Robertson International Travel : FRIDAY, MARCH 26 ~ SAFAGA, EGYPT (LUXOR)

SAFAGA - GATEWAY TO THE UPPER NILE AND LUXOR

Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and now Egypt. Jeddah, Aqaba, Safaga all have something in common - all three ports are minimal in interest, but lead to three of the greatest or important destinations in the world. These are the three gateways to Mecca, Petra, and Luxor and the Upper Nile in that order. Our arrival in Safaga this morning was a very familiar sight to us being our third visit here in four years - 2007, 2008 and now. The water is a brilliant blue, the air is clear, the mountains are a reddish brown and the city of Safaga is the same as in the past including the sounds of morning prayer being blasted out of the city from the many minerets. Today was especially loud being a Friday - the day of prayer in the Muslim faith.

Each dock we throw our ropes too has an interesting shade of life in action and this morning was no exception. Approximately 100 large carts were being offloaded from a ferry and forming a line into a building. Being curious about his activity, we went up to the LIdo Cafe for breakfast to find the usual characters having breakfast as guests of Crystal Cruises - the Port Agents. They explained to us that these people are returning from Saudi Arabia with the ferry from Jeddah to Safaga after being away for two years working in Saudi Arabia. On these carts are not only everything they own, but goods they purchased or traded in Saudi Arabia and now will be returning to Cairo where they will sell most of the goods.
The Port Agents stated that these people are the same as 2000 years ago and are the caravans of merchant traders in the region with the exception that they now use ferries and buses instead of camels. Most say that camels are easier because they could pack up once and unload once whereas now they have to pack and unpack several times with different modes of transportation, customs, etc. They were stay with the camels, but there is a problem - the camels cost more than a car and certainly more than just getting a ticket on the ferry and the buses. Renting a camel is out of the question! Yes, this is more of a "gateway" than we estimated. As stated yesterday, we spent some time in the Upper Nile with our group from Santa Barbara several years ago, so will be getting caught up with many other projects today and tomorrow. Two years ago, Brian went scuba diving in Safaga and has the shirt to prove it! Approximately 70 percent of the people went to the Upper Nile today, 10 percent went to Hergada to play golf (an hour by taxi to the north) and the rest are staying on the ship and taking the small shuttle into the little town of Safaga.