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April 18th Day 15 - Idfu in a quality Hotel!!!

Chris's Story

After a light breakfast we set off en route for Idfu, a small town about 120 km down the Nile which is on the map due to its superb Greco roman temple dedicated to the falcon god Horus. We cycle for about six miles before we reach our first checkpoint and are happy with ourselves for making an early start. Not expecting any problems from now on we optimistically wave at the guards, and make to pass through the check point. STOP, STOP comes the order from the guard. We halt and explain to him our intentions. He then tells us that it is forbidden to cycle from Luxor to Aswan with a bicycle! I groan to myself and attempt to explain that we have permission and that the police have our itinerary. He wouldn't have any of it. We make a quick phone call to Major Hammamy in Cairo and he speaks to the guard, yet we are still not allowed to proceed. The Major recommends that I go to the tourist police headquarters in Luxor, where he will speak to the colonel in charge. So Frank stays with the bikes at the checkpoint and I return into Luxor, catching a ride with some chap who told me in broken English that he worked in the Loo! I never did find out exactly what he did. 

I arrive at the tourist police HQ and I meet a major Ashraf, who knew nothing of our plans and decided that I should have to go to the convoy police HQ and speak to the captain in charge to arrange a special convoy for us. So off I saunter, down the road to the my new destination. I arrive and speak to a very friendly and helpful officer. However he knows nothing of our plans as well!! I make another quick call to Major Hammamy and I am told to go back to the tourist HQ and speak to a colonel who knows all about our plans!!! I bid the captain farewell and walk the ten minutes back to the tourist police. I am invited to sit down and am told everything is now being organised. After about 45 minutes an officer comes in and I catch a ride with him back to the checkpoint. I find Frank sat in a chair doing his crossword puzzles. I find out from Frank that our escort actually arrived at the checkpoint about 5 minutes after I had left this morning!! 

Having wasted 2 hours, and annoyed that we had missed the cool part of the day, we eventually set off with escort in tow. We make fairly good time, having placed our panniers in the escort van, and are thankful that they are with us. We pass through village after village and the landscape changes from the fertile cultivated banks of the Nile to arid desert conditions, the further south we go. Towards noon the heat becomes intense, the temperature was approximately 40 degrees Celsius and what breeze there was, felt as if someone had opened an oven door at maximum heat! We stop for a break and try to stand our bikes up on the road, but the tip of the stand perforates the tarmac which has melted in the heat. For those of you in Cayman, imagine riding from west Bay to Rum Point and back in August, turn up the heat by 20 degrees, take away the humidity, and then put Quzinell McLaughlin on the back of your bike!! With the heat now intensifying it was important to take every advantage to fill our water supply as they were beginning to be sparse. The road continues through the desert and it seems to get hotter as we travel along. 

After a long day of cycling we arrive in Idfu. We are escorted to apparently the best hotel in town , the hotel Al Madinah. The charge is 3 dollars a night! Our room has the most horrendous decor I have seen in a while. Hand painted green walls with blue, red and yellow streaks. A garishly coloured bright pink wardrobe. The ceiling has a dirty yellow background with a handaubed black spots, which resemble a leopard skin pattern. The bathroom leaves a lot to be desired and a TV set is blaring nearby making it almost impossible to hold a conversation. We settle down for the night and I purchase the usual supplies for our evening meal. Finally I dose off dreaming that we have only one day left to go, and how happy I am going to be when I reach Aswan. 

Frank's Story

GREETINGS FROM HELL MOTEL

Mum, Dad, " C " , Family, Friends and followers of our journey.

I was happy to finally get back on my bike and was looking forward to the 120 km cycle to IDFU.All that changed within 30 minutes. At the first checkpoint we were met by a very arrogant officer who said IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE for us to cycle to Aswan, they forbid it. As usual , I have a few words of advice, as usual, no response. Chris then sets off back to Luxor in pursuit of our escort and I remain to enjoy the morning SUN. About 5 minutes after he leaves I notice two other plain clothes officers arrive and they join the arrogant one at the checkpoint. No acknowledgement is made and I wait for about 2 hours. As I was watching the officers at the checkpoint memories of Northward Prison rose. Boiling sun, no shade, hours on end of point duty and I think that is what they do every day. I have found out that many of the officers work 12 hour shifts ( 9 - 9 ) and the cycle is 20 days on - 10 daays off. A complete nightmare if you are at a fixed point which many officers are, either checkpoints, road junctions, historical sites and hotels. There are sentry boxes all over Egypt and most of them are full.

Back to the cycle, Chris finally returns and as we are ready to leave I notice that the two officers who are to escort us have been waiting with me. I bite my tongue and we set off. As the sun rises I realise that every pedal is becoming tougher and the heat is intense. The forecast is 40o ( 108o farenheit ) but as we cycle I dreaded to think how hot it was. My mouth was dry within a couple of minutes of drinking water and my body temperature was unbearable. As we approach IDFU I it was late afternoon and we had several police escorts. At the final checkpoint I ask the officer in charge to escort us to a DECENT hotel, he replied " WE HAVE NO NICE HOTEL IN IDFU ". That is precisely the last words you need to hear after a brutal day in the sun. We ride through the village and arrive at our location for what I can see as being a very long night. The owner is very hospitable and Chris barters the price and checks out the room. There were three single beds, all made of steel, no sheets, just a bedspread. Top quality furnishings and a bathroom that I dared not enter. All the taps leaked and we had several leaks from the ceiling. We also had the added pleasure of sharing the room with half the insect population of Egypt. Chris went and bought our supper, hard bread, soggy cheese and 100o tuna. I eat about half a sandwich before retiring for the night, it is about 7.00 pm. I will see you all in Aswan I hope, until then goodnight and don't let the bed bugs bite !! .......

April 19th Day 16 - Aswan

Chris's Story

What could possibly go wrong on you last day?!!! A question I asked myself before setting off at 7:00 am this morning after a not too comfortable nights sleep. We picked up our escort and headed out of town, once more through the desert. The heat reminded me of the time I had been in the empty quarter desert in Saudi Arabia, when it was 50 Celsius! The sweat did not even get a chance to roll off my  skin as it evaporated as soon as it came out and the only way you could tell that you had been sweating was by the salt marks on your clothes. I just had to make sure that I forced myself to drink every few minutes to replenish my water levels.

We cycle along and the day gets hotter and the road seems like it will never end. I think to myself how lucky we have been not getting any punctures this trip so far, I might as well have stuck a finger into the eye of the devil as sure enough about half an hour later, my rear wheel blows! I get off the bike, thankful for the rest, and start to take the bags off and examine the tire. I could not see an obvious puncture hole, so I prayed that the gel inside the tube had done its trick and sealed the puncture. I blew up the tire and it seemed to hold. I rode off gingerly and got another 10 miles before the puncture came back. I reinflated and I held my breath until I got to Aswan. A few more miles down the road and I am slipstreaming Frank when a silver piece of metal comes flying past my nose, I think to myself that looked remarkably like an Allen stud. A few more turns of the crank and I see a brake shoe fly past. We are flying downhill for a change and we have no energy to return to the top of the hill in the heat that is beating down on us and leave the bits behind. So Dennis if you are reading this, Frank needs a new brake set for the front wheel!

I have never known a 100 km stretch of road last as long as the one we cycled down yesterday. It was a combination of being utterly exhausted and elated at the idea that this was the last day of torture. When we finally got to Aswan, the Corniche road along the Nile river was a beautiful sight and the hotel was an even more welcome apparition. We checked in and headed straight for the hotel pool where we relaxed for the remainder of the afternoon before taking in a sunset cruise on a traditional Egyptian sailing boat (Felucca). Then it was out for a big meal at a local restaurant where we had food galore, and then back to the hotel for a well deserved sleep.

I am sat in my hotel room looking at the map of Egypt and still can't quite believe that I have cycled the length of the country. A feeling of great satisfaction is running through me and I feel very proud of our achievement. I would like to thank all the people and companies that made this trip a reality and we will be in touch shortly when we return to the Cayman Islands. We now face the luxury of a days rest in Aswan before leaving to Cairo and then finally home!

Frank's Story

WE MADE IT !!!!!

Hello to all from ASWAN.

We left HELL MOTEL behind a little before seven this morning. We stayed in some slums but that was definitely the worst. Our escort was on time, we had our water supply and we were off, the whole beginning could not have gone smoother. As we get to the outskirts of IDFU our escort stops and we wait about 15 minutes for their replacements. They want us to wait until 9.00 am until the morning shift but we refuse and they are understanding and we set off again minutes before eight.

Our bags are placed in the following police vehicle and we are pleased to be of at a good pace. We cycle for an hour before having to stop for the change of escort with the next town. We wait patiently with the officers, who also want to go home and we wait and we wait. After one and a half hours the officer in charge disappears into the village to make a phone call. On his return he informs us we can go ahead with our bags, I was glad to get going but the bags were becoming heavier and heavier. Mr. SHORTIE had also been at my bike as the rear brakes were now locked on and it was getting impossible to make any progress. It was also the most hills we had encountered, and yes it was absolutely boiling hot. There was little or no shade and as the miles were crawling by the inevitable happened, our first puncture. No Dennis it was Chris ! With our gel tubes and kevlar skins we prayed it would seal and reinflate. Our prayers were answered and after 10 minutes we were off again. I can't explain how hot it was and how slow we were going. We were drinking every couple of minutes, but it was being sweated out as quickly as we drank it. After about 3 more miles Chris gets a second puncture, again it reinflates and we set off again.

After about 40 miles we finally meet our next escort and we have great pleasure in off loading our bags. The pace increases and as we get closer to our GOAL the going gets tougher. About 15 miles from Aswan our escort stops and tell us we are on our own for the remainder of the journey. The most dreaded part was putting the bags back on the bikes. We thanked the officers and plodded on. Every couple of miles we stopped for a water break. That was the longest afternoon of my life.

FINALLY I COULD SEE THE ASWAN CORNICHE - we had made it. We cycled to our hotel and I collapsed on a sofa whilst Chris booked us in. I had not eaten a decent meal for a couple of days and I was definitely suffering from heatstroke. I was very relieved to get in the room and clean up before taking a long swim in the pool.

It has taken me several hours to register what I have achieved. I now feel completely relieved, happy, shattered, thankful, fortunate, and very pleased that I will be going home next week. It was an experience that I will never forget and I cannot thank all the people who made it possible but I will not be rushing to do it again. I believe the trip has made me a stronger person, mentally as well as physically and it has made me appreciate even more what I have.

We have a rest day in Aswan tomorrow before arranging a 15 hour train journey back to Cairo. We are then to meet the Ambassador and the Chief of Police. We will be thanking them for their hospitality and present a Cayman Islands Plaque on behalf of The Cayman Islands people.

I am looking forward to returning, completing this years D.A.R.E. classes and making arrangements for the graduation in June.