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4th - 25th august

Overlanding across Afica in our Land Rover Defender: Egypt

Andy Lees
2006-05-14 17:49:26

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dahab - 4th august

sometime after midnight our ferry arrived at the port of nuweiba, on the east of egypt's sinai peninsula. we'd had a bad day in aqaba and expected that the worst was yet to come. the bureaucracy, baksheesh, expense and time it takes to get a vehicle into egypt is legendary; not to mention a down right pain in the arse. there are stories of overlanders having to empty their entire vehicle several times, seemingly for the amusement of the officials. with this in mind, we fixed our best smiles in place, girded up our patience and prepared for a long night.

on exiting the ship, every other vehicle began to disgorge its load. no matter how full, how tightly packed or how many boxes balanced on the roof-rack; they were all removed and presented on the tarmac for inspection. and these guys had a lot of stuff.

ever the optimists (and a bit lazy), we left ours as it was and kept our smiles fixed as we were visited by a parade of inspectors, "engineers", officials and various other unannounced persons. in addition to this, claire was taken on her own tour-of-duty round a series of small office shacks, returning with a baffling array of arabic paperwork, a new set of number plates - also in arabic - and a much lighter wallet.

then, not long before sunrise, we were told we were clear to go - just a small tip to be paid. we hadn't even unpacked the car. the officials had been helpful and friendly. our expectations had been so low, that somehow this exhorbitant, bureaucratic marathon seemed like a reprieve. elated to be through, and excited about being in egypt - and therefore africa - we drove south towards dahab; the stars beginning to fade and the angular peaks of the sinai mountains becoming visible around us.

we had been pinning our hopes on dahab being a haven of rest and relaxation; somewhere we could have a holiday from our holiday. we wanted to stay put for a little while ...