Day 12 Port Said – Sharm el Sheik: Lovers Tif.

04:00 ACKACKACKACKACKACKACKA AKK Ack AcK AcK. Yes, our hotel is right next to a mosque.

08:20 We hit the rd, but stop, and turn back for breakfast.

08:40 We’re on the road, we grab some gas (filling my spare fuel can at the same time) before leaving Port Said. 20ltrs of unleaded costs me about £3...

WHOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUPPP! We’re riding in Africa bitches!

My gosh, getting out of town, hitting the Egyptian roads for the first time, complete exhilaration. The smell, the other vehicles, the farmers and all that encompasses. To a westerner, it’s surreal. Driving on these roads, it’s very hard to drop your European ways, perhaps your British ways. E.g. people should drive on their side of the road. Hmm, not here. If they feel like your side of the road looks better, they’ll drive on it, and it would seem they have the right to. And actually, it makes no difference if they do, I can always find a bit of tarmac to squeeze onto, just need to get over my Birtishness. Seeing pickup trucks with ten people in the back and field workers riding donkeys is now par for the course. The road surface is pretty good, it’s definitely broken and scared and also rippled in places, but pretty easy going. We’re cruising at 60mph, a self imposed limit. 70 or 80 would prob be OK.

I can’t put into words how special the day feels. We’ve 300 miles to cover, and for the first time I’m not listening to my iPod. But despite having no distraction from the monotony of main road driving, the first 100 miles pass in the blink of an eye. About the 150 mark, we start looking for fuel, and we get a little lesson in African travel. The first three petrol stations are out of gas. Funk. It’s definitely a good feeling when we find one that is selling! A small thing(?) but something that I never experience back home.

Most of the rest of the day is spent eyeing up the scenery, and eying up the desert/sands enviously. If TAW was on a proper bike, we could drop of this tarmac and have some great times following those desert trails. Still, I’m sure that’ll come...

About three in the afternoon we come across another police check point, as usual we scurry around to the front of the queue (bikers privilege), and guess who’s holding things up? Our friends from Port Said, Abi and Gerry. Looks like there’s two roads to Dahab, one is closed due to bandits, the other is open, via Sharm, but you have to take a police escort. Hmm, we don’t really fancy waiting for the escort, and in a moments confusion, we set off....

As we’re speaking to Abi and Gerry, a group (mini convoy?) of cars/trucks heads off through Sinai, towards Sharm El Sheikh. TAW and I look at each other and say ‘lets go’ (perhaps; ‘lets join that convoy’).

This, is where all the trouble begins.

We’ve made a split decision without discussing it, and almost immediately we seperate. TAW is sticking with the convoy, I’m sticking to our self imposed speed limit. A mistake by both of us. But, the reality is, the area isn’t dangerous at all, and TAW is waiting for me at the next check point. Clearly, we’re both angry/annoyed/frustrated by the other. The short exchange is to the point, and pretty much along the lines of: ‘Why’d you not keep up’ and ‘Why’d you bugger off’. But regrouped, and in a huff, we head off. The joys of riding with a partner. Still, the brilliance of riding a bike is, you get to consider both sides of the coin whilst doing it (as you’re on your own with your own thoughts). And, unsurprisingly, once we’ve found accommodation, we’re both offering apologies. It was a split second decision, next time we’ll be on the same track.

Perhaps some scuba tomorrow, to calm our travelling nerves, and on Saturday, Kirsty may well get a nice surprise...