Since all the land crossings between Egypt and Sudan are closed we were forced to take the ferry up Lake Nasser from Wadi Half to the dam at Aswan. In many ways this was the end of our trip since once we reached Egypt we had access to ATMs, hotels and a chance to relax. Also despite the fact that we had enjoyed Sudan so much, it is still Sudan and things can go wrong. It felt to us like being in Egypt would be like being back in Europe. In fact it was a dump, populated largely by overweight tourists and pickpockets. We spent the majority of our time haggling with customs agents. It took 3 days to get our car through customs in Aswan and the best bit of 2 days to get it out at Alexandria. Because we were pressed for time and unwilling to suffer the oppression of the tourist-pickpocket hordes we skipped most of the cultural glories Egypt has to offer. We saw Abu Simbal from a distance as our ferry sailed past, drove straight past Luxor and barely managed to force ourselves to the Pyramids at Giza. The exception to this was the Museum of Antiquities in Cairo which was magnificent. Egypt is probably better seen as part of a short trip rather than at the end of an exhausting year.
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