Aswan Ferry. photo of Mr Saleh

Aswan Ferry.                                                                                     

It was as expected basic, we were the only non locals to have a cabin having called Mr Saleh (pictured with Spanish girl) a few times in the weeks before to remind him of our “ reservation”. We thought as we passed Abu Simbel (see picture)  how nice it would have been to have been on deck as the others were, but in fact it was very cold  and windy. The unloading of the barge was somewhat like a physics test as the barge very slowly (Sudanese speed) manually discharge its general cargo of Egyptian goods such as used lorry parts gearboxes, axles, lentils, citrus fruit and Russian made furniture to enable the level of the barge to become closer to the quay side to enable us to drive off the barge. The levels of the River Nile have fallen over the last few years and so the docks are now rather higher than intended. To drive off the barge meant a two foot vertical gap which had to be tacked by the vehicles, it was not for the faint hearted or for insurance underwriters as the ramps were old and certainly not up to our standards. But with the assistance of some rolled up tarpaulins, low ratio engaged, teeth gritted, our German friend and a Polish Toyota driver Hugo drove off with determination. The Toyota and driver proved themselves, luckily he could not see the narrow ramps.