Luxor to Aswan

I spent a little time in the King’s Temple this morning, then went out to the Valley of the Kings. The temple is extremely impressive, with the size and volume of masonry absolutely astounding. The Egyptians really had it dialed when it came to chiseling and stacking stones. Even by modern day standards, the work is second to none.

I headed out to the west (desert) route after the temples and was stopped about an hour out of town. Unfortunately, I was turned back and told to take the eastern route. Something about no police on the western side. Not sure if them meant there were no police that could look after me, or no police to make sure I was going where I said I was. Regardless, I saw no point in arguing so I turned back and took the rural road down up the Nile to Luxor. It took me like 6 hours to get about 100 miles. The rural (agricultural) route was not stop little villages with large speed bumps about every .5 km. It was painfully slow and painful on the body, not to mention wicked hot at that temp. My riding gear is thick, heavy, non-breathable and designed to move air over the body through a series of vents, as a result cools the sweat on your body. At speed, it works great and I’m usually pretty good to go in 100+ temps. Not the case at 15 mph – it’s just brutally hot!

With about 20 km left for Aswan, I was again pulled over and made to follow a police escort the remaining kilometers to Aswan. If it wasn’t slow enough already, getting stuck in the middle of a slow-moving escort was twice as bad. I’m not sure if the police were escorting me for my safety or to be helpful, but again it wasn’t worth arguing with them.

I found a parking spot in Aswan and soon started chatting it up with a man on the riverbank; Mohamed Abouda. As it turns out…Mohamed understands the traffic court and also works as a fixer at the border. We make a plan to meet in the morning and go to traffic court together.

Here are a few of shots from the Kings Temple