Some proof I'm in Egypt - The temple of Horus, Edfu
I aim to rejoin my route a couple of days later at Edfu, 2 hours north of Aswan by train. So from Cairo I catch a train back south. There are 20 million people in Cairo. Most of them on the 8pm train. After an hour or so of standing in the vestibule once again I manage to bag the square side of a bin laid flat. There I remain fairly comfortably until early morning, although every time I drift off I'm woken for a ticket inspection or similar. By early morning enough people have got off for all the vestibule passengers to have seats.
In Edfu, I walk down a main street to the temple of Horus, said to be one of the best preserved in Egypt. By the time I've finished relieving myself I have the place completely to myself save for 2 pigeons, 1 kitten, and a bat. Its a little creepy. Visiting is much more hands on then I had imagined. I'm free to just wander until I hit upon a locked gate.
From Edfu, a road leads due East to Marsa Alam 228km away, on the coast! The minibus crosses the Nile's fertile belt on cracking tarmac before entering the region of bare rock hills of the Eastern Desert. There are no towns along the way.
They don't seem to have finished the mining town yet. Buildings of multiple storeys lie in various states of readiness: foundations, concrete shells, buildings just needing a paint job. Even in the centre of town every second building is still yet to be completed. Tarmac just ends at a given road junction. There is little traffic, and fewer people. Its as if someone important decided Egypt needed a town right here, right now, and so it was.