Today our best friends came back.
No its not a whole load of my school chums. It's that Jambanja and Mahali are back in Jangano hands. They have been under the control of Sudanese business men and then Egyptian bureaucrats for the last week but have just been cleared from customs.
When dad and Gus drove the cars up the ramp onto the barge in Wadi Halfa we were apprehensive as to how long it would be before we got them back. The infamous unreliability of the Lake Nasser shiping companies held true and it was three days before they actually pulled out of port. This was because the captain decided to load 200 tonnes of cement onto the barge. Then they strapped four barges together with some fishing line and pushed them down the lake with one motor.As a result it took 2 and a half days to complete the journey.
It is well known that bringing a car into Egypt takes at least two days so we prepared ourselves.It was Gus and dad with the amazing Karmal fixing and 'backsheeshing' (bribing) for two days that finally got our cars out of 'prison'.
And what excitement it was when we saw two laden Toyota Land Cruisers coming down the road. We are free, no more taking nag and carriages or knackered Peugot 504 taxis to get around.
We're leaving Aswan tomorow and heading up to Cairo. I'm actually really feeling a need to move on now after a week here.
Max
No its not a whole load of my school chums. It's that Jambanja and Mahali are back in Jangano hands. They have been under the control of Sudanese business men and then Egyptian bureaucrats for the last week but have just been cleared from customs.
When dad and Gus drove the cars up the ramp onto the barge in Wadi Halfa we were apprehensive as to how long it would be before we got them back. The infamous unreliability of the Lake Nasser shiping companies held true and it was three days before they actually pulled out of port. This was because the captain decided to load 200 tonnes of cement onto the barge. Then they strapped four barges together with some fishing line and pushed them down the lake with one motor.As a result it took 2 and a half days to complete the journey.
It is well known that bringing a car into Egypt takes at least two days so we prepared ourselves.It was Gus and dad with the amazing Karmal fixing and 'backsheeshing' (bribing) for two days that finally got our cars out of 'prison'.
And what excitement it was when we saw two laden Toyota Land Cruisers coming down the road. We are free, no more taking nag and carriages or knackered Peugot 504 taxis to get around.
We're leaving Aswan tomorow and heading up to Cairo. I'm actually really feeling a need to move on now after a week here.
Max
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