Memories of the Lake Nasser Ferry (2003)

FERRY!  What’s that?

The quintessential experience on Lake Nasser was that of the very first year, when the riders biked 270kms along a controlled-access, paved road from Aswan to Abu Simbel,  through a part of Egypt that few tourists get to see.  We then loaded everything onto a barge that was towed by a tug to Wadi Halfa.  I recall the tug broke down after we had barely covered 5 km, and it required the concerted efforts of African Routes staff Rory and Eddie to fix the engine and get it running again.  During that time, the riders had a superb view of the relocated Abu Simbel temples across the water, tempered with concerns about how long we would be drifting aimlessly on the world’s largest hydro reservoir (at the time).   There was just us, the bikes and one African Routes truck on the barge, and as the day progressed it got hot.  Some sought shade by crawling under the truck, a tried-and-true sun-avoidance tactic in Africa that was to be repeated many times in upcoming days.  We arrived in Wadi Halfa just as the sun was setting and the experience of stepping onto Sudan soil was unreal.  Nothing says you’ve arrived in Africa like this.

Paul Davison TDA 2003

Paul wins a copy of our beautiful book – https://tdaglobalcycling.com/book/ – for this submission.

Thanks to Michael Kennedy for the photo.

Have a great memory of your experience on any one of our expeditions and want a chance to win a book? Send photos and text to [email protected]