Distance: 52.7 km
Time: 5:17:00
Ave Speed: 10 km/hr
Max Speed: 46 km/hr
Temp: 35 C
Weather: hot hot like an Albanian summer
Yeah we made the train!
Al hamdullilah we finagled our way into a sleeper cabin heading from Cairo to Luxor, arriving at 5 am. Today we woke in the Sinai, outside the town of El Tor, and managed to hitch our way over 300 km across the Suez and into the capital.
Empty highways cutting through the Sinai mountains
We had fully intended on taking the ferry from Sharm to Hurghada, but low and behold when we showed up the guard informed us they closed the ferry line. Maybe they are afraid of a bomb. This information is not posted online so word to whoever may be traveling in the area!
Yachts outside of Sharm El-Sheik (but no giant ferry)
Our tent last night was unknowingly pitched at the edge of a family's garden, and in the morning they invited us to come inside for tea and freshly baked bread. They live in a small cluster of concrete rooms built by the family and decorated with tattered rugs and, in most cases, large religious posters (usually of Mecca). We sat with them near the morning firepit in a shaded backyard enclosure.
Sheik Christopher wakes near a house
Daughters and sisters roll out and bake the bread daily
The women were cooking it themselves, on a fire inside the cap of a 30 gallon drum. Their warm bedouin tortillas were delicious, served with cream and a tahini-grape molasses mix. The patriarch of the family (Abu something, we didn't catch that) sat by us, smoking a hookah made from a Coke bottle.
Bedouin sheesha and sugar tea= American coffee and cigarettes
Chris and I were presented with warm bread, sweet cream, and tahini-molasses
The first carful of Sharm-working guys we hitched with took us along the flat, empty, Nevada-desert-like landscape of western coastline (for unknown reasons this seaside has been left 100% untouched). They dropped us in Suez; from there an older man with a truck stopped on his way to Cairo and amazingly enough took us all the way to the southwest area of town, weaving through, on average, 6 lanes of stop-and-go traffic.
Women and daughters rest in the shade while walking the animals to graze
Cairo is a disturbingly crowded city ringed by foreboding brick slums. Many of the buildings seem to be highrise brick without any windows, strange skeletal towers. Inside near the Nile are the wealthier neighborhoods, though we didn't get a good look during our race to the train station. We will be back at the end to fly home, until then we can just enjoy what we call our "Hilton resort on wheels".
Comfy cozy another train ride
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