19th January 2008 - Aswan

With all its downsides, Egypt and its people impress me. While there are black sheep, most people are so welcoming and good-hearted, that we often spend hours of our stages along the Nile, waving and trying to acknowledge the countless greetings we receive. The most memorable encounters usually happen by chance. Such as a late night stroll in Edfu between Luxor and Aswan, which had us end up attending a Koptic Christian mass. The majority of Egypt is Moslem, but a small minority of roughly 9% are Koptic Christian. These used to belong to the Orthodox Christian Church, but separated to form a separate entity.

I hugely appreciate my privilege to discover Egypt by bike. This allows me to experience remote villages, where people seem to be at their most welcoming and sincere. Today, on my way out of Edfu, I foolishly ran out of water halfway through the stage. The average Egyptian does not indulge in the luxury of drinking bottled water and the tiny village shop I stopped at did not stock any for this reason. Yet, multiple people scrambled instantly to arrange bottled water for me, I was charged less than half the price paid in Luxor and my tip as token of my gratitude was rejected with a kind smile. They were did not try to profiteer from foreigners, but where enlightened to meet me and sincerely tried to help.

Tomorrow we will board the ferry to cross Lake Nasr to the Sudanese town Wadi Halfa. The Lake is the product of the Aswan high dam, which was built in the 70s with Soviet funding. Whilst enabling Egypt to regulate water for agriculture and avoid severe draughts, it also changed the Egyptian landscape and drowned huge amounts of Nubian heritage. The extremely fertile Nile clay was blocked by the dam and farmers resorted to employing artificial fertilizers, which later posed severe health problems. Paradoxically, much of the gained hydroelectric energy has to be used for the production of these artificial fertilizers.

Aswan is one of the driest inhabited places on earth. The day we arrive the first drops of rain start falling.