Still in Aswan, Ethiopia

Wednesday 12th September 2007 Still Aswan
Yay, the Landy has arrived in the harbour six days after we got here! Now the process of getting the Landy out of the harbour can start.
Mazar arrived at the appointed time and Mark and we went to the harbour and offloaded the vehicles. Everything seemed to be in order, even our meat in the freezer was ok, but the freezer batteries are really flat.
We had to pay EP522 and fill in forms at different places. Everyone is so pleasant and friendly, but so so slow. Then back to Aswan to the traffic dept to get a stamp and more forms, then to the police to collect a man to check the chassis and engine numbers. Now have any of you looked for the engine number in the Landy engine, you will know how difficult it was. The man had to stand on his head and take a tracing of the number on the block of the hot engine. We were all dripping with sweat and full of dust, grease and oil in the 40deg heat, trying to find where all the stamps on the chassis and engine were. He managed to trace the P after the 7th attempt and then accepted that it was the right number. Mark was having similar trouble with the chassis number on his Landcruiser and we all laughed at each other's filthy states. Mark looked like a greased monkey and the taxi driver didn't want to let him inside his 1940 taxi.
Tomorrow we have to get Egyptian number plates, a licence and insurance. Then we will be “outta here!”

Tuesday 11th September 2007 Still Aswan
Nothing untoward happened politically here being the anniversary of 9-11, also it was the Ethiopian new-years day, new millennium, and they are at last in 2000.
We spent a very frustrating day waiting for the Landy to come. Mazar did not contact us and we could not get hold of him, so we eventually caught a taxi to the harbour via the Aswan Dam wall. These Egyptians still haven't worked out on which side of the road they are meant to be driving and we had some narrow shaves as the vehicles argued while speeding towards each other hooting. They certainly save on breaks here by using their hooters. Then we went over the High Dam wall (over 3Km long and 40m wide at the top, 1Km wide at the bottom). The authorities assured us that the Landys would be here tomorrow 8am.
Mark and we went on a felucca sail on the Nile but chose a windless evening and it turned out to be a felucca row. Very much cooler on the river and was really pleasant watching the sun go down over the hills.

Monday 10th September 2007. Still Aswan
We woke up at 3am to catch the bus at 3.30. Mark and Daniel came with us, Corina had sore legs and Clive had issues to deal with.
The trip took 2 1/2 hours through desert on either side of the road, so we slept, chatted and read much of the time. There was a huge convoy of tourist busses, but the number of people there didn't really worry us. High season could be stiflingly crowded though.
The temples had been rescued block by block (max 30tonne blocks) after the high dam had been constructed and the water level had started to rise. Building a coffer dam was a neck and neck race with the water, but when the protecting dam had been completed the rescue work could begin. The temples consist of not only a magnificent and enormous facade, but the inside of the temples too, which had been hewn directly into the sandstone cliffs. It was an enormous undertaking, and the results are spectacular. The statues are immense, and you have to actually stand next to them to realize just how big they are. The relief work inside and the carvings and paintings are a "must see" in Egypt. The engineers of the 1960s were nearly as clever as the Egyptians 4000years ago.
Nev is amazed that although the Egyptians were using chariots 4000 years ago, the Ethiopians are still not using the wheel.
On our return we discovered that the ferry will only be arriving tomorrow morning, or as the Egyptians put it "Bokra, Inshala", which can mean anything really, but literally, “tomorrow, god willing”. Nev is getting very irritated and frustrated with having to mark time here. At least there are things to do and see, but he is really disappointed in Midhat's organization. However, we have yet to see what happens tomorrow.

Sunday 9th September 2007 Still Aswan
The ferry was meant to come today and didn't, so we hope it will come tomorrow, as promised. This meant we didn't really do anything productive today, as we waited for the answer. When we heard it was coming tomorrow, we booked to go on the bus to Abu Simbil, 250Km south of Aswan. The bus has to travel in convoy and is costing us EP50 each, which is about 1/10th what it would cost to drive ourselves anyway.