Tow Ropes and Temples

The stressfest had started when Bubble’s radiator first seized up and the bizarre border bureaucracy had been icing on the crazy cake. But everyone knows cakes need more than just icing and so Bubbles drove her obligatory 5km north from the border and gave us another round of overheating. We had our cherry. We didn’t have too much time to consider solutions before a friendly trucker stopped to assist. We knew we needed to get another 30km north to the ferry across the lake to Abu Simble and so without much hesitation we pulled out the tow rope and were away.

Being alive at the ferry line gave us time to say prayers of thanksgiving and wonder if there was a medium paced speed of progress north, something between 0.25km per hour at the border and 80km per hour towed behind a semi-truck. It also gave time to speak* with various truck drivers as they climbed all over Bubble’s engine and gave us clear** explanations on her damage and what repairs must be made. We knew she needed to get to Aswan and we knew we didn’t have 10 days to hobble her there in 5km stints. We managed to initiate a bidding war with the drivers offering to deliver us to Aswan as they all had empty flatbed trailers post Sudan deliveries. The price started at 5,000 LE but we shook hands 10 minutes later with a large unshaven and toothless older gentlemen who spoke absolutely no English for 1,800 LE. You get what you pay for.

Arriving to Abu Simble that night, we checked into a hotel and had one of the best tasting beers of our life. The hotel was built in the early 90’s and had pictures of the King and Queen of Sweden’s visit in 1991. The hotel hadn’t been updated since but the swimming pool overlooking the Nile and AC in our room meant we had arrived in a Garden of Eden. Rising early, we dashed to the Temple of Rameses II to take in our first Egyptian sites, literally jogging through them to see it all before meeting our driver.

Meeting the driver at the appointed time, we wondered what his plan was to get Bubbles loaded. Like much of the trip so far, this also was destined to be ad hoc. First it was tea, then prayers at the Mosque (him, not us) and then an hour driving through the wasteland of a large abandoned construction site hoping that a random pile of dirt would work as a loading ramp. Finally, the police showed up and told the driver to get out of town. Fortuitously, outside of town was a camel farm where 2,500 camels had just been loaded onto 104 trucks (Ross counted) for delivery to Cairo where they were destined to be slaughtered for the upcoming Islamic holiday of Eid al Adha. The strategy quickly became clear, ask for forgiveness and not permission. Precisely as the last camel van left we raced through the farm gate before it closed and used a camel loading ramp to get Bubbles on the trailer, driving back out of the farm and down the road 10km before even stopping to secure her with straps.

With Bubbles lashed sort of securely on the back, we relaxed in the air conditioned cab of the relatively new semi-truck. The driver spoke* to us in Arabic for the first 30 minutes but eventually ignored us allowing 3 hours of quiet driving time for me to beat Ross at Scrabble and both of us to work on blog updates.

Upon arriving in Aswan, unloading Bubbles became our next mission. Finally the truck driver and three friends he picked up drove to an empty industrial area with no lights or other vehicles around. We assumed it was either another obscure loading ramp or a good place to dispose of our bodies. Unloading Bubbles and driving 8km down the road to a hotel took some time but it seemed as if the hardest part may have been over.

* language barrier remained in full effect
** they only spoke Arabic