Day 83

Sleeping location: In front of Misr Bank, Abu Rudies, Egypt
Distance (km today/total): 131 / 6542
Estimated climb (m today/total): 300 / 56800
New taste sensation sandwiches: 2
Day in three words: Big gusty push

We were up and out of the checkpoint quickly as we had no good breakfast food left and thought we’d get some in Al Tor 30km down the road. There was a headwind again but it was weaker than yesterday and our speed picked up to the dizzying heights of 18kph. Breakfast was a bit of a farce: we ordered separately and when three sandwiches appeared I thought they were mine and ate them all. No further food appeared so we had to re-order, which took the waiter about five attempts to understand. All the while the police escort was watching us and tapping their collective feet. It is a total pain having them around all the time, we always have to think about them and it totally removes the sense of freedom that is one of the best things about bike touring. I’m sure they hate driving at 15-25kph for hours on end as well. It’s an enormous waste of everyone’s time and energy. In the rush to appease them we left without visiting a fruit shop that Rebecca had spied, which made her very sad as she’d been keen to get some bananas. To add insult to injury, on the way out of Al Tor was a truck piled ludicrously high with...bananas. 

The next 60km was virtually identical. Sandy desert. Small mountains in the distance on either side. No shade. No towns or shops. There road went gradually up for ages, then gradually down for ages. We took hardly any breaks because there was nothing to sit on or lean the bikes on. It was ridiculously boring. After this dream sequence we came to another checkpoint, where the guards engaged us in some football banter and I had to explain what Leeds was. I showed them a map of the UK to demonstrate, which weirdly made me feel quite homesick. From here we had quite a fun curving descent past multiple oil refineries, hitting the dizzy heights of 35kph - it’s a wonder the police car could keep up with us. We were aiming for Abu Rudies as we knew we wouldn’t be allowed to sleep anywhere before there, but were making good enough time to arrive just after sunset. On the way into town we disturbed a pack of about 10 dogs who went absolutely crazy and started chasing. For once we were glad for the police, who came to the rescue by driving into their midst and scattering them. Two of the stupid idiots only narrowly avoided being hit by cars coming the other way. 

In town we were told that we could sleep outside the police station, which was fine. We asked if there was anywhere to buy food and were directed to a “supermarket” nearby, which basically just sold tissues, apples and fizzy drinks. We bought two apples and three fizzy drinks each and followed the police to the station. After 45 minutes of hanging around we were told that, actually, no, we couldn’t sleep at the police station and instead had to follow them to a bank. We thought we’d misheard but we were indeed taken to a local bank and shown to the front lawn (we had been hoping we could sleep in the vault). The spot was noisy and light, and it was very distressing to know that there were hundreds of km of quiet dark desert in every direction. Despite the police protestations about our safety, in my opinion we were way less safe here, with us and our belongings visible to the entire town, than we would have been wild camping, where the idea is that nobody knows you’re there. We had a meal of simple wraps, two of which were new creations: processed cheese and apple, and a different kind of processed cheese with crushed crisps and Egyptian pickles. Both were delicious, although honestly anything is delicious after 8hrs cycling. 

A few stats to note. Today saw Rebecca’s 1000th km and was also her biggest day so far, as well as my biggest day since the start of Turkey.