I have crossed the Red Sea, Sinai Desert and Suez Canal in one day. Henceforth, I wish to be known as Monty or Moses. But what a journey. The hotel people are again as helpful as possible with checkout and taxi arrangements. My last task is to cross the palm of the head of Security with a Benjamin Franklin to make sure the car is well looked after.
The ticket from Aqaba to Nuweiba is US$ 70, which I think is pretty steep. I suspect I have paid the whitey price. But Cairo beckons, and this is the only ferry across the Red Sea operating since the Duba ferry sank killing hundreds in 2006. I reach the ferry terminal at 11.30 AM, stamp the passport and head by bus to the ferry. I am expecting 20 -30 people on the boat at most. It is packed! You enter the boat from the rear, and luggage has to be piled on the car deck. I remove the cameras from the bags and head upstairs to the passenger cabins. The smell of unwashed bodies hits you like a fist. Most of the passengers appear to be Egyptian, with just a handful of Europeans. You need to get your passport stamped by the Egyptian Immigration counter on board. I figure that getting done early will allow me to chill for the rest of the voyage. I go forward, fill out a form and hand over the form and the passport. I get a receipt and told that I will get my passport back in Nuweiba when I buy a visa. I take a look around and ask one of the crew if there is an open deck area. He advises that you cannot go outside anywhere on the ship. I find a seat and settle down. The ferry is due to leave at 12.30 PM. It suddenly occurs to me that with 300 - 400 people on board, and no deck access, that this ship is a disaster waiting to happen. Sure, there are life jackets under every seat, but with this many people below deck and the exits only big enough for one person at a time, any need to abandon ship will be a catastrophe. I just hope it’s not today.
The ship pulls away at 1.15 PM. A crew member asks me if I am ok and proudly states that the ship leaving 45 minutes late is a new record for 2010. Usually there is a 3 hour delay. The ship reaches a top speed of no more than 3 knots. Now, I took this ferry as it is the fast one. I could row quicker than this. There is also a slow ferry that takes twice as long. It must have no engines or sails and drift across with the current. We reach Nuweiba at 3.00 PM and are kept on board for 15 minutes before collecting bags from the car deck and exiting at the rear of the boat. Now all Hell breaks loose!!!
We are herded into buses that are already full and have to somehow squeeze in more passengers. One of my bags has to be put across the drivers lap. We reach the main arrivals area and directed to the passport office. It is hot and I am carrying two bags with clothes and camera equipment. After walking around looking for the passport office for 10 minutes, I can feel the early stages of dehydration setting in. Eventually I find it and he directs me to a bank 400 metres away to buy a visa for US$ 15. Visa purchased, I return again, hand over the passport receipt and visa and receive my passport back in return. Dehydration is becoming an issue. I buy two litre bottles of water, drink a third of one and pour the second over my head. My core temperature has got too high as I wasn’t paying attention to it. A mistake made by many in these parts. In Luxor 10 years ago I helped try and revive an American tourist who collapsed in 49 degree temperatures near the Valley of the Kings. She was seriously overweight and white and had no right to be walking around the desert in those temperatures. I was the first one to get to her and going by the lack of pulse I have to guess she was dead before she hit the ground. Carnage breaks out as the larger luggage arrives on a large trolley from the ferry (See picture).
I head for the arrivals hall where I put my bags through the X-Ray machine only to discover that there is no one operating it or looking at the screen. There is mayhem as customs officers are trying to search 10 bags at once and arguing with all the owners. I decide to walk straight through and see what happens. I am not stopped. On the other side of the terminal I turn right and head for the coach area where I hope to find transport to Cairo. It is 4.00 PM and a man approaches me about a bus to Cairo. He tells me it has WC and AC; He must mean leprosy, it is falling apart but of all the buses looks the most roadworthy. I pay EGP 80 (Ten quid) and load my bags in the luggage section at the side. The bus is due to depart at 4.15. We leave at 5.15. The buses from Nuweiba to Cairo not only carry passengers, they also carry cargo. Every available space in the luggage section is packed with bails or bags for the journey to the capital. There are 15 Egyptians on board, 3 Japanese and me. By my calculations from my original drive plan, I had the Range Rover in Cairo 5 hours after leaving Nuweiba. God only knows how long this will take !!
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