Egypt, part one
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Egypt, part one |
| Egypt ! | |||
| Another country that was not
planned on our initial itinerary and what a country ! We arrived in the
country from the East, on the slow ferry from Aqaba (Jordan) to Nuweiba.
The boat was full of men (many of them, we thought, were returning from
the Haj in Mecca). There was not a single woman or tourist in sight.
Although we had been travelling since HK on Belgian passports, we had
decided to enter Egypt on our 2nd passports as to be able to send
passports home to apply for Libyan visas. As we entered the boat, there
was a small check we had not expected and when asked for our nationality,
we duly answered "Belgium" ! The man was not amused when we
presented him our British and Canadian passports and snapped back "Do
you also have Israeli passports ?".
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Sunset on the Gulf of Aqaba (left), Kathleen on the Santa Catherine (centre), serious packing that all had to be undone at the Egyptian customs (right)
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| Our first encounter with
Egypt was done at the port of Nuweiba : not the best of introductions.
Amongst the family of overlanders, entering Egypt by car is known as a
serious headache and it was no exception for us. Despite having all the
right documents, some people have spent 3 days at border crossings trying
to get in. This bureaucratic nightmare involves paying tips, baksheesh and
other fees. After walking around the
port and asking 5 different people where to go for the first step,
Christian still blew his top off. Luckily Kathleen found a very helpful
employee of the Egyptian Tourism Police who went through the whole process
for us for one small baksheesh (present Carnet de Passage, pay for import
permit, get a local license, get stamp in passports, clear the car through
customs, declare video camera written in passport, obtain a temporary
number plates, buy auto insurance, plastify the local license (!),
photocopy all documents, pay for this pay for that, get a receipt for this
and get a receipt for that...) After a 2 or 3 hours of paperwork, we got
moving again up to the gate where it all started again. Please show us
your Carnet de Passage, passports, insurance, license. Everybody's
interested so everybody wants to have a look at our papers. By then it's
11 pm and we've spent 4 hours at the Jordan border, 4 hours on a ferry and
4 hours at the Egyptian border. It was 1 am before we found a quiet spot
on the beach and went to bed. As soon as we switched off the engine, 3 men
with flashlights came by. Police. Is it OK to sleep here ? Yes...
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First night in Egypt, Nuweiba, Sinai
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| After climbing Mt Sinai and
visiting the coloured canyon, we settled in easy-going Dahab for a week
whilst Kathleen learned to dive. We met with a few overlanders who must
have thought the "Palm Beach" camp was the best ! The first of
our extra pages is on the Sinai.
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A Benz van from Hamburg (left), a old-timer Opel cum Ford Transit roof from Germany (centre) and an old VW van from South Africa !
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| The day we left Dahab was
special. After crossing the Sinai desert from east to west, we reached the
Suez canal that severs Africa from Asia. From a distance we started seeing
the top of huge container boats sliding over the desert ! A very
special sight indeed. That day, we crossed from Asia to Africa by car !
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One of many wrecks in the Sinai desert (left), Troopie's new Egyptian identity : Sinai customs 8876 (centre) and the Suez Canal tunnel leading to Africa (right)
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Left turn to Cairo and Africa !
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A container ship on the Suez Canal. The area is controlled by the Egyptian army and taking pictures is said to be forbidden. Just try snatching a roll of film out of my camera !
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| After a night in the car in
Suez, we headed straight to Cairo. We found an incredibly well-stocked
supermarket called "Alfa", filled up with petrol and fruits and
headed further West to the Western Desert (our second extra page).
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Buying fruit on a Cairo street (left), our first sight of the Nile (centre) and a friendly petrol station crowd (right)
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| Here are our extra pages on Egypt I : | |||
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| Coming from Jordan | Back to Trip page | Egypt, part II |
