As usual, when wandering about by myself, I had teamed up with someone. On the train from Luxor to Aswan, it was Patricia, slightly relieved at finding a travel companion to reduce male attention for a while.
At Esna, she went for a walk along the train. She still wasn’t back when we started moving. This was in character so I wasn’t particularly worried but at the next stop, Edfu, I took a platform stroll to see if I could find her. She was walking back to our carriage. She said that she had been on the locomotive since Esna. This sounded interesting so I kept going to the front of the train.
The crew was friendly so I struck up a conversation and they invited me aboard. As we went along, I entered into the fraternity of the footplate. As soon as we cleared the platform, the driver’s assistant opened a little hatch in the floor. Out came a bottle, a small pipe, a cone and an intriguing package wrapped in foil. The bong was assembled and smoke inhaled all round.
The train proceeded at walking pace on the fringes of the Nile flood plain. I realised why this was necessary after a while. At intervals, people waiting by the line would stroll up to the train and climb up onto the footplate. There would be a quick exchange of goods. At the next settlement, some people would disembark, others would join the happy crew and we would move a little further along the line.
The train sped up a little in the intervals during which no ad hoc passengers were predicted but it was a long time before we reached Aswan, where we were attacked by ruthless felucca captains.
Categories: Uncategorized | No Comments »