hippopotamus

My last evening in Luxor I spend lurking a sheesha along the Nile, enjoying the sunset and some advice from a local guy on the drive to Abu Simbel. Apparently it is the last part where you still have to ride in convoy, convoy driving is not nice...

On the way to Aswan there were three more temples to visit. The first one I missed as I got lost in the dirt streets of Qena. I was guided back to the ‘main’ road by a local policeman, where I was invited by some elder men to share a cup of tea and a breakfast. I had this faint feeling of being a stranger arriving in a land never visited before. All the major tourist transport happens on the East Bank in buses thundering by or on the Nile in distant cruisers, which only moor in the towns or at the temple sites. So I must have been a rarity that morning, a helmeted Belgian idiot on an orange bike.

The temple of Horus in Edfu was hard to miss. As I pulled up on the parking area all the souvenirs vendors started yelling and applauding. I barely had the time to remove my gloves and my helmet as I was approached by a guy. He wanted to know where my machine was from, how many cc, cylinders, a lot of technical stuff, not the usual questions. He told me that he owned an African Twin, the travel bike of Honda, he owned a souvenir stall in front of the temple and would wait for me to come back so we could ride together. It was almost midday and the sun was attempting to fry my brain, so I said ‘yes yes…’ and went for a ticket.

The temple of the falcon god Horus is big. But then most temples along the Nile are. What makes the temple at Edfu worth visiting is the fact that it has been preserved almost intact, due to the fact that it was partially buried under the sand until 200 years ago, the town of Edfu spreading over parts of its roof. Even today the temple complex is surrounded by the town of Edfu, sprawling only meters from its outer walls. Almost all the hieroglyphs and reliefs are intact and exceptionally well preserved. On the inner side of the outer wall the Festival of Victory is carved out, in which Horus (good) conquers Seth (Evil). The funny thing is that evil is depicted as a hippopotamus, growing in the course of the battle. Apparently not everybody likes hippos. I like them, and giraffes.

On leaving the temple I was invited in the shop of the ‘African Twin’ guy, where I received a ‘scarabee’ and bought my first obscene souvenir as a gift for someone I really care about. It was closing time. He said he was going to fetch his bike. And he did! Two minutes later I was driving along a guy with a fat African Twin. Eager to make some money (after all he was from Cairo) he asked if I needed anything: ‘Spare parts, Oil change, a mechanic…?’ The bike needed new oil, so yes why not. Ten minutes later we were crossing Edfu in search of some decent oil (the down side of traveling with a motorbike is that you can’t just use olive oil, trust me there is a trillion different oils…) which we found in a small shop just outside a school. School just finished so in no time I was surrounded by twenty kids wanting to know if they could ride my bike, revving the engine, opening my suitcases and trying to get on the bike. We got the oil and I almost had two extra passengers on my trip. Next was the mechanic. He showed up ten minutes later, marveling at the sight of the bike, eager to work on a ‘real’ machine and not some cheap Chinese junk. As soon as he revved the engine he said the sound was not good, he reminded me of this young guy working in this grocery store in “Amelie Poulain’, listening to the fruits and groceries to ‘hear’ if they were ripe. After a bit of listening to the left and right, he did the oil change. I was happy, he wasn’t. It was the sound, something was wrong with the ‘timing chain’. “The timing chain??”, I can hear you thing, yes the timing chain, I won’t bore you with the details, but it was not good. Could he check it and repair it? Ten minutes later the bike was in pieces. He showed me the part that was worn. He could solve the problem by welding a nut to that part. That would make my timing chain happy. I was in Africa, so why not. Included in the maintenance were delicious falafel sandwiches and by 4:00 pm the bike was ready.

Aswan was only 120 km from Edfu, so after parting with Mr. African Twin I headed south. After 30 kms I stopped to make a phone call, when I noticed that my left boot was shining with a thick layer of oil. On inspecting the bike the entire engine was one sticky oily mess. I just turned back and went looking for the ‘workshop’. The mechanic didn’t speak a word of English, but this was one of these situations where body-and hand language didn’t need any explanation. He was totally embarrassed and fixed the problem right away. This time I took a test ride before leaving, finally. My plan to arrive at sunset in Aswan shattered as I set of in the dusk. I ended doing more than half of the way in the dark, reminded by a crashed bus that this was not a particularly good idea. Egyptians drive without lights, by law it is forbidden, it is considered unsafe because you blind the oncoming traffic. So to make sure you see them they will flash their high beams, which of course aren’t blinding at all. Luckily I made it to Aswan, exhausted but smiling back on another good day, ha…..