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  Suez, Egypt
Thursday, November 30, 2006

Woke up this morning 75kms from Cairo on the side of a motorway which happened to be in the middle of... a desert (again?!?) I can see why the south coast of Sinai is not so popular what with the oil wells / refineries and constant flow of ships into the Suez Canal. However none of that phased me so much as the wind. Boy was it windy, and in the wrong direction. All hopes of getting to Cairo by 29th pretty much evaporated.

I'm finding the locals pretty friendly though. I've had several offers from Bedouins for my bike. Even if I say its not for sale, they don't mind. They'll stay on it. The Bedouin kids Ive met have been nicer than the kids in Jordan although that doesn't say much. Similar to the adults they'll ask for something and even if I say no, they don't mind.

Yesterday a kid driving a truck (maybe 14 or 15) parked next to me while I was eating my lunch. He saw my Swiss Army Knife and asked for it. I said "No. I need it to make my sandwiches and cut my bread", signalling accordingly. But this didn't phase him at all. He signalled "Well I need it so I can make my sandwiches and cut my bread". Only after I started cycling again did he go on his merry way. Its all done very amiably and matter of factly. Quite strange, but they are all very friendly nevertheless.

So this morning, I woke with the sunrise and cycled slowly toward Cairo. Quite strange thinking about how far I've come since Barons Court in London. Thinking about the highs and lows, the nice, the bad, and the insane people I met, best places, best experiences...

At 11.45am I arrived in Cairo. 8025kms. Didn't get mugged once. No accidents. No arrests... Man. Don't know how that happened. But I'm not quite done yet. I still have to bike out to the pyramids in the next couple days, and then, I will be done! Right. Willy arrives 3am tomorrow and I think we're in the Hilton for a couple nights. Will be such a change from... well the last 4 months. Unfortunately Craig doesn't know I haven't had a chance to wash my clothes for 2 weeks (but I'm having a shower tonight!). Might have to take a look. Righto. I'll be back with the final sign off soon. Thanks for coming....

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