Early wake up today, 6,30 … 

… I will never get used to waking up early!

As soon as I leave the hotel I meet the taxi driver to whom, through the door man, I asked directions yesterday on the best road, he wanted to take me himself making way with the taxi … because on the road to the airport cars go very fast and ‘I do not know how you will manage by bicycle’ … I do not know when was the last time he used a bicycle … he tells me that I am going in the wrong direction … I trust him … and as a matter of fact three kilometers later I have to turn around … and get again the road the infallible naïf Blackberry indicated me all along … I arrive to the airport around 9,30 for one of the earlier check in of ever … the shipping of the bicycle which was worrying us is easy … I pay 330 Egyptian Pounds extra … we deflate the wheels … we put adhesive on the pedals and handle bar so they do not move during the flight … Continue reading →

Today I slept long, wrote emails, got rid from the bags of the stuff which had reached the end of its life cycle, like biscuits and Chinese batteries, I looked for and out contacts together, invoices, flying pieces of paper I had accumulated, and not yet lost, in these two months …

I could have gone to visit many things in this city which has immediately become my favorite in Africa, even supposing that geography apart, Cairo and Egypt are Africa. But I did not, both for the late wake up, and because I did not want to close myself in a museum of mummies or to get a boat for tourists, when outside there is this alive city, real, which moves even though the Ramadan inevitably wears out the vitality of who fasts. I preferred to walk to Tahrir Square, which was the center not only symbolic of the revolution started in 2011, I am personally very cautious on these revolutions only time will tell if these revolutions, which have caused and are causing thousands of deaths, were for the better of the populations. I was reading a few days ago that in Tunisia, where there is one of the most advanced constitutions in the Arabic world, if the draft of the new constitution will pass as it was proposed on the first stage, women will not be the same as men, but complementary … Seeing this Cairo like this it seems impossible to think that this country can end up in the hands of the most intransigent Muslims, a first step to understand how things will go is understanding if and when elections will be called. Continue reading →

In Cairo there are windsurfs and water skis … old ladies who take the poodle for a walk!

In the face of the police of Al Balyana which wanted me to get a train because Egypt is too dangerous, of the Coptic scared of everything who caused me a lot of trouble and wanted me to request for an escort, of those telling me I would get run over in the impossible traffic of Cairo and that I would have better got a taxi and also of those saying I was too old and the time was too tight.

Always check in person! Continue reading →

Why is the behind wheel so screwed up? 

In Maghega i had the answer … about ten spokes gave way!

Luckily I was in a big town, a policeman first sends me to a street where there are only tire dealers and motorbike mechanic … he did not understand the problem … then a guy on a motorbike led the way until a small road on the opposite side of town, where we have finally found the mechanic … the shop is small and he works on the road … immediately a crowd of curious people is formed mainly children … the mechanics offer me to smoke … they do not drink but in smoking they do not spare themselves … I explain once again laughing that cycling and smoking do not go along … they let me sit down … and bring me a coke and salty snacks … the spokes substitution lasts about one hour … the new spokes are not perfectly straight … some seem to have been worked by a blacksmith … but the wheel turns in an acceptable way and I hope it will last for the last 140 African kilometers … when the time to pay comes he tells me that he has done it for Allah and I do not owe him anything even for the drinks … Continue reading →

Mission accomplished! 

This morning I woke up at nine!

Shit!

Maybe my body is more intelligent than me, it decided it was better to sleep, the stage was relatively short, the two previous nights I did not sleep much, but waking up at nine means starting off with the heat, doing everything in a rush and reaching late … I miss the natural alarm of Sudan, turning around on those open sky beds … seeing the sun come … having breakfast with what is available … laughing with the truck drivers … Continue reading →

The speedometer has been removed surgically … 

The panniers where I keep all my luggage are two: in the one on the right I keep the rain mantles, the woolen hat, very useful in Ethiopia, different chargers, beauty case, medicines, in the one on the left I have the clothes and the computer and some tubes at the bottom. The stuff does not directly in the pannier which can be seen on the outside on the photos, but in another one, like a sack, removable and waterproof, to slip in like a matrioska into the outside one. The inside bags I have emptied them rarely, if I do remember correctly the last time was in Karthoum. This morning before starting off I was looking for a apple which I usually keep in the right pannier, on top of a pair of spare cycling shorts which sit on top if the beauty case … when I look in the right panniers … I find the clothes! … the clothes? … last night there was a black out and I was very tired and I did not notice that the inside sacks had been swopped over … so the police or the hotel manager as I was eating … looked inside the bags … sons of a bitch … can a revolution end with a military man in power? Continue reading →

Shit day! 

Or rather shit end of the day …

Everything had started well, sumptuous breakfast with two sandwiches take away with some kind of ham and cheese, the temperature is more acceptable than usual, and the landscape becomes increasingly greener as the kilometers pass by. Here the Nile is used well for agriculture, other than the usual big canal parallel to the Nile, there are some small canals too from where, with the help of diesel pumps, the water is directed to the middle of the cultivated fields. The maize is very green like in Zambia it is seen rarely. At the sides of the road tall palms full of dates gift a bit of shade even when the sun is high. Continue reading →

At the end only twelve kilometers more than expected …

I left at 6,30 and I pedaled for nine hours, at the beginning, until midday, the temperature was acceptable, then when the shade moves from the left side to vertical, and you can only see the projection of the handlebar and the frame under you, the heat becomes suffocating, luckily there is no wind and compared to Sudan there are many more shops and bars to supply fresh water. Here too there are the water pots smaller then the Sudanese ones and also some kind of fountains which filter the water. Continue reading →

Should I go or not?

Luxor is 225 kilometers from the port, with this heat it would be difficult to reach there in one stage, in the fifteen kilometers from the port to Aswan there is no adverse wind and I pedal quite well, before starting off, I have to withdraw, buy an Egyptian sim card, eat and drink something … once in the centre I manage to do these things fast … I eat two ice-creams … it was not a great idea … I drink a lot … and after Giorgia and two taxi drivers confirm to me that there should be hovel in Kom Ombu I through myself … when I pass in front of the beautiful hotel on the Nile Giorgia has booked for me a have a short vacillation … but the decision is now taken … Continue reading →

‘Why are you wearing underwear?’

There is no water …

Despite the dam is a couple of kilometres way full of water this morning there is no water …

I do not have my passport yet, but Magdi seems trustworthy, I called him last night he said he had come but did not find me … I was at the internet point or the bakery … then as I watch the highlights of Korea – Japan on the television at the bar, Magdi arrives with the ticket and the various stamps and the water too arrives, literally, because the water in brought by a tanker and pumped in the tank on the roof, we give each other an appointment at the port at 10 … Continue reading →