The day began well. I had an amazing sleep, no dogs, no horns and no late night panic squats. The sun was rising behind me and the temperature was perfect, I checked the time, 6am!
I rolled over and got an extra half hour in before I could feel the tent becoming a sauna. I never did see who lived in the hut, he was probably down Starbucks getting a coffee. Back on the open road with a nice breeze to my tail and not too many cars, I was loving life. Such extreme landscapes both left and right, If Cairo was another world compared to home, then I had reached my third planet.
I had about 20 miles until Ain Sochna and the coast of the Red Sea. The mileage signs are just as useful as the ones in Greece so I never really knew how far away I was but it took me just under 2 hours to get there and then the holiday resorts began.
On the road I had a lot of fans, lots of beeps, thumbs up and hellos at the toll booths and I really enjoyed all the smiles as the cars went past. I also drove past 2 smashed up cars and one blow out. Luckily nobody was hurt in any of the accidents but one car had all 4 tyres blown out which I thought was quite impressive and another was facing towards me but had no engine or windscreen. That was a miracle that nobody was hurt. I stopped for all of them to see if they were ok, and amazingly they were. Maybe the concept of an MOT or WOF procedure might be advantageous in Egypt. if they did instal one, then i would say 90% would fail and this really isn't an exaggeration. You would have more chance getting a free camel ride then you would, finding a car with all its lights working. This is something I'm very aware of whilst riding and so constant shoulder checks and if necessary, arm waves are enforced to make sure they know that myself, Nigel and Beirdre are on the side of the road and we want to remain here thanks.
The road then got a lot slower along the coast where it is taken up by an array of gated resorts. Some of them completed and working, others look like bomb sites. Im sure the whole place will look great when its finished....
It was half 10 and I was hungry, I had been up a while and I decided to stop at a little strip by one of these resorts. The restaurants and supermarket all faced the beach with the resort behind so I could enter the restaurants no probs. At first I went to the supermarket. I soon aborted that idea when I clocked the massive queues and slow workers. All I wanted was a decent snack and then I would be off. I was seated at 3 different cafe/restaurants and waited around 5 minutes at each only to find out, they don't serve food till 1, the grill hasn't been turned on, and that restaurant was for hotel guests only! I was a little annoyed. Now all I wanted was a bun, actually leave the bun just give me the little pot of butter, anything!
The last restaurant I could see was another buffet but I didn't care, I went straight in, told the waiter where I was sitting and then went straight up to get stuck in. It was average to say the least, they had a good selection of pastries which I would destroy later but the cooked selection was poor. I told the waiter I wasn't a guest, had thought about just giving him a room number but I'm on a righteous voyage and that would be wrong! It ended up 75 Egyptian! £7! Right, I best get my money's worth then, maybe make up some sandwiches for later etc. I went up for round two and everything had gone! They were packing it all up! The waiter clocked my disbelief and sorted me out with a selection of pastries but I was not a happy bunny. I had blown my daily budget on this bang average experience.
From now on its little cafes and petrol stations or no food till 12 it seems. I went back to give the supermarket another try, this time I stood in the queue because I just picked up the basket that I left after the first time (the shop was a right state, food dumped everywhere etc I don't know if this is the norm for Egypt as it was the only supermarket I've come across so far) I waited a couple of minutes, nope, can't do it. Only 2 counters and they were both manned by sloths, ill find a place further down the road.
I rode no more than 30 metres to find a KFC and a little quiet shop, this added to my anger sharks that were swimming gently in my stomach but got my head up and cycled on. The joys of not knowing what lies around the corner clearly has its good and bad points!
I had stopped for a while but now I had found myself cycling in the midday heat. I was going to give it one more stop to see if I could get myself into a gated resort. The first one "Cancun Resort" I failed, 100m down the road, "La Serina" I went into the shop through one door, picked up 3 days worth of dinners, a big bottle of orangeade and big bottle of water all for £45 Egyptian! Happy with the bargain but still spewing slightly about the buffet.
After this, I walked out another door that led me into the resort. Straight to the beach I went, found a few chairs and an umbrella, feet up, arrow-word out, thank you very much. After a very brief dip in the warm Red Sea I got back on Nigel for the last couple of hours of the day before the sunset. There was a town called Zafaaranah that I wanted to get through and out the other side so I could safely desert camp again. I thought seeing as the town is labelled on my map that it would be fairly substantial. It was made up of one hotel, 2 petrol stations and a few houses. I picked up some petrol for my stove and was in and out the "town" in about 5 minutes.
The terrain was quite flat, not many mounds to hide behind. The sun had already set and I was cycling in the beautiful peach haze combined with the bright moon. Together, they almost created daylight. I saw a half decent sized mound with what turned out to be a large man hole covering that stuck out about 3 feet from the ground. It was enough to hide behind as I was far enough away from the road not to be pestered.
I cooked my dinner under the moonlight with no torch at all this time. If the moon was a quiche then its a slightly broken crust away from being full. Tomorrow I expect it'll be like having 24 hours of daylight.
A good cycling day with nothing major to declare. That's what you get I suppose when you're out in the sticks! I have possibly another two coming up which I'm happy about. It's been rare to get a bit of peace and quiet when camping and I'm loving looking out across the baron land as the sunsets and just soaking it all in, it really is amazing!
No comments:
Post a Comment