Day 84

Sleeping location: White House Hotel, Ras Sedr, Egypt
Distance (km today/total): 111 / 6653
Estimated climb (m today/total): 300 / 57100
Room: 101
Day in three words: Sick of police

Our sleep in front of the noisy bank was so rubbish that we allowed ourselves a lie in until 6am, which also allowed some enterprising crows to have a peck at Rebecca’s food bag after the sun rose. An apple and some noodles sustained damage in this vicious attack. The morning’s escort chief was a bit of an arsehole and turned up 20 minutes later than the allocated time, having of course confiscated our passports in case we left early, because we are children who can’t be trusted. He then insisted on status updates every time we so much as slowed down, and placed himself about 2 feet away from us whenever we were trying to have a conversation. He also followed me into a shop and hurried me along to the extent that I forgot to buy any water. This was the period when I totally lost it with the escort system, and because there was no headwind I rode off at a furious pace just to get away from them (they always stick with the slowest rider). When I arrived at yet another checkpoint and went through the standard bollocks the guy asked if I was angry, and I absolutely went off on one about how we hated this, that it was ruining our time in Egypt, that we were not children and were responsible for our own safety. Poor guy was a bit taken aback. 

The riding throughout the day was the same desert as usual, but this time near the coast with some strong offshore crosswinds at times. The stretch closer to Ras Sedr had a lot of big beachside hotel/apartment complexes that seemed mostly abandoned; this part of the world doesn’t get many tourists since the Arab Spring. We checked out one place, Moon Beach, that my uncle had recommended, but at £60 it was too much for our budgets. We did take advantage of their nice toilets and cold drinks, and ate lunch outside with a cat which we christened Nipples because it seemed to be in the early stages of pregnancy. 

The run into Ras Sedr was pretty easy as it was inland and sheltered from the worst of the wind. The afternoon’s officer was a lot nicer and said we could camp at the police station, which had a nice quiet sheltered area under some trees. We waited around for the usual clearances and watched some puppies that the police seemed to have adopted. The officer said he would rather we slept in a hotel and asked our budget, which I tried to set artificially low (£20) so we didn’t have to leave, since this was a nice spot with puppies to play with. He said this would be tough, but after making some calls got us in at the White House (not that one). Upon arrival we were shown to TWO rooms; as we weren’t “family” we weren’t allowed to share. It wasn’t a bad hotel and the price was indeed a mere £10 per room, so he must have done some hard bargaining (or not, as the hotel was deserted). I had room 101, but hopefully big brother wasn't watching. As my gear cable was still uncut I asked for some wire cutters, and the guy enthusiastically returned with the world’s rustiest pliers. He was so eager to help that I had to physically restrain him from cutting it; I know from experience that cutting cables with the wrong tools leaves you with dozens of frayed strands of death waiting to poke into your soft ankle flesh. 

As Rebecca and I had separate rooms we decided to have some time to ourselves and explored the town separately. I ate far too much cheese pie at a restaurant, then failed to find beer or ice cream in any of the shops I visited. Rebecca managed to accidentally find beer and ice cream in the first two shops she visited. One interesting discovery is that small sweets or chewing gum are essentially legal tender here. There seems to be a shortage of 1 Egyptian pound coins, so the smallest readily available note is 5 pounds (25p - confusing I know - it’s 20 pounds to the pound). If your change is between multiples of 5 and they don’t have 1 pound coins, you get sweets instead.