Rest Day: Aswan, Egypt

Today was actually a rest day for us all, not by choice, but very welcoming. We are staying at a lovely hotel, called the Sara Hotel. We had to be in Aswan yesterday morning early to book and pay for the ferry tickets and with all that done, we had a day to spare before the Monday morning ferry departure.

We slept in a little, I only woke up around 9:25am, realising everyone has left me in the room as they all went down for breakfast, the bastards ! I got up and went down to have something to eat.

We then went for a swim in their lovely pool to decide our plan of action for the day. We visited some market in the early afternoon and then through a guy (Mohammed) that Peter met, we arranged for a trip on the Nile river.

Day out in the market

The trip on the Nile was lovely, I really enjoyed it. Mohammed and his friend, Sherif took us around the Nile as our personal tour guides. We eventually ended up on some “beach” where we went for a swim in the Nile.

Sherif and Mohammed

Trip out on the Nile

Mohammed then took us to a Nubian village on the other side of the Nile, his auntys house. Very nice and interesting house, fitted out with some arts and crafts at the back. They also had crocodiles which they raised and then released into the Nile … wait a minute, I swam in the Nile ??? Would not have done if I knew then what I know now.

The Nubian Village

Mohammed then took us back, we went back to our hotel past this giagantic Christian church in the middle of Aswan. At the hotel, we went for a lovely buffet style dinner followed by some drinks, “sheesha” (hubbly bubbly) by the pool overlooking the Nile … awesome !

The Christian Church in Aswan

We called it a night, as tomorrow will be a big day. We have to go the the traffic police to give our number plates back, then off to the ferry port to load the bikes and ourselves on this ferry … must say, not looking forward to it.

Some more pictures from the Nile

Tickets to Sudan is booked.

We had to be in Aswan this morning at 9:30am to book our tickets for the ferry to Sudan. We ran a little late, so I was concerned we won’t make it … that means another week in Egypt.

We headed off, along the Nile route from Luxor to Aswan. I have to say, I am now glad we did the Desert route in the end, this Nile is route is horrible …. stop start, police checkpoint, taxis …. so, so busy. It may be hot, but at least you move at a constant pace on the desert road.

We arrived in Aswan, heading straight to the Ferry company office to see Mr Salah to book our tickets. As we got there, he was expecting us (send him an email a few weeks ago) … and he told us we had to go to the Traffic Court to get some papers to prove that we have not been in any accidents while in Egypt. He gave is the GPS coordinates and off we went.

Guess what .. as we arrived …. they landy was there .. Pete, Matt and Aisha .. again a wonderful sight. We immediately exchanged contact details so we can stay in contact.

Re-united again at the Traffic Court

It took a good few ours … ok, probably only 2 and we had our papers. They tried to charge us 50 egyptian pounds each even though we didn’t have to pay anything … they do try their luck, we insisted that we will not pay … but in the end we said we will give 5 each and that’s it .. after lots of hassles, they finally let us go. We went back to the ferry company and paid for our tickets !

While booking our ferry, we asked Mr Salah from the ferry company for a nice camp site with a pool as we now had to stay 2 nights until our ferry on Monday, so he recommended Sara Hotel .. apparently you can camp their as well.

We arrived at the hotel and the staff was very friendly. They gave us a room with 5 beds and aircon for around 10 GBP each per night …. very nice and relaxing place, in fact, I am busy typing this blog next to the pool overlooking the Nile. They gave us free WiFi as well ! I highly recommend this hotel.

Swimming pool at Sara Hotel

We settled in, after a swim of course … and then went out to town for something to eat …. great city as well .. not as touristy as Luxor, but still great things to do and see.

 

 

Some photos of Aswan at night.

Tomorrow, we just chil at the hotel, swimming, drinking Stella and relaxing …. looking forward to it.