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Sunday 2nd January After a relaxing last night in Aqaba - we went into town and had a couple of drinks in a street cafe and a cheap local dinner - we got up early Sunday morning ready to leave. We were delayed a little in the morning as breakfast was much later than we asked, and we had to fix the tent as the camp's playful cat, Jack, had put his claws through it! !*?*?*! Sadly our parting from the camp also wasn't as amicable as they tried to charge us more for our stay than we felt had been agreed. It turned into quite a heated dispute but eventually we came to a compromise. We said our final goodbyes to Boris; no more meeting in the next town since he was going back up north to Syria and we were heading out on the ferry to Egypt. We've really enjoyed Boris' company and it's been nice to know that there's been a friendly face waiting in the next town after a hard day's riding. We then cycled the couple of miles to the ferry port where we hoped we'd be able to get tickets for that day's ferry crossing. Although there seemed to be a lot of confusion, especially regarding our bikes, getting things sorted was relatively easy. It was very funny watching the circus-like performance of men piling trucks high with ungainly amounts of parcels and luggage for the short 500-metre trip from the terminal to the ferry. At least we didn't have to do that as we could cycle our bikes onto the ferry itself. Phew! The ferry ride itself was reasonably punctual for this part of the world. It was also amazingly fast and comfortable. It was only when we arrived at Nuweiba when the delays started to kick in. it took us over an hour just to dock at the port and then once we'd freed our bikes from the immense piles of luggage in the hold, passed all our bags through the x-ray machine (they had at first wanted us to put the fully loaded bikes onto the conveyor belt - as if!) and ridden to the exit gates, we then had to wait another hour before immigration would let any westerners pass through. It was whilst waiting for immigration that we got chatting to some other tourists - our bikes always seem to gather attention! We did get talking to one family, Stephen and Desiree and their 3 children who were living in Cairo. They were a lovely family and before we left, they gave us their contact details and invited us for dinner at their house once we were in Cairo. It was a lovely gesture and as we left, Stephen also handed us some money to keep us going until we reached a bank. Even after all the kindness we've received on our trip, people's generosity still amazes us. After leaving the port, we cycled along the coast through the apparently dead town of Nuweiba in search of accommodation. We knew that it was a reasonably popular coastal resort; it was just a matter of finding a place that was cheap and open. We eventually came to the area called Tarabin and after some fruitless negotiations with an obnoxious man at one place (Kate was really not amused by his attitude and made it quite clear) we found ourselves a wooden roof top chalet with a couple of beds inside for less than a pound a head. Perfect. In fact, the dinner we had afterwards cost more than the room. Monday 3rd January 3866.3 miles, Nuweiba, Egypt Another day, another beach, another country ... and another CONTINENT!!! Even though there are lots of shops and beachfront camps, Tarabin seems exceptionally quiet. This suits us fine though as we can relax in the sun, lounging on cushions just by the beach pretty much undisturbed. Tomorrow, though, we will be cycling up north to Taba and then turning west to cross the Sinai to Cairo. From the beach the Sinai Mountains look pretty big so we're going to use this day to psyche ourselves up.... Tuesday 4th January Well, we didn't actually leave on Tuesday. We were torn between staying and carrying on. The Sinai crossing could potentially be the toughest section yet and neither of us was sure whether we were up to it straight away...plus the weather hadn't been giving us much chance to relax in the sun so we were making the most of it! Apart from going to the bank, we didn't have anything in particular to do today. We spent lots of time strolling along the pebbled (and very littered) beach and enjoying the sun. Word had got round that we had bikes and so whilst we were resting on the beach with our dedicated friends - the cats - a couple of lads came to us with their bike. In our presence, they made it pretty obvious that there were a few things wrong that we might be able to fix. So we did the best we could to make their rickety machine road worthy. They went away obviously well chuffed. We also spent quite a bit of time at Dr Shesh Kebab, a restaurant in Nuweiba City owned by Mahmood, aka The Crazy Dr. On top of the food being absolutely wonderful (especially the fuul and aubergines in garlic) Mahmood is a really friendly, caring, talkative and interesting man. We must have spent at least a few hours of the day chatting about all sorts. He had so much to say that was worth listening to, that it was a pleasure spending time with him. We would definitely recommend a visit to the restaurant if you're ever passing through Nuweiba. The above mentioned dishes and his Shesh kebab with its 'top secret' ingredients are all delicious. He has even guaranteed us that now we've eaten his shesh kebab we will definitely be having twins... he's a doctor you know! Wednesday 5th January Wednesday morning after finally finding someone who could sort us out with a cup of tea so that we could have breakfast (stale bread and cheese) which of course we had to share with 10 or so cats that were instantly drawn to the smell, we dragged our bikes through the sand out onto the road towards Taba. Taba is only a stone throw's away from Aqaba but for some reason the ferry only goes to Nuweiba, 70km further down the coast so we were effectively going back on ourselves! Anyhoo! In spite of the horrendous winds that had picked up over night the road was quite pleasant. The sun was still hot and the road followed the beautiful coastline. The sea was a wonderful mixture of blues, turquoises and greens, and the beach was dotted with quiet little camps with huts opening out onto the pristine sand. It took a lot of willpower to not take another rest day 20km up the coast! There were also a number of large ugly resorts, many of which were only half built. It looked as if, across huge swaths of development, the money had just run out. About 10km before Taba, we came to a police checkpoint, which was also the junction we needed to take us towards Cairo. Unsurprisingly we drew more attention than most passing traffic, although we were a little unsure when one of the policemen started asking about the value of our bikes! This turning west marked the start of our crossing of the Sinai Desert. The desert lies at a 'Paul guess' of about 400 metres above sea level that, whatever way you look at it, is a long way from our sea level starting point! On the one hand, the road winding up through the mountains was beautiful but on the other, it was quite monotonous and bloody hard work. Our habitual luck with the weather was here, as always, so we were battling against a head wind and it kept raining despite it being a desert! It was mid afternoon when we neared the edge of the desert proper. We stopped to take a photo of some beautiful desert rock formations providing a backdrop to a lone Acacia tree. As we stood there, a pair of American soldiers from the International Observation Force stopped their pick-up and offered us some water. We gladly accepted. It being a busy military area, we asked if it would be ok to camp, and they didn't see any reason why not. It was such a beautiful spot and we felt we'd covered enough distance for the day so we decided to camp right there. As it turned out as we unpacked our bags, a pair of Egyptians pulled up. They told us it was their land and asked if there was anything we needed for the night and then promptly left! Pitching a tent wasn't quite as easy as we hoped with the ground being either too soft and sandy or rock hard....and it was blowing a gale bringing with it huge clouds of sand. Eventually, after ferrying dozens of rocks over to the tent we managed to pitch it pretty securely although it did flex alarmingly in the wind! Thursday 6th January 3957.7 miles, (Near) El Thamad, Egypt It was one of the noisiest nights camping (even though we were in the middle of nowhere) with the tent vigorously flapping in the wind and the occasional burst of rain. Despite this, we slept amazingly well and woke to a very cold start this morning. The wind has been the defining feature of the Sinai so far. The strong winds of last night continued today giving us an incredibly tough head wind, which was unrelenting all day. In fact, the hills today haven't been that bad, but with the wind we have often only managed 5 or 6 miles an hour! The desert, although spectacular, in its desolation has been less beautiful than we expected. The real interest for us has been in the little things; small herds of Bedouin camel ungainly galloping across the road, startled by the approach of two strange bikers! Katy had a big giggle and quickly dismissed her idea of chasing after them. Or cars driving past with roof racks piled so high with luggage that the luggage is bigger than the car itself! Still they never slow down. We stopped a couple of times today to get something hot to eat and drink. The heat of the coast has definitely now left us and the idea of stopping on the roadside in cold strong winds to whip up some jam sarnies just doesn't appeal. We were not very pleased when at the last one of these places we got massively overcharged because we were westerners. We made it very obvious to the owners. Having left El Thamad, you could see some very black clouds and the promise of rain coming our way. We decided it was time to find a much more sheltered camping spot. So here we are, in the bottom of a shallow gravel pit / crater. The tent seems tiny against the wall of the pit but at least we're sheltered from the wind. Apart from the occasional truck, it is so peaceful here and the stars are just amazing - miraculously the rain so far seems to have missed us. We're now snuggled up in bed, having had a cup of tea, enjoying the silence. Friday 7th January It was bitterly cold the next morning, even our gloves couldn't stop our hands stinging as we rolled up our tent and packed up our bags. We then dragged our bikes up out of the shelter of the crater back onto the road. After an initial rise, the flat ground and the much-reduced head wind allowed us to make good time. We arrived in the small town of Nakhl by mid morning where we stopped for a luke warm and very expensive cup of tea. From here to Suez it was about 160km with no further water stops that we knew of. With this in mind, we stocked up our water bags and filled all the extra space in our panniers with biscuits and chocolates to keep us going! Little piggies are we! After Nakhl, the road was relatively flat and easy going, but incredibly monotonous. We made good progress, despite the boredom, over the next 50km, pushing the day's total to about 100km. By mid afternoon we were quite tired and decided to pull into a quiet spot beside the road. Again, another lone acacia tree had attracted us. Although we were reasonably close to the road we were in an idyllic spot and were very chuffed with our find. Whilst we were whipping up another delicious pasta concoction we were passed by a convoy of three police cars who honked and waved us as they passed us by. This only added to our satisfaction, as they obviously had no problem with where we were staying. Night was falling; we had just put porridge to soak overnight and were drinking our final cup of tea before going to bed when a fourth police car appeared. It pulled up abruptly at our campsite and the local police General stepped out. Apparently our campsite was deemed dangerous and in the interest of our safety, told us to move our 'little house' to the police checkpoint, 10km further down the road. We made it quite clear that we were not happy about this; the police had already had three hours to tell us this but he would not take no for an answer. By this time, the three other police cars had turned up and were instructed to wait until we had packed all our things up and got the bikes onto the road. As soon as we had done this though, they scarpered, leaving us to fend for ourselves, on the now dark road. We never planned to do any night cycling and our little commuter lights did very little to penetrate the darkness. The inevitable happened... about 1km from the checkpoint we were dazzled by the lights of yet another passing vehicle. In the following blindness we were unable to see two large rocks waiting for us on the hard shoulder. Paul went straight into the first rock, and Kate followed, colliding with Paul and then with the second rock. We were both knocked to the ground in the crash: shaken but on first appearances neither of us seemed to be badly hurt. Paul's bike though, had taken a bit of a battering and it took 20minutes to re-fix his now slightly twisted front pannier rack. Whilst we struggled to do this, the vehicle that had dazzled us, a police car, sat a distance with the occupants just watching us. As you can imagine, when we eventually made it to the checkpoint, we were both fuming. We were so angry because all of this had happened due to the lack of thought from one police General. Had they left us alone, we would now be happily tucked up in bed. As it was, we were now trying to pitch our tent in what seemed to be a dog's toilet, surrounded by stray dogs and noisy trucks. Still the police refused to apologise for their actions. We tried to settle in for the night, but now that the shock had worn off, we were starting to feel the physical effects of the fall. Paul was only stiff and bruised but Kate's wrist was getting increasingly painful and was visibly bruising badly. With the worries of how this would affect our trip, we fell into a fitful sleep. Saturday 8th January We were eager to leave the next morning and packed up quickly but made sure we cooked up some porridge to warm ourselves before we left. Kate's wrist was now really painful and had grown an alarming lump but she was determined to cycle onto Suez that day and nothing Paul said could dissuade her. After an initial climb we had a really pleasant ride as the road gently descended towards the Suez Canal. Even the scenery got better as the rocky mountains gave way to beautiful wind sculpted sand dunes. The road seemed really quiet with only a little traffic, and even with Kate's wrist, we were really enjoying ourselves. It was about lunchtime when we finally reached the Suez Canal. The police informed us that we were not allowed to cycle through the tunnel that would lead us to the mainland. So we waited with the police until they commandeered us a suitable transport...we felt sorry for the drivers who had no choice but to take us in their pick-up. By the time we had arrived at the other side, word of our arrival had reached the Suez police authorities. It had been decided, again in the interest of safety, that we should have a police escort for the last 10miles into town. What fun that turned out to be! The police motorcyclist spoke no English and apparently had no interest in our safety. He had a tendency to zoom off ahead of us and expected us to pedal at the same speed he was riding. We did try to explain that our little leggies were less powerful than his big engine but he was having none of it. He was soon joined by another police motorcyclist and they both left us in favour of a high-speed car pursuit only to rejoin us when we reached the hotel that they had been steering us towards. The first hotel was the kind we had expressly said that we didn't want. It was clear from the look on the hotel manager's face that he wasn't too impressed with us either! They seemed to expect that being westerners we would only want five star accommodation and it took us a long while to explain that we only wanted the cheapest possible hotels in town. We were very tired when we reached a suitable hotel. We were not impressed with our escort...he had done nothing to improve our safety and we could have found a hotel far quicker without his help. The Al Medina was a friendly place though and we were so relieved to have that long awaited shower after seven days of uncleanliness. We wandered out to find food that evening and settled on Lulu's Place where we were served a huge pile of Shish kebab and bread by a lovely old man. Delicious, and just what we needed! We went to bed happy that we had just crossed the Sinai Desert and in less time than we had envisaged. Paul and Kate x
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Challoner's, Fasiledes, Amersham, Buckinghamshire