Home » Egypt » Cycle to the Summit Part 9 - from Cairo to Aswan

We leave the bustle of Cairo to pedal along the Nile for Luxor, Aswan, and the ferry across Lake Nasser to Sudan. The ride is spectacular - the river is lined with palm trees and subsistence farmers wave as we speed past on the smooth roads. Upper Egypt is still considered a bit dangerous for tourists (a legacy of the Luxor massacre), so we are escorted by police wagons as far as Luxor, where we have to take a night train to Aswan.

Cycle to the Summit Part 9 - from Cairo to Aswan

Toby Hammond
2006-06-25 19:11:53

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American woman who takes us for a drink in her superior hotel overlooking the Nile. The following morning she comes by and leaves us with a generous donation, saying "buy yourselves a nice meal and phone your parents". What a nice woman!
On Wednesday, it was inevitable that, after I remarked on our luck in having only 2 punctures so far, Ruth got her first one on the trip so far on the home straight into Asyut. About 15 police gathered round to watch us change the tube with reasonable speed considering our tiredness.
We are fuelled for the week by some fantastic 'koshery' - it's a large pile of pasta, pulses and other bits and bobs, usually costing less than £1 a go. In the absence of beers, we also become keen on fruit cocktails and a sugar cane drink - made by feeding a long stem into a sort of electric mangle, and collecting the juice.
By Friday our police escort seem to tire of us, and trys to load us onto a truck convoy. Ruth is especially insistent - "I don't do motorised transport", and the convoy leaves without us. After much arm waving, and a bit of a sit-in at a police checkpoint, we get our way, and to show our appreciation we cover the remaining 30km in less than an hour (though it nearly kills us!)
It's harvest time for the sugar cane, and the roads are full of trucks piled high, though we wonder how much of it actually makes it to the factory - villagers run alongside and pull canes off to chew, and in any case they fall off all over the road - something of a hazard to the slipstreaming cyclist. We happily cruise into Nag Hammadi with cigar-sized pieces of cane clamped between our teeth.
We reach Luxor on Saturday, but not before one of our particularly obnoxious police escort wagons breaks down, much to our amusement, as we pedal on without them. They appear slightly shamefaced an hour later, being comically towed by a truck.
I'm happy (others not so happy) to reach Luxor, where there are American tourists, and even the McDonalds sign seemed strangely reassuring as we arrived. Once again we had the freedom to walk down the street unaccompanied, and were able to decide where to eat without being manhandled by the tourist police.

Sunday 3rd February - Luxor rest day
Went to visit Valley of the Kings and the Queens today on an organised tour in the hotel minibus. We couldn't quite follow the tour guide's spiel, but it was pretty interesting anyway, - and worth paying the extra £9 for 10 minutes in the tomb of Nefertari.
After much debate this afternoon, we have decided to put our bikes on a train - the first time for Ruth - and go to Aswan. Firstly we are aiming to catch the once-a-week Monday ferry to Wadi Halfa in Sudan - secondly, it seems almost certain that we wouldn't be allowed to cycle the strip of the Nile between Luxor and Aswan - apparently the most strictly patrolled by police. With admin still to do, and ferry tickets still to buy, it seems that the best bet is an early start to catch a 4am train, to be in Aswan early enough to sort stuff out.