From Cairo to Abydos, 9/7/07

Last Friday, we set out at 6 AM for Abydos. The first 45 minutes or so went smoothly and speedily. However, once we hit the first check point at the northern end of Asyut Province, things slowed down considerably, since we had to drive with an escort most of the time and had to wait at each check point to switch to a new set of policemen in a different pickup truck. At one point, our escort ran out of gas, and we had to wait while they called for another truck to meet us down the road and they tied their pickup truck to a tractor-trailer in order to toe it to the nearest gas station (gas stations being, of course, few and far between out on the desert road).

Driving through Asyut, we were all looking forward to passing by the city of Asyut, near which there are ancient tombs and other monuments. However, we were continuously confused by the signs that said how far it was to Asyut and in which direction you were to go to get there. Every several minutes we would see signs, generally going in an order like this:

Assyut 8km →

a few minutes later…

↑ Assyut 150km

Then…

↑ Assyut 180km

And yet again…

← Assyut 2km

The signs continued on in this fashion throughout Asyut Province. There were even a few after we had passed by the city. We made two brief stops, one in Asyut to use the bathroom, which had a rather large fly colony, and once to get gas. Antonio opted for no bathroom break for himself, but still survived the nine-and-a-half-hour trip.

We finally made it to Abydos, took a deep breath of fresh air, and fell upon our food like a pack of dogs.