Home » Egypt » Cycle to the Summit Part 7- Egyptian border, Suez and Cairo

We had a barren introduction to Africa, starting with a three-day trip over the Sinai dessert to be contrasted by the hustle and bustle of Cairo - the biggest city in Africa. A few sharp culture shocks are experienced by the team.

Cycle to the Summit Part 7- Egyptian border, Suez and Cairo

Toby Hammond
2006-06-25 18:59:44

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enjoyable descent to Suez through an interesting and changing landscape, from yellow rocky mountains to rolling sand dunes. The police at the Suez canal were much more relaxed than those we had met the previous night and gave us tea in their front garden, before escorting us through the tunnel under the Suez Canal. Our slow speed created a small tailback of trucks as we slowly climbed up onto the African continent proper. A further police convoy was waiting to take us along the main road to Suez past some very poor looking homes amongst an amazing amount of rubbish. I recalled someone's description of Egypt as 'one big sewer'. After further questioning the police led us through the Suez streets to a cheap hotel. The traffic was obviously following some sort of code as it was moving without colliding but we were struggling to comprehend it. I personally have never been to such an unsophisticated city. People, cars, mini-cabs, bikes, street traders all fighting for space on the roads and in the narrow unsurfaced back streets. We explored the town well into the evening with the help of Ahmeed - a guy who owned a peanut shop in the centre of town. The guys managed to buy their first beer since entering Egypt and Ruth could be forgiven for getting bigheaded with the number of Arab men commenting on her beauty. Ahmeed told us that our police friends were probably tourist police just interested in our welfare, so as to protect the tourist trade.

Tuesday 15th January - Suez to an army cafe 76km

We started the day with a trip to the so-called 'post office' - a stable-like shack down a dirt road amongst fruit and vegetable stands. We wanted to post back some of our video footage but decided not to trust them with our video tapes - I don't expect we would have seen them again if we had used the Suez post! The previous night we had attracted significant attention walking around the town and now in our cycling gear on our ...

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