Lake Nasser Ferry to Sudan January 24/25

Had a bit of a lie in at the hotel though still got up about 7am – took a taxi back to camp and arrived nice and early! Messed around a bit – loaded our bags on to the truck and then had a relaxing 20km ride to the ferry – it was cool to ride with friends like Kendra for a change - and had a good chat to her for a while as we cycled along! We arrived at the dock area to wait for the truck with all our gear. Went through customs and got our passports back. And then the general shoving, pushing and screaming started. People had to stand on what looked like weighing scale – which added to the confusion – we were waved on through. But there were ladies trying to carry bags through with people pushing them back again – madness going on! Then we made our way through another customs area and waited on the dock for a while. When our truck arrived we started unloading our stuff – first time we had even seen our tyres for a while! We had to get all our bags together.

There was a massive crowd of people waiting to get on the ferry – with all sorts of gear – boxes laden with various stuff including microwaves, fridges, TVs etc.

We finally were told we could board – taking our bikes up to the top deck first. There were three levels on this ferry (no where near as big as cross channel car ferries we are used to!) – the lower one is second class – you had to clamber over people to get through here – then up through Fist Class where our cabins were up to the top to load our bikes. Then back down on deck to stake out our area. There were 4 people allocated to a cabin but only 2 beds so a group of us had already decided to sleep out on deck!

So we claim our spot and then take it in turns to collect our stuff – which means fighting to get off the boat and then fighting our way back on again! With all the locals trying to get big boxes on the ferry with lots of screaming and shoving! It took several trips. I was allocated a cabin with an English couple Sally & Robin and Pierre, French Canadian guy. I left my bags and tyres in the room – our stuff was everywhere – and then took my day bag up to our spot on deck!

We put Kendra’s tarp up to make ourselves a shelter – the locals were bringing more and more stuff aboard – building fortresses on deck with all their gear! There were a couple more TDA groups set up with tarps like us! By this time it is about 11am and we are due to sail at around sunset!

We ended up jumping over the railings to watch the proceedings and general madness. More trucks arrived, more people, more gear – this went on for about 5 hours! It was a really nice day with the sun shining down on us! What a mess though – people, bikes, clothes, luggage – to get anywhere you had to climb over people and all their stuff. Eventually we set sail and pushed our way down to the café for a dinner using our meal tickets – and then made our way back on to deck just as the sun was setting. We were ready to settle down in our area and had laid out our sleeping mats in a row. Then the call to Prayer went off and the locals arrived and asked us to move so that they would have room to pray – telling us our cooperation would be a sign of “good will” and encouraging us to move – which we do of course! We move our gear out of the way and they pray – then they leave and we are just ready to move back – when another group arrives for the second round of prayer! It was quite funny to watch all this going on – crazy how they stop everything to pray together – it was kind of bizarre though that they needed our area hen the front of the ship was completely empty at this time – strange but not a problem!

After they left we rolled out our mats again and got settled – we had bags of food with us full of snacks so weren’t going to go hungry – we ate pretty well! We looked t our little area and rolled out three mats and realized we couldn’t really fit any more in – there were 7 of us at this stage including Kendra, Scott, Bastiaan, Peter the Plumber and the two Brams and Megan joined us a little later – in the end we decide to try to lie across the mats !! When the sun went down it got quite chilly so we climbed into our bags and started to chat and giggle – in fact rather a lot of giggling! People were just telling jokes and we were all giggling like crazy – for about 2 hours! At this time we are packed together like sardines, lying on top of each other with Bram across our heads and our feet up against boxes. It was hilarious but also quite beautiful - looking out on a clear starry night sailing along on a boat in the middle of Lake Nasser – really cool!! We tried to get some sleep but I didn’t really manage much and I doubt the others did either – I needed the bathroom half way through the night but didn’t dare try to move and disturb everyone! Finally I did get up at about 5am fighting my way off the top deck, down the stairs, through second class – which was totally insane with boxes and people everywhere – finally reached the bathrooms and then of course had to fight my way back again! The amount of people on this boat was ridiculous – when we first boarded we talked about safety and what to do if it went down – at least we worked out where the life jackets were and how to remove them from their chains!! To say the boat was full to at least double its capacity has to be an understatement!

Anyway – it was an interesting night!

In the morning we just stayed put while the locals began preparing for departure – repacking, moving their gear – we just lay there in the middle of it – getting up from our sleeping bags the one time to look at a temple as we sailed by! Then we tucked ourselves back in our sleeping bags – it was kind of cosy – and we just chatted! Finally as the sun rose and it began to get warmer we left our sleeping bags, put our stuff away and went for some breakfast. We finally sailed into port in Sudan Once we got off the boat the madness started all over again. We had to wait till last to leave which was probably a good thing – but meant we sat and waited for about 2/3 hours. Then we had to take all our bags and load them into the truck and ride up the hill a little way, find our bags again and prepare for them to be searched. The officials searched a few and then ran out of stickers – after waiting for a while for a new supply they gave up and told us to put our bags back on the truck!! All done!

The other registration we had to undergo was completing one form before we got on the boat, one on the boat, two more in the morning and an interview with a customs guy! He asked some questions (not sure he understood the answers – ski resort worker?) and recorded everything in a note book – it all seemed to work out in the end!

We then rode off to camp – the port was purely there for the ferry and didn’t consist of anything else! We camped in another football ground surrounded by a wall! It was good to see our new trucks. Very cool – all purpose built – 2 with our lockers and a water tank behind – a smaller lunch truck w

hich also had the staff lockers and a 4 wheel drive run around – a really good set up! Our lockers were assigned, we ate a really good spag bol and then back to bed again! What a day!!