Smiles:

The Prado was indeed in port when we got there on Saturday morning, having picked up the customs manager as well as the engineer (!) en route. The latter’s only task was to check the chassis and engine numbers against the carnet.

After about 90 minutes we got the Prado offloaded safely. What a rigmarole, with building of makeshift ramps and much toing and froing.

Our Prado is parked right in front of the hotel, sporting its temporary Egyptian number plates. We are ready to go!

The staff of the Philae Hotel have been absolutely brilliant. There is nothing they will not do for us. They have even prepared some fillet and rump steaks from our own supplies.

Tears:

Egyptian bureaucracy is as byzantine as ever. The number of forms and documents to be completed boggle the mind. Of course everything is in Arabic, so a fixer is indeed indispensible.

Everyone wants you to pay baksheesh for everything. The captain of the adjacent barge wants a tip in his pocket before he moves his vessel so that our cargo ferry can sidle up to the quay. The gateman wants “something to remember us by” before we can leave. The engineer has to be paid for looking at a piece of paper. It goes on and on and on.

The temperature remains in the 40s every day.