Day 25: Abu Simbel – Aswan

What a sweet day, with a big slice of hope right in the middle.

Very tired after yesterdays ride, I have a lay in. Up and out of the hotel by about half eight, I’m headed back to the temple at Abu Simbel. This place is unbelievable. It’s about 180 miles from Aswan, straight through the desert, why they settled here I do not know, and building a temple here is crazy. Almost, perhaps even more, is the fact they moved the two temples in the 60’s. Reading the engineering and planning involved is out of this world. The temples had to be moved due to the Aswan Dam, all mightily impressive. The temples are so impressive, definitely a case of you’ve got to see them to believe it. Having said that, there’s not a whole lot to see (although what there is is amazing!), and I’m off after about an hour and a half. I’ve got plenty of time for my ride to Aswan, so every now and then I jump off the road and ride into the desert, it’s such good fun snaking across the sand, or dropping down the banks of the dried up river beds, this is so sweet.

After approx 50 miles, I’m come across the junction to Wadi Halfa and Aswan. I roll through the road block stopping you from heading to Wadi and stop by some troops. I’m keen to see if they’ll let me through. Unsurprisingly they won’t, but encouragingly, the guy in charge says it is possible if you get signed out from Abu Simbel. Hmm, this would be fantastic if it’s true, but as he doesn’t speak much English, and I’ve no Arabic, we could be getting our wires crossed. And I don’t fancy a 100 mile trip if that is the case (my air bladder seat cushion has sprung a leak...). I’m pretty sure Rob hasn’t gotten this far yet, I’ll email him my findings and see if he can investigate when he gets to AS. A brilliant plan! To celebrate, I do some more desert riding, yeee haw!

After about three and a half hours, I’m back in Aswan. Starving hungry as I had no breakfast, and hoping to pick up some wifi, I drop into the McDonald’s overlooking the Nile. No wifi, I’ll have to find a random hotel and work it out from there, when, out of nowhere, Rob rocks up! Perfect timing. He’s in good spirits and been having a good time too. He’s on his way to AS, so I relay my plans, he’s cool with it, and after a 20 minute catch up, we split up again. Turns out that when we separated, he headed into town for fuel, whilst I headed out. All good!