Q: What do you call the searing, blisteringly hot days in Egypt?
A: Winter.
We arrived in Aswan today at the end of our Nile cruise, a pleasantly bustling city that seems to be free of the hassle and harassment of Luxor.
Unfortunately, it was 40°C when we set out this afternoon to visit the souk. With our lily-white skin, we could scarcely be further removed from the Nubians who call this city their home. After a lunch of kofta, soup and vegetables, we walked the length of the souq and then had to recognise a superior opponent in the scorching sun. We beat a hasty retreat to the sanctuary of the hotel, where, in the dead of tonight, the temperature is predicted to drop to an altogether more human 25°C.
And so it is that we have Internet access again for the first time since leaving Cairo, some two weeks ago. That hiatus represents the single longest period that I’ve been without any kind of Internet access since, well, since I first acquired Internet access some fifteen years ago. Said suspension was apparently even long enough that Sarah’s folks had e-mailed our guesthouse in Luxor to ensure that we had arrived safely. No doubt they feared we had had our throats cut and been left as desert carrion or perhaps kidnapped and sold into white slavery on the African subcontinent.
Actually, it was nice not to blog for a while. We were doing so much in such oppressive heat that I scarcely had any energy left in the evenings. I didn’t even keep off-line notes for the purpose of tracking what we have done this trip. Many evenings, particularly in the desert, we have been going to sleep at 21:00. What else are you going to do when there’s no electricity or natural light and you’re completely knackered?
Similarly, we’ve had many a 06:00 or 06:30 start to the day, particularly on the Nile cruise, so by the time the sun goes down, it’s all we can do to eat, shower and fall into bed.
We’re here for the next three nights, after which we’ll return to Cairo by sleeper train.
I’m rather pathetically hoping for cooler temperatures in the days ahead, but the forecast is for a debilitating 42°C. On the bright side, at least it’s not summer. This is what the Nubians call winter!
Guilty. It was I who EMailed the Beit Sabee Guesthouse and who received confirmation from Miguel that the family (hale and hearty) had survived the desert trek. He assured me that all was well and that you guys had embarked in your dahabiyah. Sending the EMail was somewhat kin to dropping a rock into a black hole: The website for the guesthouse is under construction, so I wasn’t convinced the message would get through. An automated response said only that someone would get back to me “soon,” but it was with some relief that I saw the EMail reply a couple of days later.
Stay cool. 107º F ain’t so hot…
— Mike
Well, it’s nice to have someone looking out for us, anyway. Given that we have no family in the Netherlands, it’s not as if our absence back home would really be noticed for quite some time.
And our silence was most unusual, given that we’ve always blogged quite comprehensively in the past.
In a pinch, you can always call my mobile phone, although the tariff to even receive a call here is horrendous.