Distance: 58.6 km
Ride time: 4:16:15
Average: 13.7 km/h
Max speed: 36.7 km/h
Total: 53095 km
In true Egypt style the police showed up at my hotel as I was getting ready to leave in the morning. Much to my surprise they only followed me to the end of town and I was told I would be able to cycle by myself until the tourist city of Hurghada.
After leaving Safaga the road turned out to be more remote than I had thought. With a very strong head wind my average speed plummeted to 13 km/h. I was very happy when I found an open gas station after two hours of cycling in the severe heat. Now I could finally buy a cold drink and a snack. Note to self: “This is Sahara – bring enough snacks!”.
Soon enough I was out of Sahara and the desert landscape was replaced by the concrete jungle of Hurghada. The suburbs of hotels and shopping centers seemed to go on forever and I absolutely didn’t feel like I was in Africa anymore. Last time I saw such a developed city must have been in Cape Town.
I have been in Hurghada before. Back in 2010 after I had cycled 4000 km from Denmark, my family came to meet me in Hurghada for Christmas. Now I passed the exact same hotel we stayed in back then, and all the memories came back. I’m looking forward to spend some time with my family again.
A lot of Russians come to Hurghada for holidays…
I thought I needed an extra rest day to prepare myself physically and mentally for the heat and the head wind that the next 500 km towards Cairo will consist of. After having spent 8 months in Africa I surely enjoyed another day of being in western civilization. I’m sure I will soon enough be in the middle of nowhere again.
