Ferry madness from Wadi Halfa to Aswan

Taking the ferry from Wadi Halfa to Aswan was stressful to say the least. Sonny, Oli and I were leaving the trip in Aswan which meant we had to pack up all our gear and remove everything from the truck as it was travelling on a separate barge and may not arrive to meet us in time. Everyone else left most of their camping gear and souvenirs on there. Packing was an ordeal as I had bought far too many souvenirs and ended up with 5 bags. Luckily I took everything though as when I left the trip, the barge still hadn’t left Wadi Halfa as it had a broken engine!

After another stop to the trusty Wadi Halfa fish market gathering ice, both of the ‘Trans’ trucks drove to the ferry terminal where we all waited around for ages. Finally we got stamped out and went on to the ferry docking area where we waited to board. It was complete chaos! Locals were pushing right past us to get the best spots on the top deck. I felt like a giant Michelin man as I had my large camera bag on my back, my day bag on my front, a huge carry bag with sleeping gear in one hand and my big backpack in the other. I had to get help carrying my duffle bag. My shoulders were aching. I was getting squeezed to death in the crowd. And it was hot.

At one point, everyone got so annoyed with all the pushing that they all just ran for the entrance. The ticket man was enraged but fought as hard as he could to prevent people from pushing through onto the ferry without him checking off their ticket. As I was about to board, to top things off, a fly flew into my mouth and got stuck in my throat. I had no free hands so my only option was coughing it up and spitting it out. Charming.

We then had to make our way up several flights of stairs to the roof which took any residual energy out of me. We were told to try and reserve spots for our two groups under the life rafts but everyone kept hopping over our barrier and crowding it out. We ended up having to move to another area near the Captain but managed to successfully block off an area, sharing it only with one respectful local and his prayer mat. The poor guy didn’t have a very good night though as water was dripping out of the overhead air vents and he had to keep waking up and mopping it up so it didn’t drench his prayer mat.

Each group had one tiny room below where everyone got to store their valuables. It was directly opposite the men’s bathroom so the smell got progressively worse throughout the night and the corridor got wetter. There was no lock on the door so someone would always have to stay in the room and protect the luggage. Fortunately the room was air-conditioned and peaceful so it still preferable to the upper deck in my opinion.

On the deck, it was chaos. More and more people kept piling on board. It was also boiling hot, and the two drivers, Nev and Steve, put tarps up over our areas which provided some relief whilst we were waiting for everyone to board as there was no breeze.

At one point, the Captain ushered me in to take photos of him and his crew

including one who was changing the ship’s flags and wanted a photo kissing the Sudanese flag. He was proud to be Nubian.

Finally we pulled away from port and everyone cheered. A breeze started trickling through. We were now on our way to Aswan. We virtually kissed our truck goodbye – for me, it was the last time I would see it after living out of it for the better part of 9 months.

Everyone was entitled to one meal ticket (lunch, dinner or breakfast). I opted for lunch – beans and peas in a sauce with rice, bread, pickled carrots and veggies. Nothing to write home about but it filled the void.

Around 10pm, we floated past a lit-up Abu Simbel – magic. Even more magic was the fact that Nev didn’t want to sleep in the air-conditioned cabin opting for the deck instead which meant I was able to share it with Princess. We barricaded ourselves in the room and chatted until we fell asleep. I slept relatively well. In the morning, we went up on deck to see how the others had fared but they didn’t get much sleep at all. There was a great deal of yelling and tonnes of bugs attracted by the ship’s lights. All attempts at sleeping were foiled by 4.30am in any case with the extraordinarily loud call to prayer.

For breakfast, we cracked open a watermelon which was a welcome refreshment as the temperature started rising again.

After being treated to glimpses of many sights along the river banks, we finally arrived and there was again a mad scramble to get off the ferry. I had to get help with more of my bags this time as I struggled walking what felt like a pretty long distance in the heat. After getting everything x-rayed, we emerged from the madness and piled into two air-conditioned minivans – thank goodness. What was even better was that we were staying in a hotel after camping for so long. We couldn’t have been happier. We downed the hibiscus juice we were given on arrival and most of us ran for the showers. Aaah, relief! Stress over.

By the end of the day though I simply fell into bed if not from the exhaustion, from the thought that we would have to wake up at the ridiculous time of 3am for our trip to Abu Simbel.