30th November 08

Date: 30th November 08
Location: Lake Nasser, Egypt
Weather: Totally stunning blue skies and sunshine, 34°c
Status: We are sailing, we are sailing…

The sound of the engines droning in the distance was enough to put me to sleep within minutes of my head hitting the pillow and it felt like only an instant later that the alarm clock on my phone went off to awake me from my heavy slumber…but I’m glad it did as the most beautiful sunrise erupted from behind the distant rocky shoreline. A warm yellow glow became a vivid orange before transforming into the red start of another day with us making great progress north at 14kph!

I spent the morning clearing the last of the dust from the Colonel as I tried to remove all trace of the difficult day spent racing towards Wadi Halfa, cleaned and repaired the little jobs that I’d been meaning to do for the last few weeks and even had time to catch up on the website and journal.

As lunchtime came and went we closed in on our destination Aswan and finally the port came into view around 4pm, it took half an our to dock and then all of a sudden the crew disappeared and we were left with our trucks stuck on the barge!

We finally found the fixer Mahmood who starting working his magic and within the hour we had somehow moved the barge onto the slipway and unload out precious cargo. We discussed with customs the idea of staying in our vehicles overnight and they were initially very receptive but once the boss had been asked the mood changed and we became a ‘security risk’ and with it all chances evaporated.

The four of us had to take a taxi into town to a hotel where we stayed the night much to our disgust!

End of day location: Aswan, Egypt
Distance covered: 347kms