9 June arrival in Wadi

Day 9 arrival in Wadi Halfa.

We arrived in Wadi at about 10:30 and it then took all of 2 hours to get passport and customs finished. Most of the work was done on the boat with every document filled in by hand and in duplicate, very slowly. Anyway we’re now in our hotel, had some lunch and waiting for the bikes to arrive on a separate barge, maybe this afternoon or tomorrow morning. Apparently there’s a wedding here this evening, to which we’re all invited, and the barge skipper wants to attend so maybe he’ll pull his thumb out. Regardless we\re spending the night here. We'll leave very early and get some distance covered befoe the heat gets oppressive.
The journey was quite interesting and perhaps not as bad as we thought. The cabins were air conditioned, the food poor and the toilets terrible. We were woken at 04:30 by the mullah calling all to prayers on deck.
Passing past Abu Simbel we pulled in quite close and were able to see the temples they relocated from the waters of the dam during construction. Very impressive! It's only 40km by road from Abu to wadi but it isn't open to traffic. It would be the best way to get here.

Wadi is a dusty little hole, not unlike some rural towns in Lesotho or Transkei. Our hotel has no running water or flush toilets. Perhaps it's better our wives aren't riding pillion!
To have reached Wadi is a bit of a milestone. The hassles of Cairo on both ends and the stress of getting to the ferry wore us out. From here on we can start to cruise. Everybody says how friendly the Sudanese are and we've found it like that. They smile all the time and want to shake your hand. A stark contrast for the Egytptians and will happily rip you off.
So tomorrow we head off following the Nile and from here on it's camping!