Egypt: Day 10 - Aswan Dam and Abu Simbel

Up early again! 6.30 am this time. We perform our usual morning ablutions and proceed for breakfast. Mr Nasser forces us to chat with him for a while, and we also meet the famous 'John Cairo', an Englishman who comes to Egypt in the autumn and winter seasons and plies his felucca down the Nile. Soon a darkish chap appears at the door and hauls us off to a van outside. We drive around Aswan a bit, picking up a few other passengers - a honeymooning English couple and a mysterious and very silent chap with a red bag. Then we drive on to Aswan airport, which as most airports is located away from the city. It's quite a nice building and pretty well kept. I guess it's unsurprising considering the number of tourists who must be coming here every day to visit Abu Simbel. On the way to the airport, we cross the old Aswan Dam. The road across the top is very narrow, just one lane each way [the dam was built in 1917 I think], and paved with bricks. It's a very harrowing and very bumpy couple of minutes across the dam. Soon we reach the airport at 8 am, and chance upon our good pals Tony and Julio there too. Their EgyptAir flight has been cancelled, and so we introduce them to the dark chap, and try and get them on our flight, which as we will soon realise is run by Air Memphis. This is beginning to sound better and better [not].

Aswan airport is also used as an Egyptian Air Force fighter base, and we see quite a few fighter aircraft landing on the runway, complete with the decelerating parachute behind. There's an interminable wait, during which we realise we're flying Air Memphis with another 100 or so people. Too late, we've paid up already. There another massive group of Aussie kids, who're busy dancing at the airport. Quite amusing to watch them. Finally, we walk out of the terminal towards the aircraft - I can't tell what it is but it's a single aisle 3 x 2 seater.