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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on our bikes, crowds grew everywhere we stopped. Stocking up with fig rolls at a bakery, a kind man in the street insisted on buying us falafel and fuul sandwiches to speed us westwards to Cairo, saying that we would arrive an hour earlier, once fuelled by the delicious sandwiches. Even a little girl emerged from the crowd offering us some of her crisps. With content stomachs the small crowd parted and we slowly rolled on to do battle with the Suez traffic. The extra nutrition was needed as we had a headwind all day, and camped at an army-run cafeteria, discussing middle eastern politics around our stove with the recruits there.

Wednesday 16th January - An army cafe to Cairo 77km

We set off with the anticipation of reaching Cairo and sure enough we made good time only to get lost on the outskirts. There are many words and phrases that spring to mind to describe Cairo and are as varied as the experiences we were to have there; hectic, noisy, friendly, dirty, polluted. Traffic is organised chaos, not the complete anarchy that it might first appear. Considering the number of vehicles and the rarity of traffic lights it is amazing that traffic flows as well as it does. There are policemen directing the traffic but they do not risk standing in the middle of the road. Instead they make the occasional gesture from the side of the road and are often ignored. To make things worse there are no clear signs or road markings to indicate the right of way. There are some redeeming features though - the people are courteous and friendly and certain streets have hustlers preying on white faces. We quickly learned to spot the spiel. It often starts with "Welcome to Egypt, where are you from" before moving on to further questioning. Others are more devious leaving you curious as to what they are hoping to achieve from such generosity, like the supposed professor of aromatherapy we met, who wanted us to sell his oils abroad to avoid paying taxes.