Using a travel agent to book our bus tickets turned out to be a waste of time. The seats he promised to get us didn't materialise, the lift to the bus station that we didn't really need was useless and we had to arrange the fee for our bikes (30LE each). We really may as well have gone and got them ourselves; anyone considering using 'Laurence of Egypt' would do well to look elsewhere.
The bus was a bit more dilapidated than the ones we had taken previously, but crucially it had more legroom. With the bikes stowed on board along with our luggage, we set off on what was to be a very long journey.
There were a lot less passport checks than before, but to compensate we made a lot more stops. For some reason while taking the bags off at Suez, two soldiers decided to question us continually about where we had come from. They seemed convinced we had come from Israel, despite us saying otherwise. Quite why this would have been relevant when Egypt and Israel are on reasonable terms we are not sure. Perhaps they just felt like justifying their wages or were bored, probably the latter!
Once again, between the loud movie, louder music and even louder shouting between the bus drivers, sleep was hard to come by. Somewhere along the way we must have though, as we arrived outside Luxor at 8:30am feeling alright, if not alert.
Rather sadly while we were unpacking the bikes, we discovered that Debs' bike had got a bit scratched by a wheel that had been unlovingly placed on it by the loader. We are not so precious as to think that the bikes weren't going to pick up scrapes, but is a bit annoying when you know that it could have been avoided. Maybe we will have 'Yellow Narna' resprayed when we get home and have the name changed to 'Purple Sumomo' (Japanese for plum)!
Loading the bikes, we left the bus station behind and rode the 7.5km into the city. Despite the lay off, it felt good to be back in the saddle, even though the weight took a few kilometres to get used to. Fortunately for us, 'Rezeiky camp' where we planned to stay, was just off the main road that we came in on. We were soon pitched and heading into the city to try and get train tickets to Aswan.
At the train station Debs discovered something good about being a woman in a Muslim country, you get to go to the front of the queue. While I was fighting it out, jostling for position and generally trying to hold back a group of Egyptians all hell bent on pushing in front of me, she was called to the front and asked where she wanted to go. We knew there had to be at least one compensation, she is now our official ticket purchaser! Tomorrow we will be heading off on the 7:30am train to Aswan, to get our Sudanese visa and our ferry tickets. With any luck we should then have nearly a week to amble our way to Aswan in time for next weeks ferry.
Having successfully got the train tickets, we bought some fruit and veg and then headed back to the camp-site. Liking to have a bit of adventure we took a slightly different route back, which to my delight and Debs' groans saw us ride past a Koshary restaurant. Lunch was taken care of! Debs is sticking with it, but she will not be sad to see the back of the pasta, rice, lentil, chickpea, tomato and oniony goodness!
Back at the camp-site we met a lovely South African couple who have ridden their motorbikes from South Africa to here and are now heading onwards to Europe. Thanks to Larry and Sharon we have been given loads of useful information about potential accommodation and some of what to expect over the coming months. We now have a slightly better idea about our route onwards from Ethiopia.
After an afternoon nap we joined Larry and Sharon for dinner by the Nile. The meal wasn't up to much but the company more than made up for it. Avoiding the touts we wandered back to the camp-site and sat chatting for a while before it was time for us to go to bed, we have an early train to catch tomorrow. We wish Larry and Sharon all the best with their continuing travels and hopefully we will see them in South Africa.
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