Day 13 - Jan 21

This morning I witnessed a truly amazing sunrise.  I caught it just as the sun was announcing its intention to rise from the horizon and the night sky was still resisting.  Or in Egyptian terms, I witness the final moments when Geb the god of the earth was holding on to his last passionate touch with Nut the goddess of the heavens.  I know the photo pales in comparison to what I saw but here it is....

Today was the adventure through the border crossing.  It started out with a short ride through Abu Simbel and then to a ferry.  We took the ferry across Lake Nassar.  It went fairly efficiently.  That would be the last efficient thing for the day.  We landed on the east side of the lake and began our journey through the Nubian Desert.  I didn't know, that the day before the rest day was my last day of the Sahara.  I rode the Sahara from top to bottom!  Now I have the Nubian Desert to conquer.  

We road for 30 miles til we got to the Egyptian Sudanese border and the stop and wait began.  The Egyptian exit visa went fairly quickly but the entry into Sudan took over 3 hours.  There were plenty of government "officials" standing around but not too much work being accomplished.  Kind of the saying....  plenty of chiefs and not enough Indians.  In the middle of it all tea time was declared and everyone disappeared for a tea. The whole crossing stopped and waited.

Once we finally got past the border we rode straight into a hot desert crossing headwind.  But I rode in a group of 8 and we formed a wedge peleton.  We were riding about 38 to 42 kph into a fairly brisk headwind.  So the final kilometers wizzed by quickly.  We are now in Wadi Halfa.  The town is not much of a town and appears to be wide open like a Wild West town.  Anything goes....

I do believe we went across more than border, I think we went back in time or more appropriately we truly have entered the third world.  

My ability to get messages out and blog posts will truly slow down from this point til I get out of this country.  Although I'm told Ethiopia is going to be the treat of the trip.

A natural pyramid as it is called

The Nubian Desert sand has the red color of the Sahara but it also has a tan colored top layer.  That makes it quite different.

The scenery from the Sahara to the Nubian is distinct.  Subtle but it does have the appearance of a different terrain.