Day 1, 129km to desert camp


The trip begins! Today was a long but fun day. Breakfast buffet was set up at 5:00am. After that, I brought my bag down and made a last unsuccessful try at hotel internet.

We started our ride the first 40km in “convoy” style with all riders cycling together and vehicles at both front and back as well as staff with us. Going through the city traffic was a slow ~10km per hour until we reached the great pyramids.


At the pyramids we had our official opening and start. It was cool and windy, but a great place to start. The local Egyptian crew even had a few refreshments out. This trip starts 57 strong.


Here is the official “Mike at start” photo. Notice the big smile still on my face.

After this, we cycled back through city traffic to the “Ring Road”, a major highway across Cairo. Both police and local Egyptian riders did an excellent job of having us shepherded along the right traffic lane, even going ahead to nearby on ramps and briefly stopping traffic from entering across our convoy. The speed went just slightly faster but we kept overall group together. At 39km we left the convoy and went to gas station stop off the highway.

From here the remaining 90km was on our own as we cycled along a major highway through the desert leaving Cairo. At 62km a brief lunch stop and then on our way again until a camp site along side of the road. It wasn’t long before sunset but enough time to get tent set up and then some dinner to end a fun but long day.

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Day 1, 129km to desert camp — 2 Comments