Trip Pictures

Here is the link to the photos taken during the trip... Enjoy them :-)

The Egyptian Curse

I'm back home from my trip i had an amazing 10 days in the sinai, 6 days cycling to Neuwibaa, crossing 700km and rested for 4 days in the lovely camp Rock Sea.

Unfortunately because i'm an Egyptian, the Jordanian authorities refused to let me in their blessed lands, thus putting an end to the trip.

It's Dahab baby!

I'm in the city of Dahab today, i made almost 600km so far. I feel so refreshed and strong. Though i have some shoulder pain, didn't find the reason yet, tried to fix the shifters and the saddle, but nothing yet!

I wanted to post some pictures but unfortunately there is no memory card reader at the internet cafe where i am.

i booked a cheap room in dahab, 30 EGPs only. Took a shower and changed my underwear. had the same cloth for 5 days, crazy! i'm still thinking about staying here one more day instead of leavinjg tomorrow, don't know yet.

i love you all... :-) wish me luck

4th day trip to jordan

I've reached Sharm El-Sheikh today, this is the fourth day of the trip. It's amazing... plain amazing.... i will add more perhaps tomorrow, i'm very tired the road to sharm was a killer. I'm supposed to do less than a 100km tomorrow, so probably i'll be in  better state. Wish me luck everyone please, i love you all...

Cycling Ein El-Sokhna

Last weekend we did a last practice trip where we'd go out to a place 120km away from Cairo, about 140km from where we live, camp, cook and get the whole lot of the cycling-camping experience.

Unfortunately it was terribly windy. I mean it was so windy that no matter how hard you pedal you are barely moving, probably I was doing a 8-10 km/h it was badly inclined, and when there was a slight declination we had to pedal our way down or you'd fall off your bike!

We rested a bit in the middle of the road and thought that we should start looking for a decent camping spot, the wind has decreased a bit, but it was too late for us to try to reach Ain El-Sokhna specially it would be dark by then, and we didn't think it was a good idea to cycle in the dark!

I was fortunate enough to actually experience the famous quote of  "it's never about the destination it's about the road or the journey"

We had a fabulous time, Mo cooked us a great meal, it was so good to have a warm meal after a effortful day, slept for 11 hours and we slept like babies...

Here are some pictures, Mo has the rest, since he is the one with the pro cam :-)

                                            

From Cairo to Petra - inspirational video

From Cairo to Petra - inspirational video from ganzeer on Vimeo.

Sherif & I have been planning a cycling trip from Cairo to Petra for a while now. I thought I'd make a little inspirational video for us using footage I shot on some of our shorter bike rides using an ATC2k bullet camera from Oregon Scientific.

I illegally borrowed music from Tenacious D's The Road (for this non-profit video) since y'know... we're talking about the road.

The Suez Experience

So my first and only long distance (well sorta) cycling trip has been from Cairo to Suez. That's only 140 kms, but they're a 140 kms that happened under not so ideal circumstances.

First of all, I was scheduled to head out with my buddy Sherif at exactly 5 AM to catch most of the light while avoiding the blinding and blistering heat of the sun, but because my smart ass got me to stay up late (3:30 AM) at a friend's birthday party, I totally overslept, managing to barely wake up around 7:30 AM and finding several missed calls from Sherif.

I tried to call him back but got no answer, so I figured he either went back to bed or head out for Suez without me. I honestly thought chances were higher that he'd just went back to bed and sulked, but a call from Sherif around 8:30 informed me otherwise.

Overtaken by feelings of jealousy mixed with obligation, I declared I would catch up with him, without really asking how long he had been biking for, which I presumed couldn't have been for that long. So I head out after him on my own. The problem with this plan is that:

1. I had no bike racks or panniers or bottle holders (as opposed to Sherif), so I would have to carry my water, my tent, my change of clothes, all in my backpack.

2. I had no tools or spare tires in case of emergencies (also as opposed to Sherif)

But y'know what? I head out anyway. I figured I'd eventually catch up with Sherif at one of the rest stops along the way or something.

About a couple of hours into the biking though, over a phone conversation with Sherif I happened to discover that he had actually head out at 5:30 AM, easily over 3 hours ahead of me, and was already way past the 80 km mark of the road!

Basically, I was in mildly deep shit.

After biking for two hours already on the road, there was no way I'd turn and bike two hours back to Cairo, and I also knew that with Sherif being over 3 hours ahead of me, there's no way I would catch up with him, and I would be stranded if I merly got a flat tire. The risk factors were high, my back started to kill me, my inner thighs became growingly soar, and the slightest touch of the palm of my hands made me scream like sissy, but I was determined to get there anyway. However, I learned some very important cycling lessons:

1. Never ever carry any weight on your back. Bike racks with proper panniers are essential. All the weight should be carried on the bike and not on your body.


2. Biking gloves are essential.


3. Never bike for long distances during the day without sunglasses, especially if the sun is rising at the end of the road in front of you, and its the freakin' sun of motherfuckin' Egypt. Personally, I don't like super dark sunglasses that totally change the natural color spectrum of human vision. A slightly tinted UV protected glass will always get my vote.


4. Sun block if you dont want to lose your skin.


5. Biking shorts with padding for the ass and balls are very, very essential.


So yeah, I actually managed to make it around 9 hours later. But I had to cheat the last 30 kilos by hopping on the back of a pick-up truck because it was getting dark and I had no headlights (also very important), not to mention the whole sever pain part. One of the things that also put me behind was my water finishing a little early than expected, making me detour into the nearby Badr City to resupply myself with water, which took a bit of a while.

The good thing about the road Cairo-Suez road, although entirely uphill, is well equipped with a couple of gas stations and rest houses for necessary supplies.

Although this little trip had its hardships, I don't regret it for one bit and actually very much enjoyed it. Something about being on the open road on a bike puts you in a certain mindset that is very different from everyday urban life. I somehow felt a little tougher and more badass... and I really liked it.

Two weeks to go

Less than two weeks to go. We scheduled our trip to start on the 15th of November, 2009.
Since I, Sherif, have to go back to work in one month, so it'll be a 1 month trip. We will post as many videos and photos as we can, keeping the blog updated.

Mean while, I'll post some photos from a trip to Suez, 130km away from Cairo, to the East http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=29.907329,31.861725&spn=1.054684,2.469177&z=9

We camped and returned the following day.

I want to mention a few notes regarding this road, for cyclists willing to cycle it in the future.

1- Mind that the road is a constant inclination, since Suez is at sea level, meaning it is a bit higher than Cairo.

2- This is a desert road so after 80km with only 50km to go, there are no mountains only desert, so there is so much wind, and most probably it'll be opposing you. i had a very rough 40km.

3- If you are traveling in the summer, please have something to wear on your head, a cap or a helmet.

4- Carry sufficient water, and energy bars. Snickers did well for me!

5- There are several stops on the road, it is quite busy.

6- There is a nice lane on the way to Suez in which you can cycle safely.

7- The road is filled with big trucks

8- On the way back to Cairo,the magnificent right lane is filled with sand making it a bit harder to cycle. But as we usually do and look at the bright side of things, I was still able to cycle on it.

9- Suez has a ferry, for free, to carry you to the other side, which is the road to Sinai.

10- Suez is a very peaceful city, we easily found a nice camping spot in a public isolated park, and had an amazing noiseless sleep.

May be Mo will want to add some notes of his... till then enjoy the pictures...