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Published: September 16th 2007
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Nile
near Alexandria (K) The morning before leaving Alexandria I failed to find a map but I was going to bike nonetheless. NO map but YES bike ride. So I used my hopeless guide book map to guide me from central Alexandria to Port Said; it all seemed to follow the coast and of course all would be signposted in English and I could ask any old Joe on the side of the road which way to go- so no problem right? Follow the coast; follow the signs; ask.
Well no. Getting out of Alexandria'sd chaos was a nightmare. The roads were super busy, I seemed to be the only cyclist around and the suburban landscape was rather unpleasant. When I finally did get lost, everyone looked at me as though I was some type of alien entering their hood. But then I saw some buses and thought ah, bus, I'll take one of those. But the buses weren't going anywhere and the staff weren't speaking too much English either. Eventually I managed to establish a bit of a communication line, and found my way out of there. So Alexandria finally ran out as I headed though rural lands mixed with industry and
the odd community, where I was still considered an alien. Then I saw the motorway leading to Port Said and thought oh no, here we go, more dramas. But actually it provided relief. Its shoulder was wide, it wasn't too busy, and then I saw horses and carts using it! Some motorway that was. Furthermore, it went through a large fruit tree plantation and with fruit sellers along side it, it was quite a pleasant ride but light wasn't really on my side. Then I saw the ocean- yay- and I took a dodgy path and headed for the beach. I pitched the tent then by 8 o'clock the sun had gone down over Alexandria, and it was a bit of an early night. I had a bit of local company in the form of fishermen, many came over and said hi and brought me mangos so no problem.
The next morning I was woken by another guy bringing me mangos. Hi hi at 7am. Then it was back to the Motorway for more fun; I found the Nile again and some town for breakfast. I can't remember the name of this place- again, I was back to alien
status as I rode through, but then I stopped and some locals helped me out. First a policeman offered me half of his breakfast and then in the city some locals helped me get more and gave me directions. Then on my way out of town, I shared a cup of tea with some road workers. So that was that: alien turned guest, and I was on my way, across the river and back down the otherside.
The rest of the day I was confronted by long straight stretches of Egyptian motorway. My bike was playing up again, I got flat tyres, it was hot and not too scenic. Some guy invited me into his concrete block (in a concrete block town) for lunch. Our communication was about zero, but it was a great time. Later that day I got a flat tyre right outside a security check point; as I was fixing the tyre I was surrounded by about 6 policemen, all pretty interested in what I was up to. One helped me fix the tyre, another was playing with the pump so it was all pretty entertaining. I found some trees alongside the motorway to sleep under
that night.
The next morning I rode for about 10 mins before getting a major bike breakdown. The bike dramas experienced with Royal Air Morocco were fully in control. Initially a group of about 5 Egyptians were trying to help me repair it, I gave them a few minutes before insisting that I didn't need there help as they were making matters worse. I managed to get on an Egyptian tour bus, full of Egyptians. When I got on again, it was like they'd seen a ghost. Anyway, made it to Port Said. Had a half-bike repair (for $1) and then checked out the city and the top end of the Suez Canal. Just lovely.
My final bike adventure until the next one was about 130k stretch alongside the Canal and down to Suez (city). Well that turned out a slight disaster. First getting out of Said was a mission, then the road with all its police check points wasn't all that scenic or fun and it was full of trucks. Over the Canal along the Peace Bridge was a little 20min excitement of the day, but then across to the Sunai desert in the heat with no
real food and boiling hot water provided little enjoyment. First I thought cool, desert!! -but then 5 mins later the fun clearly wore off. My bike was then experiencing more dramas: lack of gears and yet MORE flat tyres. Ahhhhhhhhhh. I could see boats in the distance doing their sailing thing but fun also soon wore off. But then finally saw the half-way to Suez city- Islainimia or something- so headed for it, crossed back over the canal, found the train station and for $0.25 I was on the bouncy train ride and later pitch black train ride to Suez. I couldn't believe the state of the train, old, crappy, dirty, you name it! But we got there in the end.
So that was that: biking in Egypt and without a map, as you can now probably guess, not quite so suited as in Morocco. Next it's time for more cycling.
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Tot: 0.279s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 15; qc: 65; dbt: 0.0645s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb