It seemed I had only just shut my eyes when the 3.30am wake up call stirred me to stumble out of bed, grab my daypack and meet the rest of the group down in reception for the 4-hour bus journey to Abu Simbel. We curled up and slept most of the way, occassionally peeking out the curtains for glimpses of the seemingly neverending desert, and mirages of water in the distance.
Abi Simbel was another of the temples that would have been destroyed by the rising waters of the Nile, instead taken apart and moved 200m inland and about 70m higher to protect the site. The stone statues loomed above like giants as we entered the two temples, and the reliefs and colourings still preserved was truly amazing. You could stand in one of the stifling hot rooms, staring at the stone carvings for hours.
Once we had just woken up, about 9.30am, we got back in the bus for the journey to Aswan and ate lunch poolside at a nearby hotel before a quick boat ride across the Nile for an afternoon camel ride.
The camels were slightly rogue, some more lazy than others, and we constantly had to click our tongues with an occassional ‘Yalla!’ to get them going in the right direction. It was great though, the Nile to our left and the desert to our right, and an hour or two later we arrived further downstream where our boat was waiting for us.
Parts of Aswan were once inhabited by the Nubian people – darker and more tribal African in nature – before the Egyptians forced them to other parts of Egypt and Sudan. We sailed down the river, lying on the roof staring at the night sky, and arrived at one of these Nubian villages located on the island of Sohail where we visited a friend of our tour leaders, Omar, and his family.
We walked through the village in the moonlight to get to his stone house set in the hills overlooking the rest of the village and the river, and sat on cushions with nothing but the stars above us, eating traditional Nubian food of pita bread, soup, chicken, potato stew and rice.
The houses had no roofs at all, in fact it only rains in Egypt about once every 10 years, so it was peaceful and cool sitting there while the family served us food (they do not eat with their guests, instead serving them the best food and joining them after dinner) with the sweet smells of the Apple shisha pipe wafting in the air.
Once we were full and sleepy, we head back to the hotel for a quick change before walking down the main street to see the markets. It was Ramadan in Egypt, the Holy month, where after fasting all day the Egyptians come alive at night, eating and smoking, celebrating with friends and family – like Christmas for a month. The streets were festively decorated with flags and lights, and we were kept entertained by the the shopowners haggling for our business:
‘Hey! Everything here is for 1 pound, everything!’
‘Everything is free madam, you do not want something for free?’
‘No hassle lady, hassle free shop ok? You come and have a look, no hassle!’
‘Where have you been? You are 5 minutes late, I have been waiting for you!’
‘You English? Australian? Ah, Australian! I love Australian, very cool!’
And so on. We bought a few things, and collapsed into our beds hours later – Abu Simbel a distant memory already.
-Sarah
Sarah