It was a cold and rainy Addis Ababa night when a blue Lada taxi took me to the airport with my bike on the roof. The taxi driver was grossly over-charging the short fare to the airport and was not the most likeable person. This was in stark contrast to the people in Sakti’s house that I had just said goodbye to – the nicest people you can imagine. And so I left Ethiopia with very mixed feelings, not really knowing what to think about this unique place on earth.
After a short stop in Qatar I touched down in Luxor early in the morning. Even though it was only 7 am, the heat hit me as wall. This is one of the hottest month in Egypt, and I started to doubt the sanity of my plan of cycling to Cairo.
I put my bike together right outside the airport and cycled the 7 km into town. After 6 months, suddenly out of sub-Sahara Africa just like that… The other remarkable thing is that I have been here before on this trip, back in 2011. I guess I have really been around the world by now.
Compared to back in 2011 I saw almost no western tourists as I was going for an evening walk along Nile. People confirmed that tourist numbers have indeed dropped by as much as 80%, leaving the local economy in pieces.
The level of hustling from vendors trying to sell anything from boat tours to trips to the desert was more crazy than I remember from anywhere else on this trip. Egypt is a very intense country to visit!
Walking around Luxor is like being in an open air museum. Temples and other historical building popping up anywhere. After so long time in Africa I somehow got used to the way of life down south of Sahara. Now I was suddenly thrown into this corner of the continent that has indeed much more to do with the Middle East than the rest of Africa. Everything was new and exciting, and I felt like Indiana Jones going on a new adventure.
I will now continue to try to adjust to the crazy summer heat, and then it’s a 10 day ride up to Cairo along the Red Sea. Bring on the final chapter of Africa!
Here we go!