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Day 69: We’re back at the Hurghada bus station for the Upper Egypt Bus Company. The previous day we’d endured a crossing of the Red Sea in which our high speed boat lurched dangerously from right to left as it was tossed by extreme waves, some higher than the boat itself.

Attempting to board the 10pm bus the previous evening, all the seats were full, and rather than stand on the overnight journey, we had made an unscheduled stop at a cheap hotel in Hurghada. Now we are back at the bus station: Kate and I together with our two long-suffering Canadian pals, Jerome and Caroline. We approach the ticket window.

The office attendant sees us coming and, curiously, his faces crinkles in a beatific smile. It really is one of the most beautiful smiles that I have ever seen.

“When is the bus to Aswan?” I inquire.

“11 o’clock,” he smiles.

“Can we make a booking?” I say.

“No,” he smiles serenely. “Tickets on the bus.”

“Is the bus air-conditioned?” I ask.

“Yes,” says the smiling man, smiling a little wider. “Air conditioned.”

“How long will it take to get to Aswan?” I ask.

“Eight hours.” He is really smiling now.

You see, he has seen “independent travellers” before and he is smiling because he knows the answers to our questions, and he knows what lies ahead.

He is also smiling because he knows that we don’t know, and if we did know, we certainly would not be attempting to buy tickets on this bus.

At ten to eleven, the bus arrives and we join the mad rush to get seats. It is a team effort. Jerome, using his rudimentary Arabic, identifies that the bus is heading to Aswan. Kate and Caroline leap onto the bus, almost before it stops moving, to secure the seats. Jerome and I then load our luggage onto the bus. The journey begins.

Time passes.

Ten hours, several stops and one breakdown later, our derelict, noisy, non-airconditioned, windblown bus pulls into Aswan. The front door opens and the collected rubbish and detritus of one hundred passengers falls out onto the street. I peel my bum off the sticky fabric of the seat and get out. Exhilaration. We have survived.