Aswan to Wadi Halfa

From Aswan, it's an 18 hour ferry trip up Lake Nasser to Wadi Halfa in Sudan. I boarded in Aswan on Monday 24 September with a ragged mob of other foreigners (Swiss, Greek, German and South African) plus hoards of Sudanese and Egyptians. The ferry was soon full to capacity and all available deck space was occupied by either baggage or human bodies. Below decks was cooler but equally crowded. The South Africans and I secured a reasonably shady spot on the deck and made ourselves comfortable. We finally set sail as night fell. The temperature cooled, the moon came out, and all the stress of boarding slowly drifted away as we chugged slowly up Lake Nasser. This was aided by some whisky and coke which the South Africans had smuggled on board in a plastic bottle, and which they generously shared with me.

We sailed through the night. The next morning, Abu Simbel came into view, Ramsses II gazing sternly upon us. Mid afternoon we reached Wadi Halfa (below). It is Sudan's northernmost desert outpost, essentially just a giant, dusty waiting room full of people just arrived on the ferry or waiting to depart. I'd have to wait 24 hours for a bus to Kerma, 300km further up the Nile.