Cycling Northern Egypt: Selfies, a Ferry and Fields of Green
17 - 20 December 2019
17 Dec, 86.8 km (54 mi) - Cairo to Al Wasta
18 Dec, 91 km (56.5 mi) by bike, 87 km (54 mi) by police truck - Al Wasta to Al Minya
19 Dec, Rest day in Al Minya
20 Dec, 47.5 km (29.5 mi) - Al Minya to Mallawi
We have never experienced anything quite like Egypt. It’s an extraordinary country, with some characteristics that are completely unique. In many ways it has been one of the most welcoming and friendly countries we have visited. It’s also mind-bogglingly chaotic and hectic, with masses of people crowded in a thin strip of verdant green along the banks of the Nile River as it winds its way through the desert.
The level of noise in Egyptian cities is truly special, representing a ceaseless symphony of car horns, roaring engines, clip-clopping horses, amplified chants for the call to prayer, beating drums from a nearby wedding celebrations, banging hammers, crying babies, and people yelling loud enough so they can be heard over all of the other sounds. Egyptians love to honk their car and motorcycle horns. They honk at each other as the traffic swirls in fluid chaos. They honk at pedestrians and cyclists to let you know they’re coming, and you should move aside. Taxi’s honk at people hoping to solicit a fare. And often it seems that Egyptians just honk simply for the pure joy it gives them.
Fully loaded and ready to ride out into the cacophony of sounds that swirl around Cairo. Copyright © 2019-2020 Pedals and Puffins.
A Bit About Our Route
We have heard from other cyclists that you can’t plan far ahead when you’re cycling in Africa. Well, we’ll probably end up as “Exhibit A” in the category of being indecisive about our route until the last minute. Up until a couple of weeks ago we had planned to follow the Egyptian highway along the Red Sea, staying in some of the resort towns along the way. We also thought it would be interesting to experience beach culture in Egypt.
But then we heard that cycling on the Eastern Desert Highway might be a better option because it’s much less populated. So we plotted out a new route through the eastern desert.
But then in Cairo we met Mohamed. He’s a long-time Cairo resident and cyclist who rode from Cairo down to Aswan, Egypt, a couple of years ago. He offered to give us tips and help us with anything we needed while we were in the city (Mohamed went above and beyond the call of duty to help us find white gas for our stove in Cairo, but that’s another story).
Talking with him, we came to the conclusion that we would get a police escort no matter which route we took, so we might as well take the most interesting roads. For that, he recommended the Western Agricultural Road, which stays within the fertile zone along the Nile, but on the western bank.
That route had the advantage of having more hotels. So we could mostly make it to hotels each night, and avoid tough discussions with the police about whether and where we could camp. That sounded like good advice. Even better, Mohamed was able to share his exact route with us in GPX files, so we could just upload them into our mapping program. In the end, we decided to take the Western Agricultural Road.
This is the route we finally chose to cross Egypt, thanks to advice from fellow-cyclist Mohamed, who met us in Cairo. Copyright © 2019-2020 Pedals and Puffins.
Crossing the Nile
Our new route had us crossing the Nile by ferry from the east side to the west, at Al-Hwamidiyah. Mohamed told us it was a passenger-only ferry, but that you could take bikes on, as well. What he forgot to mention was that the ferry wasn’t really designed to take any type of luggage, let alone fully loaded touring bikes.
When the ferry pulled up at the dock, we were truly confused about how we would get our bikes on board. The passengers entered the ferry through narrow gates, stepping down into an enclosed cabin full of seats. There was no way to get the bikes down into the cabin. So, where would they go?
The ferry captain saw our confusion, and came over to help. He indicated that the bikes would need to be unloaded. Then all our gear plus the bikes would be perched on the bow of the boat, in an area that had no railing, and where the deck of the boat sloped precariously towards the water. To be honest, we weren’t really sure that would be such a good idea.
But since we didn’t have much choice, we unloaded our bikes and started hauling them onto the bow of the boat. PedalingGuy did his best to arrange the bikes and bags so that they weren’t in immediate danger of sliding off the boat. But just to be safe, we sat in the front row of chairs inside the cabin for the ride. And PedalingGuy was on the edge of his seat for the whole trip, ready to spring into action to grab a sliding bag or bike, so none of our gear would end up at the bottom of the Nile River.
On the bow of the ferry, nothing stood between our panniers, our bikes, and the waters of the Nile River. Only the friction between the gear and the rough boat surface held things in place. We were very relieved nothing slid off the boat and into the river. Al-Hwamidiyah, Egypt. Copyright © 2019-2020 Pedals and Puffins.
Luckily this story has a happy ending, and everything made it across the river safely!
Smiles and Selfies
We rode through town after town full of bustling activity. And we attracted quite a bit of positive attention. Many people waved and shouted, “Hello, welcome to Egypt!” And a number of young men, especially the toktok drivers, were keen to have their photos taken with us. The first group of guys nabbed us as we were getting off of the ferry. Over the next couple of days we posed with at least a dozen of them, taking selfies with their phones and ours. We met numerous Abduls, Mohameds, Ibrahims and Amheds, who were all smiles, handshakes and friendly chatter in broken English. It was fun, and really helped to break up the long ride.
The toktok drivers in Egypt like to pose for selfies with bicycle tourists. We had fun snapping photos with their phones and ours. AR Riqqah, Egypt. Copyright © 2019-2020 Pedals and Puffins.
We’ve also found the roadside vendors to be incredibly friendly. Along the way, we’ve passed lots of bread-sellers, fruit stands, and little, bodega-style shops selling cold drinks, snacks and sweets. Whenever we’ve stopped for a snack break, the vendors have been warm and helpful. One time the ladies running a fruit stand where we bought some oranges threw in a couple of free bananas, and some plums for the police escort that had been shadowing us. Everyone seemed to enjoy the moment.
The fruit vendor and her family. Beni Suef, Egypt. Copyright © 2019-2020 Pedals and Puffins.
Unfinished Buildings
Riding along the agricultural road, we passed through an endless series of villages, towns and small cities. All along the route, we kept seeing buildings that looked like they were not done being built - even if they had people living in the finished sections. Lots and lots of buildings have a couple of storeys built, but instead of having a roof, they have support columns jutting up into the air, with twisted strands of rebar sticking out. Both individual homes and multi-family apartment buildings have this feature. It creates an odd-looking skyline, with columns and rebar fringes silhouetted against the sky.
Having recently spent time in Romania, we wondered if Egypt is experiencing the same phenomenon as the “gypsy mansions” that we saw while cycling to the Black Sea. In Romania’s case, the gypsies don’t use banks, so they don’t take out loans to build homes, and they save their money by investing in their homes. As a result, it’s common to see partially finished mansions, where the construction gets completed in stages as the family finances allow. Often people will live in the finished part of the house.
After looking into it, it seems that similar forces are at work in Egypt. But there’s more to the story here. Buildings are definitely completed to the extent that financial resources allow, with future building being postponed until additional money is available. But people also say that it’s a way of avoiding property taxes. Apparently properties are taxed only when “finished,” and a building without a roof is unfinished - thus avoiding taxes. This might be the biggest driver for all of the unfinished apartment buildings - which have tenants on the lower, completed floors.
We’ve also heard that families will keep the top of their house ready for adding additional storeys when their sons grow up and marry. Another flat can be added on top of the existing home for the new family, which is a lot cheaper than constructing a new building.
With so many reasons for keeping your property ready to add another floor, it’s actually not surprising that so many people in Egypt are doing it.
City skylines in Egypt have a rebar fringe, the result of policies and cultural traditions that encourage people to keep houses “unfinished.” Copyright © 2019-2020 Pedals and Puffins.
The Agricultural Road Lives Up to its Name
For many thousands of years, the Nile River floodplain has been the source of food for Egypt. And riding through this valley, we’ve been impressed by the lushness of the farms and fields along the way. The dark soil appears to be some of the best-looking we have seen for growing crops. Date palms sway over fields full of sugar cane, cabbages, corn, rice, spinach, cauliflower, carrots, onions, hay, and lots of other crops we didn’t recognize. Canals fringed with papyrus plants, carry water out onto the plain, and giant cannons gush water directly into channels that run through the fields. The whole area is amazingly fertile when contrasted with the desert that surrounds it.
Lush green fields cover the kilometers along the Nile River floodplain. Mit Al Qaed, Egypt. Copyright © 2019-2020 Pedals and Puffins.
The farm plots themselves are often quite small, with manual harvesting the norm, using carts pulled by donkey or horse. The agricultural zone stretched only about 10-20 km away from the river. But within that space, Egypt has crammed both bustling cities and leafy, green growth. There’s not much room for wildlife, but the area is surprisingly rich with birds. We’ve enjoyed seeing a number of new species using the canals and fields.
The green growth along the Nile River ends abruptly at the edge of the irrigated floodplain. Beyond that, the Sahara Desert holds sway. Copyright © 2019-2020 Pedals and Puffins.
A Kindred Spirit
On 20 December we were delighted to cross paths with another cyclist. Bicycle touring is still relatively rare here so we were surprised to see Fredrick (from France) on a loaded bike coming in the opposite direction. He mentioned that he was also surprised to see us, since he had not seen anyone else on touring bikes over the last two months.
We couldn’t have missed seeing him. First of all, a touring cyclist with a fully-loaded bike would be pretty easy to spot all by himself. But Fredrick, like us, also had a police escort - with a pickup truck full of policemen riding along slowly beside him. It was quite a production when we stopped and crossed the road to chat with him. His police escort and our police escort waited patiently while we learned about Fredrick’s plans, as he heads towards Cairo for the holidays.
Pedals and Puffins with Fredrick. He’s cycling to Cairo to spend some time there with friends (Egyptian policeman looking at a phone in the background). El Rawda, Egypt. © 2019-2020 Pedals and Puffins.
