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Sunday 9th January We had decided to spend the next day in Suez to get some rest before the final leg to Cairo. We had arrived here earlier than expected so there was no need to rush. We spent much of the day walking around the port trying to find the tourist office. When we eventually did she was friendly enough but provided us with nothing of real use. Ah well! We did, however, find an excellent fuul, falafel and aubergine place where we could eat our fill for about 30 pence for two people. We then went in search of an Internet cafe and befriended a young guy called Mohammad who insisted on staying with us the whole afternoon and meeting us for a drink later in the evening. At 7o clock after some torrential rain had soaked the streets, the three of us traipsed out and he led us what seemed like miles out of the city to a very expensive cafe. It was pleasant enough and he treated us to drinks but we were tired when we left to go back to the hotel. We knew that the day after was going to be tough and wanted to get as much sleep as possible. Monday 10th January The six o' clock start was not at all welcome but we managed to drag ourselves out of bed and get ready to leave. We were on the road by 7 o clock and were soon leaving the city behind us. Unfortunately, a head wind had picked up and we were again battling to reach speeds of around 7 or 8 miles an hour. The road was miserable and jam packed with traffic. There was rarely a hard shoulder leaving us feeling dangerously exposed on the bleak desert road. At one point, we were forced off the road by a convoy of about 15 tourist coaches and police cars that were driving way over the speed limit. We just had to stop and let them pass; there was no way we could continue cycling. Again, by mid afternoon we were exhausted having been fighting the wind for over 7 hours. We had only ridden 80km but felt that we could go no further when we reached the next police checkpoint. We assumed that, as on the Sinai, we would be able to camp here (the whole road seemed to be military controlled so there was no chance of free camping). They told us, however, that this was not a possibility and that we would have to return to Suez or carry onto Cairo, another 60km further on. Obviously, we couldn't entertain either option and seeing the dejected looks on our faces they invited us in for a cup of tea to discuss our problem. The General, Mahmood, spoke very little English but was extremely kind. Throughout the course of the next few hours in his office, we were constantly fed bananas, apples and oranges and then a meal of piles of pasta, grilled meats and salad.... maybe this wasn't so bad after all! We just felt sorry for Ramadan, one of the policemen, who seemed to be at Mahmood's beck and call! Eventually, we gave way to the idea of taking transport to Cairo as our only option. Had we been able to camp we would have happily continued by bike the next day but the police had left us with no choice. Finally, as dusk was falling, a pick-up arrived to take us into Cairo. They drove us right through the busy streets to the centre of Downtown where all the backpackers' accommodation can be found. They accepted no money and we were extremely grateful for their help and kindness. Even if we had felt physically able to cycle into Cairo that night, the streets were crazy, and it would have been foolish. Tuesday 11th - Thursday 13th January 4130.5miles, Cairo, Egypt So here we are, the Dahab Hotel in Downtown Cairo. It seems to be an excellent place to meet travellers. It's like a beach camp up on a seventh floor roof top (although carrying our bikes up is a bit of a pain!) with lots of communal space where most of the guests sit, drink and chat until the early hours of the morning. It's a refreshing change after being cooped up with each other for the last two weeks. Kate is also in her element as there are plenty of cats and two little kittens! Our room is quite basic and most evenings are spent killing the odd mosquito before going to bed. But at just over 2 pounds a night we can't complain! We've met brilliant people including the two Aussies, Shannon and Phil, from Aleppo and Madaba, and Paul and Adine, a lovely Irish couple. There have also been other cyclists. We have spent a fair bit of time chatting to Priscille and Christophe who have cycled from France and taken a very similar route to ours. We could mention individually every single person we've met but it would take too long. So hi Nick, Gail, Ben, Phil, Chris, Susan and anyone else we should but have forgotten to mention! Since we've been here we have done little sight seeing as we have been trying to get lots of jobs done. The days are already blending into one so these are in no particular order. We went to the Anglo-American hospital to get Kate's wrist checked out. Although they were a little rough with it we were relieved to find out that there were no broken bones and the lump was nothing to worry about. They did an x-ray to make sure and supplied Kate with some strong painkillers and a wrist support so that she could give it a proper rest during her stay here in Cairo. The Ethiopian embassy was extremely helpful and were only too happy to give us a 6-month visa rather than the normal 3 months. Surprisingly, it only took an hour to issue. We need to go back to the Sudanese embassy next week. We actually really like Cairo; it's so nice to be with other travellers, the accommodation's cheap and we've found a restaurant that will satisfy even our appetites and for 6 of us still cost less than five pounds! Travelling down the Nile still looks tricky but we're exploring several possibilities and we're sure it will be OK. Friday 14th January Probably the most relaxing day so far was Friday. Do you remember the family we met in Nuweiba; Stephen, Desiree and their three children, Nathaniel, Naomi and Esther? Well, as we'd mentioned, they invited us round to their place for lunch. We took the surprisingly efficient and smooth running metro to El Maadi, the main ex-pat suburb where we were met by Stephen. We then joined the family at an international church service, where we were able to mix with some of Cairo's ex-pat community. We got talking to an American, who cycled a lot in the country, and he advised us that the Red Sea Coast was the way to go. Hopefully, this should involve less police stress and less traffic. In fact, having spoken to Flip in the last few days who has cycled part of the road, we have pretty much settled on taking the Red Sea Coast road as far south as possible, perhaps even heading towards the Sudanese border. According to one local, you can see giraffes and 'big rabbits' down there, although somehow we feel that the guidebook would have mentioned this if it was true. We'll let you know! Anyway, so back to El Maadi... although we're not regular churchgoers, we really enjoyed the church service, and found it a great way to meet other westerners; although the pastor insisted on embarrassing all the newcomers by making them stand up and introduce themselves. Right on cue, Kate, as usual, turned a delightful scarlet red! We both felt slightly out of place with our biking clothes and sports sandals. Paul hadn't even had a hair cut or shave yet - ah well; it's as close as a cycle tourer can get to Sunday best. After the service, we went back to the apartment where Kate was served with earl grey tea and Paul had apple juice out of a carton. Fantastic! There were even Pringles and salted cashew nuts! And these were just nibbles. It was traditional that every Friday after church, they had an open house to invite friends over for lunch. It was the kids' turn this week, so we had four more girls of different nationalities with us at the dinner table, chatting and giggling away. Lunch itself was amazing so hats off to Desiree. To start with there was homemade pumpkin soup served with grated cheese, which was delicious, and of course, it was crucial that we should have two massive helpings of it! Then along came the next treat.... Hungarian goulash, green beans and boiled potatoes. Again, we polished off two healthy servings with Kate feeling slightly embarrassed since both her 'healthy' portions were far bigger than that of Stephen's! Oh well - we were trying to make the most of amazing family cooking. We also had the luxury of Chilean red wine which was a delightful change to 'water-bag' flavoured water. In fact, the whole day with Stephen and Desiree seemed to revolve around food and general relaxing. Pure utter bliss! And as if the lunch we'd eaten wasn't enough, Desiree served us up home-baked apple and walnut cake with an assortment of ice-creams, and yes we are going to list them: vanilla, raspberry, chocolate fudge and chocolate hazelnut. We felt sorry for the last lumps of ice-cream sitting in their boxes so felt obliged to finish them.... oh and indulge ourselves and have another slice of cake! Little porkies! Well as you can imagine, we were stuffed and so we retired to the sofas with cups of hot fresh coffee. We chatted about lots of things; about our travels; about Stephen and Desiree's life living in the Congo, Tunisia and then Cairo. We also chatted about our route and they seemed to agree about going down the Red Sea coast. It was just nice being part of a family even if it was for only a day. And then, as if their generosity hadn't been enough, two hours after finishing lunch we were again seated at the table for supper. Bring it on! We won't go into detail as it's probably only us who get all excited about these things, but there were salads, breads, meats and cheeses and even marmite, chocolate spread and peanut butter! We were totally spoilt and couldn't stop smiling, much to Stephen and Desiree's amusement! It was quite late in the evening when we took the metro back to the reality of traveldom and budget hotels. Suffice to say that this has been one of the highlights of our stay in Cairo. Thank you so much! Saturday 15th January Another highlight of our ten days in Cairo has been the Egyptian Museum. It has to have one of the best collections of ancient artefacts in the world but is one of the worst kept museums with no real structure to it and poor or non-existent labelling. We had to teach ourselves some history to make sense of it! The Tutankhamun galleries were obviously amazing but the whole place kept us busy for nearly four hours. Paul and Kate x
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Challoner's, Fasiledes, Amersham, Buckinghamshire