Getting to Aswan is a whole story in itself... which began with getting into probably the only taxi in Cairo that didn't know its way to the bus station at 4:30 in the afternoon... and ended pulling into the Aswan bus station at 9:30 the next morning, heads floating from sleeplessness and tail bones numb and sore... Thankgoodness for ipods is all I have to say. And despite the monotony of endless sitting, looking out of the slimy windows into the night... seeing the stars- Scorpio, tarus, the false cross- constellations beckoning from the southern hemisphere, watching the contours of the shadowy landscape rise and fall was magical. The reality of the situation would hit me and just make me smile... "Am I really here?? An I really sitting crammed on this "luxury bus" driving from Cairo to Aswan in the middle of the night?? IN EGYPT? How can this all be?!"At one rest stop- one of many- we got out... and the wind...!! I walked out behind the busses back toward the road- which got me a severe scolding from a sweet young Egyptian woman with beautiful english... but the wind drew me out anyhow. It wasn't a rhythmic wind-ebbing and flowing, or a gentle wind... it was a strong, constant blowing wind... as if you were standing in front of an industrial strength fan turned on high. You had to hold your ground... it was a desert wind... much like the winds of my childhood in northern Kenya.
I honestly didn't sleep at all... sometimes in such situations you doze in and out... but no, not that night... I was awake the entire time. Nothing was more welcome than the realization that the darkness of night was lifting with the grey light of the early morning.... watching a rosy blush spread across the sky with the warmth of the sun. And with the anticipation of the sun, the anticipation that this bus ride would soon come to an end... By the time we rolled into Aswan- several long and painful hours later, the sun was bright and hot and the air was clear- devoid of the cloud of smog that hangs over cairo. Ahhhh.... Aswan... the beautiful Nile, the swath of green on either side, and beyond the yellow sands of the desert....
We found our selves a sweet little hotel where we crashed for a couple hours before venturing out--
The day was low-key... with a long walk along the Nile... drinking lemondades... planning the following day, dinner at a little restaurant in the souk (market) and hanging out on the roof of our hotel.
Some mosques from the roof (would that I could add the soundtrack):
The following morning we went to the high dam and then the temple of Philae:
Later that afternoon we took the ferry over to Elephantine Island, which feels like coastal east africa to me... with its mango and palm trees, open air mosques, and a town much like an old Swahili stone town....
That evening we took a long faluca around the islands... it was gloriously peaceful and perfect. The perfect time of day--the end of the heat, the mellowing of the colors... feeling tired and sunkissed and happy to be moving, but not of ones own accord... The "captain" pulled out a little burner... and made us shai- sugary, black tea... and later pulled out his shisha pipe... adding the sweet smell of apple tobacco to the breeze. It was wholly good...
Oh to soak in moments like those and make them last forever...! To know that they will be the moments that will sustain you over the next months in places that seem so terribly far away... At 9:00pm we boarded the train- the GLORIOUS, spacious train- for a three hour ride to Luxor...
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