Theme Song

A light hearted theme song for the Big Ride Africa... Work? What's that?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3Kgj6EiZtw

New photos uploaded!

We have uploaded a stack of new photos of Egypt and Sudan. Go to the
photos link. Also if you can't see the whole blog just click on the
bold Desert Rats title and it should take you to the blog site.
Thanks for all the comments. Frank glad to see you are still cycling
despite the fact that winter is on its way. Mal we have an expert
wheel builder (Simon) in our midst who is advising us on the best way
to do it... The trick is to get the rims to Addis and then get
ourselves there. We are stripping down our kit to reduce the weight
on the back wheel. Under pants have to go!

Cheers

JLC

Desert Rats

James: As per Mark's blog we are in Khartoum getting fat on decent food but getting here across the Sahara desert was an experience that we will both remember for a long long time. We boarded the infamous Aswan to Wadi Halfa ferry on the 14th of November with a fresh visa in our passport and staked out a spot on deck. We thought we were going to miss the ferry as we only got our visas at 10 that morning and we still had to cycle the 20km to the port, but African time was on our side and once on board we still had to wait 5 hours before we set sail. The crossing of Lake Nasser was not half bad and our 2nd class ticket even came with a meal. We slept on deck with all the overlanders and few locals and whiled the hours away chatting, reading and napping.


After 24 hours we arrived at the dusty town of Wadi Halfa in Sudan. Wadi Halfa was relocated when the Aswan High Dam was built. The town does not have much going for it other than a few crusty hotels (read dirt floor with a bucket of water), some 'resturants' selling fuul (fava beans with cooking oil and lemon juice ground into a paste with a coke bottle) and flat breads and the 'Aliens Registration Office'. We being foreigners are termed Aliens and have to register and be issued with a travel permit. This is on top of the visa that is stamped in Egypt and in Wadi Halfa. The process was extremely bureacratic. We essentially went in cirlces and visited 4 different offices sometimes more than once. After an hour we had the final signature from the 'Captain', had paid another US$30 and were free to go. Not wanting to stay in Wadi Halfa, we headed out into the desert.
Simon, who we met in Aswan decided to cycle with us down to Khartoum. It was great having him with us. He has done some serious cycling touring and kept us enthralled with tons of stories and tips. We only cycled 20 km out of Wadi Halfa before we set up camp a kilometre or so off the road. Being in the middle of nowhere, with no one around, desert as far as the eye could see and a perfect starry sky was a welcome contrast to the chaos of Egypt. We were so glad to be in Sudan! From Wadi Halfa it was 400km of tar road (thanks to the Chinese) to a town called Dongola. It took us three and a bit days to get there largely thanks to the most amazing tail wind that blows in from the Med. We were flying along in excess of 30km/h most of the time. There are loads of Nubian villages along this section and we stopped in at a few to see what they were like. We even dipped our ankles in the Nile. Many of the villages had a shop and we refueled on pepsi, tea biscuits and cakes. That and fuul, flat breads and few other tinned foods was all you could get. Not exactly varied. On our first proper day of cycling we got to experience Sudanese hospitality. We stopped to buy a pepsi and were promptly invited to join some locals for lunch. It was quite an amusing lunch as our Arabic was basic at most and they could not speak English. There was loads of handwaving going on. One guy, who was a Kenyan migrant worker, did speak English and was suprised that there were white people in South Africa!


We arrived at Dongola quite late because we decided to have a bath... We came across a borehole pumping water into some fields and took the oppurtunity to scrub our smelly bodies. Till that point the only water we had come across, other than the Nile, was drinking water that the communities place in clay pots along the road for travellers to drink. Many people are wary of the water but we were drinking it untreated without a problem.

Dongola was not much. We were expecting this flashy town with shops, restuarants, fancy hotels, etc. This was not the case unfortunately. We did have a great meal here though. We met a Sudanese gentleman called Ali who had lived in Croatia for 25 years and had now returned to his home town. He insisted on buying us dinner at a local spot. The food was great and we were joined by an off duty army officer. Both were fascitinated by our trip.


Our plan from Dongola was to head across a barren section of desert to the town of Karima. Its 175 km and in a SE direction, ie across the trail wind. Not ideal. We got a head start that night and headed out to the desert. The next morning we wanted to do 100 km, camp and then do 75km to Karima. A great plan except that the lovely tailwind was now a cross wind and at times a headwind. Its was blowing a gale and sand routinely blew across the road. Trucks that drove past us were leaning to one side and so were we. Our speed went down to 6-8 km/h at times. It was awful. We had to tie our hats down and cover our faces with Buffs.


After 30 km and 4 hours we spotted a radio mast and some shade and decided to stop and rest up and hope that the wind eased later on. We were even prepared to cycle into the night if it meant less wind. We parked ourselves in the shade and had lunch and then snooze. In the afternoon two motorcyclists came past. Turned out they were South Africans (Tanya and Francois) who had ridden Chinese motor bikes up from Cape Town. They stopped to say hi and joined us for cuppa tea. A bunch of German motorcyclists we met on the ferry also stopped. They even had a dog with them who sat in a side car!


The wind did not die down. It got worse. We decided to cut our losses and spend the night at the radio tower and cycle back to Dongola and follow the nile south. Heading to Karima would take us ages and we did not have much water. Elsewhere this would have been fine as water is generally available in clay pots. On this section there is nothing but desert. And Wind! So we camped. At about 2 am I heard the sounds of someone being sick. It was Simon. Half an hour later I was doing the 100 m dash with some white gold in my hand. This continued to sunrise. We were definately heading back to Dongola now. Mark escaped the Nile Nasties this time. Lucky bugger. It was 50 km back to Dongola and it took us the whole morning. We were in a bad way and the wind was now a headwind. We arrived in Dongola weather beaten and sunburnt and in need of liquids. We hydrated on upteen cokes and decided we need to rest up for a day at least before continueing to Khartoum. We found a 'motel' of sorts were all the truckers stay for SDG30 (about GBP6) and prompty past out on some crusty, and very likely to be flee ridden, matresses.



Rest worked wonders and although our stomachs were still not right we headed south along the west bank of the nile with a large stack of tissues clipped to our panniers for emergency purposes. Headed south was great. We had the tailwind behind us we did not have to push that hard. But then the road headed SE again and the hated cross wind came back to drive us mad. It was a matter of plugging in your ipod, putting your head down and trying to avoid doing mental arithmetic on distance covered, time, distance to go. 320 km from Khartoum we left the nile and head south across the desert. This looks like a pretty barren stretch and it is. There are no villages but there are some truck stops were you can buy some limited cooldrinks and foodstuff. Also there are clay pots of water every 30-40km. This route would impossible without those pots. Just as we were looking for a camp site on this road we came across two German cyclists, Franz and Barbara. They had cycled up from Durban. We decided to camp together and the told us about their journey so far and also the cycle tours they have done. They cycled through Tibet without a permit, sneaking through check points at night. We said good bye the next day as they headed north into the headwind. We felt very sorry for them. They could only get a 14 day transit visa and did not have much time to get to Wadi Halfa. This and a headwind were not a good combination. We even suggested that if it gets really bad they can always jump on a bus. The busses on this road are this creatively decorated Chinese beast that fly down the road in excess of 120 km/h and attempt to blow you off the road with the amount of air they displaced.


The Germans had a head wind but we had a tailwind. We clocked in 178km/h that day before camping on a saddle between two koppies. One of the koppies looked like it had been a gun emplacement in years gone by. With such a big day we only had 125km to go to Khartoum. We thought it would be easy. It proved to be quite tough! The road headed SE again and along came the cross wind all the way to Khartoum. Ipods went on again and we tried to distract ourselves from the monotony of the ride and the heat. We limited our drink stops and did not eat much (we did not have much food and the stalls did not have much either) and eventually got to the 0km marker. Problem is the 0km marker is 25km outside Khartoum. Whoever's idea that was deserves a smack! The 0km mark was dusty spot next to a shanty town! We pushed on and started navigating through the 'burbs' Khartoum. There were no street signs and we relied on asking people which way to go in broken Arabic. The traffic was a bit crazy too and we had to weeve around tuk tuks, trucks, busses and the delight that is the NGO land cruiser swallowing petrol by the barrel. After an hour of this we crossed the Nile on the new bridge and got to see Khartoum. We were quite impressed. There were loads of skyscrapers including one that looked like the Gherkin in London. We were going to stay at Simon's friend Rosa's flat which is in central Khartoum. With a bit of help from the Lonely Planet we found the correct street and went off in search of food as Rosa was at an Arabic lesson. We found a cheerful spot and ate two double egg burgers each. It was heaven! So much better than fuul and flatbreads! Rosa's lesson finished and we went to her flat. It was such a relief to get there. A sanctuary out of the desert and the promise of a shower, a bed and good food. Thank you Rosa!



As Mark noted we have been in Khartoum a couple of days now which have included drinks at the UK Embassy and a party in a country where alcohol use results in 40 lashes. It was legal though as it was in diplomatic properties. Good times aside we have noticed cracks in our rear wheels under the rim tape. Not great. We are trying to order some new better rims to be sent to Addis Ababa. We just hope the current wheels will last that far. Gear failure has been a bit of a regular occurance on this trip. Gear that we bought that had great reviews and promises from manufacturers, which in reality are far from the truth has been an ongoing saga. Our pannier bags for one are falling apart and we are regulary repairing them with nuts and bolts we have to source in the local markets. I will never buy Carradice again. We should have gone for Ortliebs. Wheels are the other story. We went for super strong Mavics which have been used by other tourers and now we have had three rim failures between us. Lesson's learnt I suppose but expensive gear should be fit for purpose and not fail after 4500km of tar road riding.And today the screen of Mark's kindle broke!

On a happy note, today we got our Ethiopian visas. It was painless and took less than a day. Submit the application and pay in the morning and collect your handwritten visa in the afternoon. Now we just have to hope the wheels get us there. We intend to hit the road tomorrow or the next day depending on whether we can sort out a bike parts order. Anybody heading from London to Addis Ababa in the next 2 weeks??

Ma salama (adios!)

2 broken wheels! 27 Nov 11

James and I are currently in the famous Afra shopping mall in
Khartoum, which almost every overlander heading North has told us
about. I must say its quite strange being in a fairly modern mall
after almost 2 weeks of nothing but desert and the odd mud-brick
building! In fact the whole Khartoum experience so far has been
somewhat surreal. From Wadi Halfa all the way to Khartoum we found it
difficult to get anything other then Fuul (tinned fava beans heated up
with a (un)healthy dose of vegetable oil and some lemon juice) and
flatbread to eat. So once we got to the big city we couldn't believe
our eyes when we saw all the burger and pizza restaurants, smoothie
bars, ice-cream parlours etc. Our first pizza was so good...

We are lucky enough to be staying with Simon's (the English cyclist we
met in Aswan) friend Rosa, who is an English teacher here in Khartoum
and so we have been living a sortof ex-pat existance here the last few
days. Only a few hours after arriving on Thursday evening we were
whisked off to the British Embassy for a few beers (Smirnoff Ice
actually as they had run out of beer much to our dissapointment) where
we met a whole host of ex-pats (mostly English teachers) all lounging
around the pool area within this Fort Knox style compound.

Then it was off to a party organised by a U.S Marine in his spacious
flat in another high security villa in some leafy suburb of Khartoum,
where we met more ex-pats from various countries, as well as many
local Sudanese of the upper crust, all of whom couldn't believe we had
cycled from London.

Since then we have been keeping ourselves busy by going to a highly
entertaining Nubian wrestling match, watching a 1953 Spanish film
(with Arabic and English subtitles) at the European Film Festival, as
well as some relaxing at the flat and doing a few chores like washing
our filthy clothes.

Which brings me to the unfortunate point of our 2 broken wheels.
Yesterday James was doing a routine checkup on his bike when he
discovered cracks in his rear wheel rim on the outide (tyre) side
between the spokes. I subsequently checked mine to find I have the
same problem, although not quite as severe. So the question we both
had on our minds was, "Now what?!". The only bike shops in Khartoum
sell cheap chinese bikes with wheels that just would not fit the bill.
So we have decided our best bet to limit down time will be to order
some new rims and spokes from the UK and have them couriered to Addis
Ababa where we will have to build up the new wheels (it can't be that
had can it?) when we arrive there. The obvious problem is we have now
got about 1500km to ride on somewhat dodgy rims, so fingers crossed!

Right our 1 hour internet time is just about up, so I have to end
here. Hopefully tonight we will be able to upload some photographs and
give some details of our trip through in the desert...

Khartoum!

We are in Khartoum! Well we got here last night but were quickly
whisked off to a hush hush party that even had booze on offer...Booze
is illegal in Sudan. So today has been spent recovering! We arrived in
Sudan at Wadi Halfa last week on Tuesday after a 24 hour ferry from
Egypt. We lost no time and heading out into the desert. Camping in
the desert was amazing but 1000 or so km later we were a bit fed up
and were longing for decent food and no sand in Khartoum. Being really
sick for a few days did not help either, nor did a failed detour to a
place called Karima. But we are here now and its fantastic. Our
first important mission while we are here is to secure a Ethiopian
visa. It should not be too much of a problem but you never know. A
full blog and photos to follow soon.

On the ferry to Sudan! 14 Nov

Just a quick post to say we have made it onto the ferry! Our deck
class ticket has earned us a spot in the baking sun on the top deck
with a host of other overland travellers from Europe (mostly in 4x4s,
from switzerland, poland, germany and holland) and one other lone
cyclist Simon from the UK. There are of course all the local
passengers milling about too.

We have rigged up our tent groundsheet for about 2 square meters of
shade. You even get a meal included (luxury I say!) and it doesn,t
look too bad either, chciken, potato, flat bread, pasta and salad.
You'd struggle to find such variety in most towns in Egypt! Don,t ask
about the toilets though.

So hopefully in about 24hrs we will be sailing into Wadi Halfa, where
we will scout around town for a mud hut (aka hotel) to sleep in for
the night. Or we may just not be able to resist the urge to cycle out
into the desert and sleep under the stars!

Internet access will be pretty much non-existant for the next few days
but keep checking the blog anyway just in case!

Mark

Aswan.... Finally!

James: We are now in Aswan after 900 odd km over seven days. The bodies are tired! We are even struggling to walk up the stairs of our minus 5 star hotel (3.5GBP per night)! The last few days have been interesting to say the least. A few days ago we spent the night in Sohag, which is on the west bank of the Nile. We found a cheap and cheerful hotel (or fondok) near the train station and managed to convince the manager that we sleep with our bikes and they should be kept in our rooms rather than outside. We also got to experience some fantastic Egyptian hospitality. This started when we stopped for supper and once we had finished our meal the owner refused to let us pay. Then a fruit seller gave us some free veg even after we tried to pay for it. After returning to the hotel we met a guy called Faizel and his brother Ahmed. They lived with their family next door to the hotel and it turned out that Faizel has a similar academic background to Mark (electronic engineering) and was interested in similar things. And he spoke fluent English. After chatting outside for a bit he invited us to his home where we met his father and enjoyed refreshments and fruit while Faizel gave us an overview of his family and his aspirations career wise. It was such a interesting evening and we were really bowled over by how welcoming Faizel and his family were. Particularly to guys with crusty beards on bicycles! We took a group photo at the end, which is in the photos section of the website.

From Sohag we planned to ride to Luxor in one day. This is about 220km and we got up super early to leave just as it got light. The first 100km were done by lunch time when we hit the town of Nag Hammadi. Normally you cross over to the east bank at this point and stick to main road but we wanted to avoid this road and the vehicle fumes (don't get me started on the toxic air in the Nile Valley!) that go with it and take the quieter west bank. This was working out well until we hit a police checkpoint. We have hit many of these before and generally we speed up and wave and even if the police do try and stop us it's usually a very lame attempt. This was different. The police rushed into the road to stop us cycling through. Once stopped the main police man, with ray bans of course, got on his phone and it was 10 minutes later when we were told to head back to Nag Hammadi and cross the river. Rather then risk an Egyptian prison we complied even though it involved a 15km detour. So now our distance for the day would be 235km. Easy on an unladen road bike. Horrific on heavily loaded tourer! Once across the river we hit another checkpoint and before we could argue we had a police escort following us. It was not so bad but they did not want us to stop for anything not even to drink. We got to a point when we were both about to "hit the wall" so we stopped to buy coke and the cop went mental at us, fingering his pistol and waving his hands about. So back on the bike it was all the way to Luxor. The road was actually quite nice. It was lined with loads of plants in flower and on another day I would have really appreciated it but in our state we only wanted to get to Luxor to eat and drink and lie down. We were counting down the km doing some hectic mental arithmetic of speed, time, average speed, etc, and worked out we were a kilometer away and the signs confirmed it. After that supposed final kilometer we hit another sign: Welcome to Luxor turn right, 4 km. We were not amused but luckily there was a bit of a downhill into down and we were able to limp in riding side saddle to give our backsides some relief. We were so glad when we finally got to Luxor. We had spent a total of 9.5 hours in the saddle and found our hotel, the Happy Land Hotel, just as it was getting dark. We both sat on the cold floor and downed a few cokes and devoured a few bags of crisps. We were knackered. Still we managed to head out that night for a beer (called Stella) and also to check out the Luxor temple. We also got hit with Starbucks like prices for the cup of instant cappuccino in the tourist area and vowed not to be wooed in by any Nescafe signs from now on!

There is alot to see in Luxor so we decided to spend the following morning doing the tourist thing. We got ourselves a taxi and headed to Valley of the Kings to explore some tombs and visit a few other sites in the area. Once all the tourists pass you by in the Valley of the Kings you really start to appreciate the place and you try to imagine what it must have been like discovering the tombs for the first time. Imagine being in Howard Carter's shoes when he discovered Tutankhamen's tomb?

With a few tombs, monuments and temples in the bag it was back on the bikes for a 110km ride to Edfou, where we stayed in the worst hotel so far, and then another 110 km to Aswan. On arrival in Aswan we headed straight to the Nile River Transport Co office to get our tickets for the ferry. Outside we met the first overlanders we had seen in Egypt. There was a crazy dutch guy with his wife crusing around in a white van, a swiss couple in a landcruiser, a guy in a massive truck and a few guys on motorcycles who had gone through Syria and been held by by guys with AK47s. We also met a cyclist from England, Simon, who was cycling from Cairo to Addis Adaba. Most had been stuck in Aswan for 10-14 days as the ferry was cancelled due to Eid. Some of their sudanese visas were also about to expire and people's patience was somewhat strained. We eventually got to speak to the main man who assured us that it won't be a problem for us to get on the ferry with our bikes we just need to sort out our own visas before we can buy a ticket. The Sudanese consulate only opened the following day (ie today 13 November, Sunday is the equivalent of Monday in Egypt) so we headed of to a hotel recommended by Simon. It was a steal at 3.5 GBP per night although you would not be putting your tour groups in there or forcing your girlfriend to stay the night there. Don't worry Isobel I won't make you stay in a place like that. Showered and fed we headed out with Simon to find some beer eventually being sold a few cans of Sakara by a shifty shop owner. We sneakily drank the drinks on a bench overlooking the Nile (you can't drink in public in Egypt) and talked about bikes, previous trips and how to do some serious stealth camping even in European cities.

Today we were at the Sudanese consulate at 8 am to be first in the queue. After a while the other overlanders arrived and we heard there had been a protest in Aswan the night before and they had wreck some shops and Nubian man had died. One of the overlanders had his windscreen smashed as he was parked nearby doing his own stealth camping. After some questions from the smartly dressed Sudanese consulate employees about why we did not apply for our visas in Cairo (it was closed!) and why we were going to Sudan, we were told to fill in the form and come back the next day (14 November) to collect the visa. And the price was only $50 rather than the $100 in Cairo, which means more beer after Sudan! If the visas are ready by 10 am as promised this will give us enough time to cycle the 17km to the Aswan High Dam port and get our tickets for the ferry and then board at lunch time. We are holding thumbs! We can't face staying in for seven days! Wish us luck. If all goes to plan we will be in Sudan on Tuesday afternoon.

Over and out until Khartoum....

,

Day 32 - 03 Nov 11. Asyut, Egypt

As I write, James and I are chilling out in our hotel room in the
Amoun Hotel in Asyut listening to the cacophony of sounds erupting
from the city below our window. A few sounds that stand out are the
calls to prayer (I can make out at least 2 different ones at the same
time), the omni-present hooting of traffc and the horn of the train as
it rushes past on the great Nile railway line.

We were a bit apprehensive about getting here after what the locals
further North had told us ("there are bad people there" as they put
it) and what we had read on some forums (horrible city, hounded by
police etc.). But without a doubt this is the cleanest place we have
been to in Egypt so far (that doesn't mean its clean though!) and most
of the buildings are fully constructed and even painted in some cases
so it looks relatively nice. Our only gripe is that the prices for
hotels seem a bit high. The cheapest we found after doing some serious
haggling with about 4 hotel managers was E£120 (~£12/R140).

Which brings me to last nights stay in El-Minya at the Beach Hotel,
where we paid a sum total of E£60 which is more in line with our
budget. With scaffolding throughout the ground floor and reception to
hold up the roof (and all 4 stories above) it wasn't perfect but you
can't expect much for that price so we were more then happy!.

The riding since Beni Suef has been pretty tough, despite being flat
and having a tail wind! The main reason for this is me unfortunately
getting some sort of virus in Cairo(bit of fever and now a cough but
nothing serious) and then the "Nile Nasties" (no explanation
required). So needless to say I wasn't feeling my strongest. James
says I should man-up and I think he's right if I'm to make it all the
way to Cape Town.

Apart from that the scenery has been fairly constant and the people
extremely interested in us. We are both quite surprised by this as we
were expecting it further into "deepest darkest Africa" but not in
Egypt. Although we have realised that very few tourists travel through
any of the towns we have been through so far.

By far most of the interest is displayed with lots of smiling, hooting
and shouting one or more of the four English phrases most people know
i.e. "Hello", "What is your name?", "How are you?" and "Welcome!".
Unfortunately they do not understand a word when you reply to "how are
you?", but we can't complain as they still know more English then we
know Arabic. We are working on that though.

And then unfortunately there is the unwanted attention which usually
comes from children and teenagers probably bored. There is a reason
kids under 13 shouldn't drive. On two occasions we've had these guys
in their "tik-tiks" (3-wheel taxi) cruising alongside us for at least
10 mins hooting constantly with agressive shouting and hand signals.
And then when we tried ignoring them they started swerving into us and
forcing us off the road, scary stuff! We've also had a few stones
thrown our way and smacking us and our bags as we cycle past.
Apparently the Sudanese are really friendly so we are looking forward
to that!

Tomorrow is a relatively short ride to Sohag and then its a big push
to Luxor (220km).
Now we're off to find some food in town...

Day 30 6 November Cairo to Beni Suef

James: We have finished our first day on the bike in Egypt! The ride was about 125 km and it was done by 1pm after a 730 am start. The roads are flat and we were going along at between 25 and 30 km/h. Most of the ride was amongst green fields in the Nile valley along the eastern bank but the road did take us out into the industrial part if desert as we got closer to our destination Beni Suef. For most of the ride we had locals cruising up next to us in their cars,motorbikes or auto rickshaws all smiles with their hands permanently on the hooter! It was good fun but it got a little disconcerting when the guys hooter sounds like a police siren and we are well aware that the police like to escort cyclists along the Nile valley! We did go through one police check point but the cops were just lounging in the shade! The only dodgy part of the day was a kid who threw a stone at Mark hitting him on the thigh. Good practise for the stone throwing hooligans of Ethiopia, nevertheless we have vowed to give the next one a RPK...don't worry about the acronym, it will hurt!

It took ages to find a hotel or fondok as it is called in Egypt. Our Arabic is limited which does not help either! We were eventually directed to a place overlooking the Nile which costs the equivalent of £15 with an en suite bathroom. We are sure we can find cheaper and next time we will turn up our noses at this luxury but the view is great and the shower is hot! I have attached some rather poor iPhone photos below. The proper ones will be coming soon!

Egypt update: 4 November

James checking in. We have been in Egypt for two and a bit days now. We have been very lucky to be hosted at the Wyness' house in El Maadi just south of Cairo proper. I know Richard Wyness from a work project. His wife Innes has been fantastic and has helped us with a driver to get us to embassies, tips on where to go, organising a trip to the Pyramids and allowing us to use her house as a base. It has made life alot easier! Our task on day one was to organise our visas for Sudan and Ethiopia... Easier said than done. It was Thursday, which is a Friday in Egypt AND Eid was kicking off in a few days. We got our letters of introduction from the South African embassy within 15 mins. They were so helpful and interested in what we were doing. The man who helped us, James, was surprised Isobel and Jo had let us go! "Boys those are special girls!" Very much so! With letters in hand it was off to the Sudanese embassy. Ashraf our driver got us through the traffic and at the embassy in no time. Then the bad news. It was too late to issue a visa and the office was closing and would only open in ten days time. Holiday apparently! Great! Feeling despondent we debated options. We could cycle to Aswan where there is another Sudanese embassy which will be open by the time we get there. Best case scenario would that we cycle 900km in 7 days, get to Aswan on the 12th, apply for a visa on the 13th and hopefully get it quickly and then catch the weekly ferry to Sudan on the 14th. It seemed possible and now that is our plan A. If the visa takes a while or there is no space on the ferry we can always spend a week exploring Luxor and Aswan. With this plan in mind we went to look for the Ethiopian embassy. We couldn't find the place despite using the address in the lonely planet and on the net! Its not the end of the world as we can always get a visa in Khartoum. And they are cheaper there! So despite the visa issues we have a plan and in better spirits we went to see downtown Cairo. We started at Tahrir Square and then headed east tithe Khan el Khalili which is where all the markets are. It was great exploring the alleyways. We also sampled the local coffee houses and spent quite a while drinking tea and smoking sheesha. Our throats were burning! We had an awesome and well priced dinner in the area before heading home.

Today was spent building our bikes. Luckily they are fine. No damage to the frames and the wheels are not buckled. Bikes sorted we took the surprisingly efficient metro into town and spent a few hours at the Egyptian Museum. The Tutankhamen exhibit was fascinating and we spent most of time in this section of the museum. After the museum we went for tea and sheesha at a local coffee house. We were joined by Dr Sherif Zaky from the museum who kept us entertained for an hour or two and gave us lots of info on Egypt. By this time the daily prayers had finished and the streets came to life. They were people everywhere selling anything and everything, munching on delicious cakes from the bakeries, eating in restaurants, setting of fireworks and having a good time. And we were the only tourists on the streets! Supper at local place was great, we even struggled to get a table as the place is so popular with the locals. Tomorrow morning we are heading to the pyramids. Innes has organised that we do so on horseback. We can't wait!

Our plan is to start cycling this Sunday.

Touchdown in Africa - 2 Nov 11

The African leg has officially begun! Although it very nearly didn't
- we almost missed our flight after arguing with the EgyptAir staff
about their policy on bicycles. It turns out the policy on their
website isn't quite the same as what they teach to their employees.

So after coughing up an unexpected €65 each and then weaving our way
through all the security, we had to sprint to the boarding gate where
it was eerily quiet except for the 2 ladies checking boarding passes
waiting impatiently for us!

But apart from that its been fairly smooth, although we have been too
scared to check what state our bikes are in - we'll leave that for the
morning! Tonight we are fortunate enough to be staying at the very
nice Wyness' residence in Cairo, which I can tell you is a lot better
then wild camping!

So tomorrow we will be busying ourselves running around Cairo to the
SA, Sudanese and Ethiopian embassies to try and get some visas (or at
least get the ball rolling). Then when our fate lies in their slow
moving machinery we may be able to squeeze in some sightseeing and a
few falafels...

Mark

ROMA in time for Halloween!

We have arrived in Rome! 2535 km, 23 cycling days and 1 rest day. Leg
1 complete! Luckily after the industrial north of Italy we headed
through some really amazing scenery on our way to Rome.  And the
weather improved substantially.  I am currently wearing shorts, t
shirt and flip flops although everyone else is warmly clad.....!
Confused Saffas maybe!

We head to Cairo on Wednesday at lunch time. We spent this evening
scrounging some cardboard to package our bikes and then did some
serious refuelling! Two pizzas each with wine and we were still
hungry!  We are being hosted in Cairo by Richard and Innes Wyness and
they have very kindly organised an airport pick up as we are arriving
quite late on Wednesday night.  We cant wait to hit Africa.  Europe
has been great (except for the weather on occasion!) but this trip is
about cycling Africa.  Leg 2 here we come. Its going to be brilliant!

Ciao

James

PS more photos to come soon!  Thanks for the all the comments both on
the website and on FB!  Really appreciate the support! And the bikes
are still going strong. Marco the new wheel is perfect.