-y

We have spent the last 2 days in Luxor and have been very busy preparing for the last part of our trip. We leave tomorrow morning and plan to drive as far as Hurgada on the Red Sea coast. It is a journey we have done before when we came to Luxor in December 2016 for the almost non-existant balloon event. Just as well that we visited the Valley of the King's and Karnak Temple that time as we have not had much chance while we have been here now. We did take a walk out through the Souks yesterday and revisited a restaurant with atmosphere.

Our long morning drive through the Sudanese desert from Dongola was very easy on an almost empty good road. No towns or villages along the way but a few gold mining settlements. We arrived at the Argeen border in the middle of nowhere at 1.10pm and Chris was taken in hand by a 'fixer' almost immediately to help with the bureaucratic process of exiting Sudan. Even with help it took 2 hours before we were 'out' and queued at the gate to enter Egypt. We knew that would be an even longer process as there is so much paperwork involved and we had to be issued with Egyptian number plates. We had finally completed everything by 6.30 and as sunset was 5.15 it was well and truly dark. We just pulled out of the gates and parked for the night under a streetlight in the parking bay.

We awoke to the sounds of birds in the desert. I don't know what they were but they looked a bit like geese and were attracted by the mounds of refuse piled each side of the road from the border. 2 men with big sacks were also scavenging amongst the debris. Tired from the day before and with the number plates to attach before setting off, we had a latish start for the 300km drive to Aswan. We were so pleased we had filled up with diesel in Karima as we found no more fuel until we reached Aswan.

Our first task was to find the office for the traffic police where we had to get a stamp to confirm we had no traffic violations. Fortunately with map co-ordinates provided by previous Overlanders we were able to identify the small busy backstreet in the city and were soon on our way again. Aswan was beautiful, set on the east bank of the Nile. Perhaps we should have stayed there longer but we could not find anywhere suitable to stop. Up until then we had had good quiet roads and, as it was early afternoon, we decided to keep going to Luxor where we had identified a highly recommended camp site in the city. The first part of the journey was picturesque close to the east bank of the Nile, but we had to go through so many towns, all with severe speed humps, it became slow going and we still had a couple of hours to go when the sun sank below the dunes in the west. Breaking our rule of not driving in the dark, we latched on behind an empty truck which kept up a good speed and were able to keep close all the way to the outskirts of Luxor. Most vehicles were driving without lights but there were streetlamps and the truck appeared to know the road well and indicated to us whenever we had to slow for speed humps. It was with great relief when we arrived at the gates of Rezeiki Camp at 7.15pm and we were out of the hurly burly of racing horse carriages loaded with tourists, buses motorbikes and cars. We were welcomed by Baraka and were soon seated in their restaurant with cold beers and a tasty hot meal.

As I have already explained, our destination tomorrow is Hurgada. We aim to drive along the Red Sea coast to reach the tunnel under the Suez Canal in 2-3 days time. We want to drive around the coast of the Sinai peninsula via Sharm El Sheikh to reach Israel. We know that 4x4 vehicles are prohibited from entering the Sinai but also know several Overlanders have recently done it, and the Enterprise is not easily recognisable as a standard 4x4 vehicle. That is our preferred route if we can make it so that we can get a ferry back to Europe where we can accompany the vehicle without all the risks of leaving the Enterprise in the hands of shipping agents in Alexandria.

We have an Egyptian SIM card for our mobile so will be able to report on our progress. Chris has been busy today setting up shipping the Enterprise from Alexandria if the Sinai route plan fails.