Pinning our hopes…

As the sun sets over the Nile in Aswan for the fifth night it is difficult to imagine leaving the place. Will and Lev have taken the rearguard and stayed behind to look after the ambulances while the remainder of the team have pushed south on the only passenger ferry this month. It was a difficult decision to split the group but we haven’t had much choice. Failure to take the ferry would have meant a wait of a further fortnight and we have now been told that there is a reasonable chance of getting a barge tomorrow after 5 days of solid negotiation with local notaries. It appears that knocking on the governors door has helped as the local ferry agent- the omnipresent Mr Salah- a small figure who looks a bit like Gandhi but with infinitely fewer scruples- has now caved in and allowed us access to the port authority. This morning was spent chasing round after the manager of engineering at the Aswan Dam who also caved under intense pressure to allow 2 of us to accompany the ambulances on the cargo barge that we hope to charter tomorrow. This is apparently very unconventional as the barge is simply a flat pontoon dragged by a tug with no facilities or shade and can take up to three days to make the journey and we have had to sign a rather informal disclaimer to keep the pen pushers happy. Furthermore we still have yet to convince a crew to man the boat (the festival of Eid is next week, and is the equivalant of christmas  in Islam) let alone agree a price. Failure to do so will mean that two of us are truly stuck but we have our fingers crossed.

By now the others should be halfway to Sudan and will await our arrival in Wadi Halfa. In our desperation we have come to rely somewhat on the locals and in doing so have realised that despite the Egyptians rather materialistic outlook, many of them actually do want to help, and our faith was restored today when walking down the street bazaar and we were invited by a local shopkeeper to break his fast at sundown and eat his delicious food. We could barely believe it but it goes to show that we shouldn’t judge too soon. We can only hope for a similar reversal of fortunes tomorrow when dealing with the inevitable round of bureaucracy at the port.

We would also like to say a massive thank you for the incredible support back home that we have received. People’s generosity has been outstanding and we are about half way to securing the amount required to pay for the ferry. We really appreciate your help and please keep it coming!