The end of our Africa Travels are almost complete. We have successfully arrived in Cairo, and despite all Africa could throw at us we have succeeded to arrive on time having completed the entire route overland!!! It’s been a wild ride, and we have many Fantastic Memories to bore you all with when we get a chance to meet up, not to mention photos galore!

When we left you, we were in Kenetic Khartoum and have now travelled to Crazy Cairo! Of the highlights from our travels north, one impressive memory was of the Nubian Desert! We were travelling in over 50 degree heat, and on a few occasions digging Nala (our Trans-Truck) out of the sand, but for the Stunning Vista it was all worth it! We camped out under the stars, just sleeping on grass mats. To see the stars so clear almost took your breath away! We had the option to take a tarseal road which followed the Nile, but why do that when the adventure of making your own road through the desert is so enticing!!! It was like the desert was ours alone to explore, and what a vast expanse it is! The only sign of human technology, except for the myriad of old tyre-tracks kris-crossing all over the sand, was the power lines beside the railway. We had to keep these in view most of the time, otherwise we still might be lost out in the desert now!

Finally, after 3 days, we arrived in Wadi Halfa where we were to catch our ferry into Egypt! Wadi Halfa is a small Oasis town, where life is conducted at a slow pace. To be honest you wouldn’t want to move too fast on account of the incredible heat! The people are very friendly & welcoming, and on offer is some of the best Sudanese food you’ll ever try! We celebrated Mike’s (S & M’s) birthday outside the establishment of a man we now affectionately call “The Falafel Man”! The following day he worked extra hard to supply a number of us with Fresh Falafel for our ferry ride!

The ferry was also an experience. Getting through all the official paperwork at the port was time consuming, but thank goodness we had a nice building to wait in, rather than standing outside in the sun! Once on the ferry, we set up our areas with tarps overhead and blankets on the deck. As you can imagine, the deck of the boat, being metal, was the temperature of a frying pan! Other than the heat, the ferry crossing past relatively smoothly. We departed Sudan at about 5pm, and were lucky to being passing Abu Simbel at approx 9:30pm. It was all under lights, awaiting our arrival in 2 days!

Our arrival into Egypt was nowhere near as smooth or easy as our departure from the Sudan. The less said about Egyptian Border Bureacracy the better! Needless to say we finally arrived into our accomodation in Aswan relieved to be in Egypt, our final country on the Trans! We quickly indulged in some McD’s, the first since South Africa, before organising ourselves for the activities we had on offer. The first was Abu Simbel, and what an impressive temple it is! A tourist destination if there ever was one! We were all glad that we arrived on the early convoy! It was an extra special visit for Lindsay on our trip, as it was her birthday, and we celebrated in true local style with a group meal and some local dancing later that evening!

We had a chance to rest & relax, taking the opportunity to have dinner in a Nubian village across the river from Aswan, before the 2 day excursion down the Nile on a felucca! Ania, along with the rest of our group went on the river, however I decided to travel to Luxor on the truck with our driver Jay, as I had experienced the feluccas before. Luxor still holds the relaxing charm from when I first travelled Egypt 10 years ago! It has definitely changed in appearance, as had Aswan, but the magic of this ancient capital lingers, tempting your travel-buds with historical & mystical intrigue! Long has Luxor (the ancient city of Thebes) been attracting people, especially when you can visit the ‘Valley of the Kings‘, Colossus of Memnon, Queen Hatshepsut’s Temple, and the ever omnipresent KARNAK! We all welcomed the opportunity to visit these spectacular testaments of Egyptian history. Revelling in the copious stories woven & inscribed on their rocks! We also indulged in some souvenir shopping, especially silver! Thank you Tarek for all your assistance and friendship – your shop & your friendship has been a highlight!

We left Luxor, not for the madcap streets of Cairo, but for the quiet expanses of the Western Desert. It was one last throw of the ‘remoteness’ dice, and we all wanted to gaze upon those gorgeously clear stars one more time! We travelled this time on a tarseal road, but come the late afternoon/early evening it was back to off-road to find an appropriate desert camp. The first night saw us gurded by the Egyptian Tourist Police, which although slightly uncomfortable for some (their van was parked no more than 3m from where Ania & I were sleeping on a grass mat!), was considerate, even though safety is not too much of an issue at all. The last 2 nights we camped safely by ourselves, indulging in that oldest of past-times – ‘star-gazing’! We all helped with our final 2 bush-camp meals, before setting off back to civilisation & Cairo!

We have now been here for a few days now! The Pyramids have been viewed, admired, and even entered into, along with an insightful description of the relevant history by our guide Michael. He also guided us around the Egyptian Museum, pointing out all the highlights and giving us a thorough account of their importance to Egyptian history. Tutankamun’s burial treasure is just one of the sensational exhibits on display! Islamic Cairo has many enticing points of historical interests, not forgetting, of course, Khan-el-Khalili the tourist market! We spent a few hours wandering the alleyways, admiring sales techniques even if the products were tacky!!!

Now we are faced with our final day here in the largest city in Africa! The temperature is a mild 38 degrees, however I’m sitting in an air-conditioned room writing this! We’ll wander Cairo some more before sitting down to a lovely meal and of course one final African Shisha! No doubt tomorrow will bring a few moments of quiet reflection, then our final goodbyes before a mad dash race across Cairo to the airport, afterall – TIA!!!

Thanks to you all for following our travels. We hope you have enjoyed the stories & photos as much as we enjoyed writing them. Over the next few months we will post updates on our web-blog, so please keep a lookout if you’re interested! Thanks again for all your support and encouragement, without it we would not have pushed through those hard days!

We can’t completely finish there though. Ania & I would like to extend to both Kate & Jay our undying gratitude for all they have done for us on this trip! Without them we would not have acheived this FANTASTIC ADVENTURE!!! Words alone cannot express our thanks