Roughing it in Egypt ..

We decided to wake up and hit the road at 4am the morning to miss the desert heat and get some miles done. The problem is that Lindsay and I stayed up a little late, so only got about 4 hours sleep, which meant we were a little tired on the road.

As we left, riding through the little town, there was a very oily patch in the road, very slippery and I didn’t have enough time to warn Delilah who was riding behind me … I soon heard a yell and she came off quite badly … or so it seemed, but she was fine ! Thank goodness …

early the morning in the desert

We stopped to have some breakfast next to the road and soon some kids joined us, we gave them sweets and biscuits, but they probably already had a breakfast of their own, so it seemed like they rather wanted some money 🙂

Delilah admiring the sunrise at breakfast

Money please !

After breakfast we hit the road again, but I was so tired, I couldn’t keep my eyes open, so it was time for a power nap. We stopped at the first little abandoned building we saw (for some shade) and had a power nap for about an hour or so. In that whole our, we probably only seen one car go by …. really not much going on, on this desert road … except road blocks … loads of them.

Just as we started to get ready again, we saw a very welcoming site …. in the distance was a car, not thinking much, but as it got closer, we recognised it … Pete, Matt and Pete’s wife Aisha in the Land Rover … very glad to see them again. Obviously seeing us next to the road, they pulled off and we were re-united again since Alexandria. Pete very generously offered to carry my spare TKC80 rear tyre in the back of his Landy … saving me about 10kg on weight.

We deciced to head to Dakhla to have some lunch and we stopped at Arabi Restaurant. He had Stella beer … and prepared some nice food for us.

Catching up with Pete and the gang at Arabi Restaurant

After lunch we headed to the next town on the desert road, called Kargha, but the police followed us all the way from the checkpoint and made us go to the police station, where they wanted to copies of our passports and we had to report to the station at 10pm that night … the hotel was also very expensive, but at least we could buy some more beer and some water and ice cubes for our camelbaks. We decided to rather leave town and head to a little town called Paris 🙂 What a dump !

No campsites, no hotels .. just what almost seemed like an abondoned building, but the locals insisted it is a “hotel”, but we ended up sleeping rough outside in our tents rather … employing one of the local boys to be security guard for the vehicles .. sorry no photos of this, too tired … couldn’t be bothered and it’s late already …. done loads of kilometeres today, long day !

Tomorrow we head for Luxor … and then the final stretch to Aswan on Saturday.

My first little oasis in Egypt

This morning, the Talat (the owner) served us breakfast, some omellete, cheese, bread and jams. He sat with us and also offered us some fresh dates. He said he is addicted to them. He actually runs Desert tours, so check out his website, http://www.edengardentours.com

As we left the campsite, Delilah came off her bike in the deep sand roads, getting her foot stuck under the pannier, but a helpful local quickly picked the bike up for her, even before Lindsay could get off this bike. She hurt her ankle, even with boots quite badly, she can still walk and ride, but hopefully it will get better soon.

Eden Camp

We headed to the next “oasis”, Farafra on the Western Desert Road and again, some of the hottest days I have ever experienced. 44 degress celcius of just plain sun, no shade, no vegetation, just desert. When we do decide to stop a little, even little birds would come and sit in the shadow of our bikes just to get some shade.

Western Desert Road

I think the biggest problem we had in the desert was our water getting warm so quick, even completely frozen bottle water, Mr Talat gave us, was warm in no time. Lukewarm water is not nice, but better than nothing in the desert.

We arrived in Farafra and ended up staying in the Badawiya hotel … at last, what I imagined in my mind what an oasis should be in the desert … a nice swimming pool ! The place was only 10 Euro per person per night … not bad. For lunch, the local tourism polise officer took us to a small little restaurant in town which prepared a meal for us … I have to say, I was quite sceptic, but Lindsay loved it and ate it all 🙂

The pool at Badawiya Hotel

The little restaurant in Farafra

Oh yeah, a few days ago, at Alexandria, we lost contact with Peter and Matt in the Land Rover, so we don’t know how to contact them as stupidly enough, we didn’t even get a contact number from him. We knew that Peters’ wife flew into Alexandria to meet up with them, so we were hoping to catch up with them on the road …

The Pyramids …

Our bikes in front of the Hotel in Alexandria

We had our breakfast early the next morning in the hotel in Alexandria, packed our bikes and we headed for Cairo. For me, this was a first taste of the heat of Egypt. Alexandria is a mucky and dirty city, so didn’t enjoy that much, however we were soon out of the city and on the road.

Around 200km, we arrived in Cairo and went straight to the pyramids. We got so much hassle from the security who didn’t allow us to ride up to the pyramids and made us park outside, but we could then walk in if we wanted to. I am sure for a little fee, we could’ve, but I was in no mood to haggle with them.

Pyramids in Cairo

After our photos, we left the other boys in Cairo as they had to sort out some Sudan visas and Lindsay, Delilah and I headed off on the Western Desert Road, South ! There were times I regretted this decision ! 🙂

Western Desert Road

The Western Desert Road is HOT and there is actually NOTHING to see, except the “oasis’s” after hundred of kilometres. Our first stop for the night was Bawiti and we headed straight for the first campsite on the GPS, Eden Campsite. A few minutes after we parked, I just heard a loud bang, then I realised that a heavy bike and the soft sand was not a good combination

Soft sand, heavy bike at Eden camp

As we arrived we received a very warm welcome from the owner and his workers, but also from a massive spider which left Lindsay without words … he even considered going somewhere else, hehehe. The spider actually ran up one of the workers trousers while he was trying to catch it, which even made me sqeemish !

Spider in Lindsay’s room

Nice campsite, well recommended, the host is really friendly, wants to make you feel at home all the time and very accomodating. He even had a hotspring (a pool he called it), but it was brown and some skimming spiders on the water, so we gave that swim a skip.

Eden Camp, the next morning

Mr Talat, the owner of Eden Camp