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This morning I did a last bit of Cairo sightseeing to visit the nearby pyramids. I initially inquired on taxi rates and tried to see how far I could bargain. However, still decided to walk to the pyramids instead (~8km). Photo above was a mosque I saw along the way.
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Once at the pyramids I decided to get into full tourist mode. Unfortunately with press, tourism to Egypt has been down, so vendors are eager for customers. A man approached me about riding in a horse carriage. Decided I’d do that. Along the way we picked up a guide who wouldn’t tell me his rate up front, but instead said I should pay what I thought (though that made negotiating later more interesting).

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I was pretty impressed seeing the pyramids. Wow! Even went inside one of the smaller ones to climb way down and then find the (no longer) hidden tomb.

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In the afternoon we had our official rider meeting. Everyone gets a rider number and mine is 143.

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Tour D’Afrique runs this trip as both an “expedition” and a “race”. I am the furthest from anyone who expects to be racing this. However, it was also explained to us that you could also pick up a timing chip and clock in and out without really racing. I decided this was still ok, so if you see the “official race results” and my name is way down on the list. That might be expected. However, don’t mind trying to clock in and out sometimes for adding to the list.

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Note: The route board has been posted for tomorrow. For the upcoming week or so, we’ll be doing some long days. I don’t expect to be posting much to this blog for several reasons:

– The days are long and I’ll need to spend most the daylight hours riding
– Once we get into camp, we’ll be in the desert and no internet connection and likely no cell phone connections
– Internet when it is available (even at hotel here) can be flaky, particularly when group of riders from throughout the globe starts to stree the system.
These issues aren’t necessarily unique to me. When I followed blogs during past two years, there were often gaps of seven days to a week at a time when nothing was heard. Not quite complete radio silence but most all the blogs ended up being edited locally and posted later. I expect mine to be similar.

Footnote: This blog posting was almost launched when we had internet problems @ the Cataract Pyramids hotel. Logistic issues mean there will likely be gaps between updates similar to this. Also having some fun with one of my two cameras, it didn’t like the desert sand.

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The song says, “It never rains in Southern California”. However, the impression is it also doesn’t rain much in Cairo. We had just some occasional rain overnight as well as slight rain shower during the morning. Rain itself isn’t much, but it seems to make the formerly dusty roads a muddy mess. This morning I brought down my bike and rode for a brief 1km along the road before deciding against getting myself completely splattered to start…at least wait until day #1.

Otherwise as first photo above shows, riders have been busy assembling and testing out their bikes. In the afternoon we had our the first official rider meeting, mostly working through so everyone understood how logistics work as well as expectations for the trip.

We started early and walked over to the main road near the Nile River. The idea was to see what early morning traffic might be like for bicycle riding. After that a trip on the Metro and then we found the Sudan Embassy (recently moved to new temporary quarters: 8 Ahmed El Shattoury St, Al Dokki). From here it was a somewhat interesting multi-step process:

• Waiting room is open, but tellers aren’t there yet. Wait 30 minutes.
• The little windows open up for business, pick between “cashier”, “immigration”, “consul” and “medical” and stand in what is hopefully the right line. It was a toss-up between “immigration” and “consul” so I picked “immigration” which seemed to be the right one.
• Eventually get to the head of the line. Present the paperwork I had which included a sponsor letter from TDA, a visa application downloaded from Washington DC embassy and completed, passport, pictures, etc. What seemed to be most interesting was the TDA letter. It was handed to someone who disappeared for a long long time. Eventually, it looks like they had a document with riders on the trip and cross-checked against my name. Hooray!
• Hand me a Visa application and explain to me in Arabic some things I didn’t completely understand but guessed to mean: fill out the form, make a photocopy of form and passport, make sure to add the sponsor company address, etc.
• Go back and have fill out the form as best I can, this takes a while.
• Stand back in line before remembering I was supposed to add photocopies. So stand in the line for photocopier. Discover the copier is powered off. Someone might be investigating how to get power, but this seems to take a long time, so eventually myself and others leave.
• Walk back to the street, find a small shop to make photocopies
• Go back to immigration line and eventually when get to the head, present the documents to be processed. These are received and someone disappears to cross-check my answers. Little check marks and Arabic script is added to my document, but looks like I pass and am told to get in line for cashier.
• Wait through the cashier line, eventually get up there. Right before I get there, the cashier puts away his calculator and goes on break. I wait 10 minutes and he comes back so I pay the fee. They staple a receipt to documentation, smile and say, “pick up tomorrow”.

Not sure why, but somehow this process took two and a half hours of standing in different lines, getting the next step done and then figuring out what comes next. I have a good feeling about this and am again optimistic there could be a visa attached tomorrow.

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After that trip, we rode the metro downtown to investigation train schedules and also walked along via Tahir Square. There is a lot of traffic downtown. There are also picture signs with horn and red slash through them, though compliance is spotty. Below are a few more photos along the way.
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Beautiful mosque downtown.
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Tahir Square has a bunch of tents in the middle. Reminds me a bit of “Occupy Portland” (and similar Occupy movements) where folks pitched tents in middle of public square to help spread their word. Other than tents, and slogans and banenrs, Tahir Square is pretty quiet.
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Though hanging from nearby street lamp.
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Mmmm schwarma
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Oranges plentiful and less expensive than bananas per pound.

Otherwise, my bike has been reassembled. Still need to pump up the tires, but looks like it made it fine on the flight.

Thanks to family on both ends to make the travel just a bit easier. On departure side, my father dropped me off at the airport. We had loaded one large bike box and two duffel bags. Afterwards discovered I had accidentally left behind my toiletries bag. Most is replaceable e.g. toothpaste and some TP, but also need to see if my multitool or spoke wrench was in the bag.

It took a while to check everything in. The bike box was being reused and was large side airline box so a little flimsy. We reinforced from inside some extra more sturdy cardboard as well. In addition to the bike, I put four tires and an extra rim in the box. I was a little surprised to discover when weighed at the airport that it totaled 60 pounds in the bike box. The other area I had some extra stuff was in some spare parts. Two large duffels (minus toilet bag :)), were each 43 pounds. I expect I’ll be pretty close but still under the 100 lb weight limit for TDA. A little surprising to me since I remember leaving for Australia twelve years ago and bike + gear totaled 100 pounds total. I’ll make another good look at stuff over next few days, but should have most things packed well.

Flights were uneventful. First leg was to Newark and we were 40 minutes late departing. The pilot said something about delays still sorting out baggage, hopefully not mine!. However, once underway we made up some time and were only 20 minutes late into Newark. They were boarding the flight to Istanbul when I arrived, but made that connection as well. It was a nine hour overnight flight crossing the Atlantic. We added seven time zones so in the clock read 16 hours later on arrival than departure. Got some sleep but next few days will need to adjust to time. Istanbul was a huge airport that seemed to be a crossroads between flights heading both east and west, and also covering the middle east well. After a three hour layover, boarded the last short two hour flight to Cairo.

Looking from the sky, this area is very arid. Dry dusty desert areas. On arrival, bags arrived at least as quickly as I expected. My brother had arranged a minibus and this was also convenient to drive into the city. Along the way I was spotting the road and traffic behavior. We went along the main roads here. However, the traffic was almost 100% auto and truck with only an occasional bicycle, pedestrian or cart. I was surprised there weren’t more scooters. Lane markings seem to be more advisory than in the US, with everyone squeezing in where they can and passing both left and right. Despite this, still more orderly than some places such as India where I’ve cycled.

Nice to have arrived. Tomorrow time to reassemble and check out the bike. Also chance to go after the Sudan Embassy and see about a visa. Glad to be here, just one step closer to getting on the road.

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At least I have my passport back.  This lets me fly to Cairo where my next step will be to apply for a visa at the Sudan Embassy in Cairo.  Apparently, the embassy in Cairo is in new quarters, so will have to find the new location.

Rather frustrating to have sent away my passport nine weeks ago and then not yet have the visa.