Through the Desert on a Truck with no Name

Not for the first time on this trip there was a marked difference between the people on either side of the border. Suddenly we were back to smiley happy people and we made a small fortune at the border as the Sudanese are desperate for US dollars. The official exchange rate is 6.7 Sudanese pound per 1USD and we got 17. The landscape quickly changed from steep rugged hills to fertile endless flat plains. We were all surprised at not only how green it was but we also saw more tractors (Massey Ferguson 185s) in the first 50km than the whole time in Ethiopia. Even better we were back to bush camping. As we pulled off the road to our spot situated near a watering hole with plenty of local livestock and large numbers of camels. We set up camp after a brief exchange of hand gestures with the nomadic camel herders who all seemed incredibly friendly. As too were the camels who browsed right beside our tents including some young ones who must have only been a couple of days old. We all expected them to move off once darkness fell but instead the men and boys laid out a sack each and using the camel saddles as a pillow slept beside us. We rose at the crack of dawn and after some more hand gesture conversations ended up with a pot of fresh camel milk and plenty of photos of us petting one of the tiny babies in exchange for some worn out shoes that had served their purpose for us but I'm sure will be well used by them. 

The landscape got hotter and drier as we lost more altitude. We met up again with our old friend the Blue Nile before hitting the bustling city of Khartoum. It was hot and stuffy in the city but much more modern and well kept than expected. There was plenty of traffic and we caused quite a scene when we came to a very low underpass. Blocking all the lanes we literally just snuck underneath by the skin of our teeth, we were close to having to get out and let some air out of the tyres. The rather infamous Blue Nile Sailing Club, home to Kitchener’s gun boat was our camp for the next two nights. 

We took a long slow walk (due to the heat) to the market and museum. We were not quite sure how we would be perceived by the locals but we were blown away by their friendliness and surprised at how open they were to us. The museum was in a rough looking building but despite this had a very good display of Nubian artefacts and explanations about the ancient Nile River Valley. It was a perfect introduction to what was in store for us. We also decided to walk down to the bridge where the bulging White and Blue Niles met in a churning muddy confluence. It was a hot rather sleepless night due to the humidity and the plenty of kids running around the grounds of the “club” enjoying a fizzy. 

We left early with the hope of sneaking under a couple of low bridges before the city was awake and succeeded in not only navigating to the outskirts of town but also stocking up supplies for the desert. Pee breaks had all but dried up as the desert heat increased to 45 degrees plus, though we did stop for a coffee with all the girls taking the opportunity to show off their newly purchased flowing dresses. Meroe was our destination with its numerous pyramids. We spotted them from the main road and pulled off into a dusty sand track and FINALLY got the truck stuck! Luckily it didn't involve too much digging and with the sand mats we were back onto the hard ground in no time, thankfully, as it was scorching hot. It was so hot that we all just sat parked outside the ruins reading and trying to keep cool and hydrated until the fierce afternoon heat subsided. By about 4pm with water soaked shirts we braved the elements and paid the $4 entrance fee. Avoiding the camel riding touts we walked through the very cool pyramids complete with there small chapels, steep angular sides and amazing inscriptions. A couple of them were in very good condition while others had crumbled a bit, we couldn't go down inside the burial chambers though. We camped just around the back of the dunes and just as everyone sat down to eat dinner a tremendous sandstorm hit us. We all thought it was just a passing whirlwind but after a couple of minutes started to rapidly pack away dinner stuff. All our tents were flattened and dinner ruined as we took shelter in the truck. Luckily we only had 10 of us as we were couped up inside for a couple of hours while the winds must have hit 100km plus an hour, in the end everyone slept on the truck as there was way too much sand in the tents.

It took us a good couple of hours in the morning to try and extract the sand and dust, thankfully we could run the air hose off the truck and blow most of the nooks and crannies clean... the only saving grace of the dust storm was it had caused huge dust clouds to regulate the heat just a little bit during the day. After driving through barren rocky deserts and the odd miserable looking date plantation we came to another ruin, Gebel Barkal, with a couple of good pyramids and some huge engraved pillars (with no guides available we unfortunately missed half the ruins). We drove out just in time and pulled off the road to find somewhere to camp, we quickly hit a big patch of soft sand and got stuck. So for the second time in as many days we had to get out the shovels and sand mats to extract ourselves.

  Thankfully there were no sandstorms that evening but the lingering dust made it stifling hot all night and we barely got any sleep. It was a rather grumpy crew who departed early for another day of heat which was easily in the late 40 degrees. We stocked up on supplies and found some good water from a spring (we went through 200 litres in 24 hours) before continuing through the barren desert, our only company was the exploding dead cows on the side of the road and a few very brave soles looking for gold. Luckily we found a good spot amongst date palms the next day and with access to the muddy brown Nile we threw all caution to the wind and had the amazing feeling of cooling water being thrown over us by buckets. Chances are we already have bilharzia (snail larvae from Malawi) but we are probably more than likely to have the pesky wee snail in us now, though we have the medication to sort it out once we depart the continent. Once the fierce heat had subsided a bit we all piled into a small boat and ferried across the river to the ruins of Soleb. It consisted of huge engraved pillars that had withstood the test of time and bore witness to many other travellers with graffiti dating back to the early 1800s. The evening light made for pleasant exploring and photos and thankfully the proximity to the river provided some relief from the heat and we all had a much better sleep than the night before.

It was a leisurely start to the day as we only had about 380km left to the border. Scenery, it was more of the same, hot straight roads with the odd rocky out crop. Any hint of an approaching settlement was given away by fluttering plastic bags caught on every little bush and plastic bottles in all the wee depressions. We made good time and by lunch we were at the border. Due to the lengthy process of crossing the border and need of a local to assist we spent the afternoon down by Lake Nasser cooling off and doing the dreaded truck clean. We had to pull all the leftover food from the lockers and remove piles of built up dust and the odd bit of glitter from a long ago truck party and scrub down all the kitchen area. We had a large contingent of local kids who were supposed to be filling the water tanks their donkeys had brought down, but instead had stopped and gawked at all the girls in their shorts. It was sadly our last bush camp and final night of cooking on an open fire as due to the crash in Egyptian tourism and lack of facilities we were in hotels for the remaining 10 days. Sautéed camel meat with fried potatoes, salad and garlic bread went down a treat and so too did the popcorn afterwards that we shared with the two dozen kids.

Now the dreaded border, the Egyptian authorities are not the friendliest or easiest people to deal with and we were prepared for a full truck search including an airport style X-ray of all our personal baggage. We arrived at the border just before 8:30am and had to wait in the rising heat for it to open, luckily we bet a couple of big buses and after an hour or so we were safely cleared out of Sudan by the ever friendly officials. We drove a short distance to the Egyptian gate and were promptly stopped by many men with lots of guns. We had to have our temperatures taken to prove we weren't sick and fill in some paper work. Then at the baggage scanner they decided that they would try confiscate all our pocket knives as they are weapons. With much arguing we got most of them back though a couple of people lost their ceremonial Somali daggers. Next we just had to wait, and wait and wait. Eventually after about 4 hours and with new number plates we were free to leave without any official stepping on board. So much for a full truck search and the effort we went to hiding a big box of booze for the much anticipated felucca birthday party. 

We spent the night in Abu Simbel and after washing down our tents we were spoilt with not only a cold beer but also a 3 course meal under the stars. It was a welcome change from the sandy desert and we all laughed about having completed the overlanding part of the trip, now it was just a week of holidays! Up early at 5:30 though really 6:30 due to time zone change we had a 5 min drive to the amazing temples of Abu Simbel. How they relocated and reconstructed these temples block by 3 tonne block up 100ms due to the high Aswan dam I don't know. The four huge carved statues of Ramses were impressive but nothing could prepare you for the inside which was so well decorated and still showed signs of paint. There were three large halls with the very back one having 4 seated gods, 3 of which, including Ramses himself, are illuminated twice a year by the rising sun, once on Ramses birthday and the other on his coronation, he must have been one very switched on bloke, though who knows what possessed him to have 68 wives. His favourite wife has a slightly smaller though equally well decorated and preserved temple, beside his. Our early start meant we had beaten the crowds though they now only receive around 1500 people a day in peak season down from 6 or 7 thousand before the Arab Spring uprising so we headed back to our hotel for a treat of a breakfast complete with butter, cheese and yoghurt, some of the first dairy we had eaten in months. 

The drive to Aswan was hot and blustery but we made it in good time which allowed us enough time to catch the sunset from a small boat with a cold beer in our hand. The dams had taken all the silt out of the water column so the Nile appeared clear and cool and ever so tempting. After doing a few bombs off the boat roof  we went for a traditional Nubian dinner in a family home. It was a great feed served within the inner courtyard which even had sand as carpet. We got up early and took a small boat to the island where the Philae temple had been cut into something like 45000 blocks moved to it's current position. It used to be periodically flooded after the British built the small dam before being moved upon completion of the high dam. The inscriptions were well preserved in a couple of rooms which had been covered in sand while other inscriptions had been defaced. There was engravings from Napoleon, compass directions to Paris, a memorial to the British camel regiment and many Coptic crosses as one room had been used as a Christian chapel. 

Birthday day. With some good planning we were off for a night floating down the Nile in a felucca. Nick had smuggled a tomato sauce box full of liquor from Uganda to make sure everyone had a good time. The felucca had a big flat platform covered in mattresses with a nice shady roof and once the ice turned up we were into the punch. The river provided some welcome relief from the heat and climbing the mast made jumping a little more exciting. We stopped on a nice sandy beach where we had a special delivery of more alcohol and a very nice birthday cake. With sore heads we piled overboard for a refreshing dip the next day before breakfast and a bouncy ride to Luxor.

Luxor city is tourist central, or was, and it was pretty well set up with some nice old buildings and dirt cheap hotels. As I may have said earlier our Overland trip was over and we were now on holiday! We had a massive room with a nice pool and awesome rooftop restaurant complete with three course meals and table cloths! After a little group consultation it was decided that it would be an early start with a big itinerary of tombs and temples. We managed to beat almost all of the small crowds and visited three tombs in the Valley of the Kings. Nothing could really prepare you for the experience. These tombs are 3000 years old and most of them look like they were painted yesterday with the most intricately carved details and hieroglyphics, despite a lot of looking we couldn't find a single mistake. The biggest tomb we went to was over a hundred meters underground and had numerous huge granite coffins which again were all so well decorated. 

Next on our busy tour was the famous Queen Hatshepsut temple which was huge, three stories tall with massive carved pillars and elaborate drawings of the gods. She was a bit of a rebel and wasn't really allowed to be queen and she kinda ruled on behalf of her very young step son and had some elaborate temples dedicated to her, her step son when he finally took over the rein after her death quickly set about defacing anything that had her name on it and removed her name from any inscription. Valley of the queens was next and although the tombs were not as big in scale the drawings were equally well done with very well preserved paintings and colours. A real highlight was the workers tombs which were only recently discovered. The workers were treated like royalty and paid very well for their efforts. They were given all their food, drink and housing and when they had days off they built their own tombs. Although they were tiny the paintings were mental with the most amazing depictions of village scenes and gods and I would love to know how to read hieroglyphics. We had worked up a fair hunger and the English had heard about an old English pub with a Sunday roast so we headed there and were slightly disappointed as it was fairly run down though the fish and chips were not too shabby. The pool provided a welcome afternoon respite from the ever present heat and when you thought we couldn't cram anything else in we headed off to Karnak temple for an evening sound and light show. This is the biggest temple in Egypt with ginormous pillars and massive archways. The lights were a bit tacky but it meant that your attention was only occupied on the illuminated parts as apposed to all the vast intricate hieroglyphics. The light show was so good and the temple so grand that we decided to head back there the next day. Before that however we had a ridiculously early start. At 4:10am our alarms rang out and we sleepily stumbled into a minivan and headed out of town to a paddock full of half blown up hot air balloons. In the half light we quickly piled into a basket with a dozen others a lifted off. It was such a cool experience to just float effortlessly over all these huge ancient ruins. We witnessed the sunrise with about 20 other balloons and it was a really relaxing way to spend a morning and we were thankful for terrible Arab spring which made all the activities so cheap. 

All of us snuck quietly away after breakfast and caught up on a couple of hours of much needed sleep. Before we knew it it was roast chicken and salad for lunch and a hot walk down the 3km long avenue lined with sphinxes every metre leading from Luxor temple to Karnak temple, which has only recently been discovered and excavated. Back at Karnak temple for a second time was equally as impressive as the first. This temple was added to over the centuries by various famous Pharos, each one adding their own grand parts and unique designs. In the daylight we could see huge walls covered in carved and painted scenes of battles and royal offerings. Once you left the main area the tourist numbers died down and we were free to enjoy the scale and hieroglyphics by ourselves (well I mean we still had the ever present drink seller, security guard come guide and official guide lurking in the shadows). There was plenty of huge blocks all neatly laid out awaiting their turn to be relocated back into their original homes. This process of restoration must at times be exceedingly slow and tedious but when you get it right incredibly satisfying. Our mad mate Pistol had finally given in to the most persistent horse and cart driver, who are everywhere in Luxor, so we hitched a ride with him back to the Nile where the wee ferry took us across to our hotel for another top notch feed.

Our second to last drive day involved departing the river Nile as we headed through the mountains to the Red Sea. It was a scenic drive though once we hit the coast the strong persistent trade winds buffeted us as we passed through some rather obscene seaside resorts. We stayed in Hurghada for two nights and to be honest with you it was a complete dump. There are thousands of half built concrete shells and the other half have seen better days. We tried to head to the beach for a swim but found that any resort that was open wouldn't let non guests in and any “public” looking place didn't like our non Muslim appearance and refused us entry. Eventually we found a derelict site and managed to avoid the rubble to get our feet wet. Thankfully diving was incredibly cheap so the next day we all piled onto a huge boat that we thought we had to ourselves until 25 Russians turned up as headed to an offshore reef. It was good to get back underwater and although not the most amazing reef we've ever been to there was still some good coral pinnacles and schools of brightly coloured fish. A highlight was seeing a couple of octopus which changed colour and shape for us as we approached. 

Time was just about up on this four month trip of a lifetime and our tour leader had arranged a celebratory dinner (plus it was Suzanne's birthday). We hopped in a taxi and went down to the marina which was a well kept upmarket affair and had a very good dinner. Most of us gambled a little bit and ordered steaks which I think must have been imported as they were so good and didn't have the usual tough rubbery texture that you normally get in Africa as the cows are used to plot the fields and tow carts. After a long day in the sun, a couple of beers, big feed and nice birthday cake there wasn't much partying done. We were also saving that for tomorrow, our last drive day of the trip. It was an early start as we had nearly 500km to go to Cairo and we weren't sure what traffic would be like. Again it was a hot windy day and with the good road it felt like we were sitting in a blast furnace. As we made our way up the coast past countless terrible coastal developments (they have ruined the very thing tourists come for) mostly half finished we discovered we had blown a seal in the rear dif, after a quick temporary patch up job we rumbled slowly on until at one police check point (which are everywhere in Egypt) we heard a huge crash and looked forward to see a truck carrying plastic water pipes had rolled right in front of us. Luckily we were not a few seconds faster or we could have been flattened and the driver walked away unharmed though I'm sure he will be asking his boss about checking brakes more regularly in the future. It was time to crack open the chillybin and drink the last remaining booze on the truck. The music got turned up and we all were in high spirits racing along chaotic motorways and into the second biggest city in Africa. With the booze running through our veins we created quite a scene hanging out the windows with people waving and taking photos of us as we willing replied. We even had people leaning out of car windows taking selfies of us while trying to drive. 

It was with mixed emotions as we parked outside our hotel and disembarked for the last time. In all we had driven 20 854km from Cape Town to Cairo through 13 countries over 128 days. I would like to be able to write about how tough and wild it was but in all honesty it was fairly straightforward. Sure we had to battle the odd day in the desert and some early starts and long days of driving and there were days when you would resent all the pee stops and certain people would get on your nerves. But all of this was part of the adventure, Africa is amazing. The media and aid organisations have something to answer for, the mass portrayal of a continent starving, ravaged by war, corruption, rebel gangs and deadly diseases does not do the real people justice. Sure there are isolated episodes of these but we saw little of this, we didn't get sick, have anything stolen, were welcomed by nearly everyone and would happily return to Africa at any stage and if the truck turned around tomorrow and headed south we would quickly jump back on and return to our seats. 

We topped off the trip with a tour around the huge pyramids of Giza and the sphinx and it was a shock to see so many other tourists. Lucy jumped on a camel to reenact a couple of black and white photos that her father had taken 30 odd years before, while Nick ably took over from the camel herder and led Sinbad the camel and even got him to kneel down with only a wee groan to allow Lucy to disembark, perhaps the life as a Bedouin camel herder awaits in another life. After the magnificent pyramids we had a quick infomercial for papyrus paper painting which were very well done but didn't really fit into our nomadic life so we headed off to the national museum. Situated in a grand old building built at the turn of the 19 century it was literally bursting at the seams with artefacts. The whole top floor was dedicated to king Tuts stuff and man what a collection. When his tomb was found it had in the vicinity of 2200 pieces including his gold encrusted throne, wooden chariots, model boats, crowns and most amazingly three huge golden tombs which stacked inside each other like Russian dolls, then came his two solid gold sarcophaguses, huge golden mask and masses of jewellery. He only ruled for less than 10 years so you can only imagine how much Ramses the second amassed in his rein which lasted until his death aged 94! 

A massive thank you has to go to Walter our driver who safely got us here in one piece while always being cheerful. It would take a little time to get him telling stories but once he started he had us all in stitches with the most amazing euphemisms. His extra insights into African culture was also invaluable and a few of his daily quotes will stay with us for ever! “You have no Idea”, “a banana a day keeps the doctor hungry” and “I love overlanding”. Thanks also to Geoff our tour guide who put up with our constant questions and kept us all in line right to the end. And lastly to the characters who signed up to the crazy idea of driving from Cape to Cairo some of you will be remembered fondly (you know who you are)  while others will fade into the past.