Luxor - Wadi Halfa (9.042 km)

loading the dukes onto the ferry

robin's bike by the toilet. much to the joy of the bmw owners!

arriving in Sudan

Matteo trying to keep the bike upright

It was a wonderful morning. we started off at about 6:30. with aim to get to Luxor to see the ruins there. what a sight riding over the nile as the sun was rising. palm trees silhoutted in the morning sky. Luxor was wonderful. it must have been an incredible place once upon a time. still now you can get a glimpse of its grandeur. incredible engraving and reliefs. the place was the pearl of egypt. with every pharaoh adding on to its beauty. we arrived at Aswan in the evening and immediatly found Tom cruising around. we started finding out how the heck we can get the ferry across to Sudan. Note: every thing you do in africa is tough and difficult. every place has its own nonsensical system that changes daily. it is beaurocrosy at its best and we like to call it organized chaos. it is almost as if they are doing it for the first time. 'oh no, someone wants to catch a boat to sudan. what do we do?' so lots of patience and positive attituteds are needed. any way the vibe was this: ferry didnt have any space for our bikes. so we had to wangle them to get ours on. (there were already 4 bikes on the boat). so we sweet talked them into letting us go, and eventually they did. we stayed in a pretty decent hotel there that night and ate dinner with some goats on the street. the next morning we were running around like mad things trying to get our papers stamped, egyptian plates removed etc... we had a fixer help us. we had one hour to do everything and get to the ferry. absolute chaos. anyway we arrived 2 hours late but still in time. loaded the bikes on the boat with much screaming, flapping of chickens and pissing of goats. we then settled down do our daily dish of beans, a goolish substance called Foul (pronounced fuuul). the latter pronunciation describes it best though. the boat trip was great, with a sunset to remember and another dish of Foul to forget. the morning after we arrived at Wadi Halfa and the stranegst thing: street lights in the water. i didnt ask any questions and we proceeded to get our bikes off the boat and then another bout of organised chaos ensued. now Sudan is where the real deal starts - we aint in Kansas no more and our Dukes are looking really outta place here.

Domenica 16/12/2007 ci siamo svegliati prestissimo per andare ad Asswan (N 24 02,743' E 32 55,380') ed assicurarci il posto per le moto sulla barca che ogni lunedi attraversa il lago Nasser per andare in Sudan. Per fare piu' in fretta abbiamo cercato di evitare i posti di blocco, ma al terzo ci hanno fermato e ci hanno costretto a seguire il convoglio scortato dalla polizia. Arrivati ad Asswan abbiamo subito incontrato Tom che ci ha detto che dal momento che in questi giorni si festeggia il grande Eid (una delle feste islamiche piu' importanti) sulla barca non viene attaccata la chiatta per le macchine e quindi non c'era posto per le nostre moto. Nonostante cio' alla fine siamo riusciti a convincere il capitano della nave a farci mettere le moto nella toilette di seconda classe. L'indomani siamo arrivati al porto e prima di riuscire a caricare le moto sulla barca siamo stati travolti da una confusione esagerata tra urla, gente che spinge, gente che tira, animali ed enormi pacchi di ogni genere caricati alla rinfusa. Dopo 16 ore di navigazione siamo arrivati a Wadi Halfa (N 21 48,065' E 31 21,035'). Dopo aver sbrigato le pratiche doganali abbiamo campeggiato nel deserto a pochi chilometri a sud del paese, proprio sulla riva del lago Nasser (N 21 46,096' E 31 20,606') .

Colonna sonora: "Redemption song" Bob Marley