Hi Marco
where are you planning to go after Jordan ?
im working to get Libyan visa ,but its so so hard to get although im Egyptian ,
tomorrow im going to Cairo to see a way to get it by the support of the Egyptian ministry of foreign affair
if i wont be able to get it i will may ride to Jordan as i have no other way to go around Egypt
if you will come back to Egypt i got a place for you in Alexandria
cheers and ride safe

Thanks Scooter,
we will try to get through Syria somehow. Apparently the situation there is calming down somewhat. So by the time we get there we might be able to get through. If not we take it from there and decide about alternative options.
We probably enter Jordan sometime around the 14th. Maybe see you there one day...

__________________
no risk - no fun

I'm not sure if we are still in Africa. The last few days we spent in Sinai. Which is somewhat in between Africa and Asia.
Coming here from Cairo was quite an adventure. First we needed to cross the Suez Canal. It was not so easy. There is a huge bridge, built by the Japanese near Ismailia. It sure is huge enough to leave plenty of headroom for all the big ships sailing on the canal. It also means that the bridge ramps have to start far inland. We instead rode up on the coastal highway along the Gulf of Suez. The bridge was soon towering high above us. But there was no way from the highway to the bridge ramp,simply no connection. What a weird design. We had to perform a U-turn and go down some little streets, asking TukTuk drivers until we found the entrance to the bridge. And there it felt like a border crossing. Passport and vehicle papers got checked. And finally we were allowed up. Road signs specified the ramp going up with a 33% incline. It didn't feel that steep though.
Once East of the Canal another world opened up for us. We could see the lights of all the towns on the West side. But here everything was just empty desert. No towns, no traffic. But a beautiful tarmac road going South along the canal. We had fantastic chicken for dinner in a small village and bush-camped a few km down the road.
The next day was really hard work for us. We kept going South, destination St Catherine monastery and Mt Sinai. There was an incredibly strong wind blowing in our face. By late morning the wind had picked up so much dust that visibility shrunk to a few hundred metres. And we constantly got sand blasted. We stopped at a road side stall and had lots of tea and coffee, hoping the wind would soon stop. But it didn't. The map showed that we would soon turn inland where the mountains promised some shelter from the dust. So full of hope and full of tea we kept going. I've never experienced anything like it. The amount of sand and dust in the air was incredible, the strong headwind blowing it straight onto you. Every tiny bit of exposed skin hurt from being sandblasted. All zippers closed, gloves on, visor shut we fought our way down against the wind. Until the end of the Suez Canal, the place where it enters the Gulf of Suez. Having the open sea there brought quite a relief. The wind no longer picked up sand to throw it in our face. But now the smell of salty sea water came across instead. The air was clean again, visibility back to almost normal.
When we finally reached the turnoff to St Catherine another surprise waited for us. The guys on the Police checkpoint would not let us go to St Catherine. In a friendly but not negotiable manner they insisted we go around the whole southern Sinai peninsula to turn inland from the East side and so get to St Catherine. A windy detour of many hundred km. Apparently tourists got kidnapped along our chosen road so it's now been closed for tourists. We heard about the kidnapping stories before. They were pretty harmless, people never were kidnapped over night. Literally just for tea and a conversation. We wanted to get away from the windy coast too, not keen to follow it all around the peninsula. So we went down the road as directed by Police. Once out of sight we headed off-road. Through the desert and around the sand hills and sand dunes to cut in on the road we originally planned to travel. Just awesome to be able to do that on our bikes! With full success, 10min later we were travelling towards St Catherine, out of sight of Police. And what an awesome road it was. Heading along a deep valley in the mountains. Towering walls of granite closing in on either side. Some of the best 100km we have travelled so far.
There were also three checkpoints along the way. But all army, not Police. Just asking to see our passports and welcoming us to Egypt. While the machine gun on the nearby tank spun around to follow us.
By the time we reached St Catherine it was dark. We found a very friendly camping ground and felt home. Somehow people there had an esoteric touch. It was pretty cool. It's Bedouin territory. So we sat together in a Bedouin tent, around the camp fire, wrapped in blankets. And in there we got our palms read in shocking accuracy. Accuracy as far as the past was concerned. The guy reading my palm really told me my past as if we were best friends. If his predictions for the future proves as accurate it shouldn't be too bad for me.
The next day was reserved for trekking. For all of you who know the story of Moses and the exodus from Egypt, you will remember how God talked to Moses through a burning bush. The St Catherine monastery was founded later on the site of this event. Although today the landscape is very dry, there is no more bush to be burning. But the monastery was really cool. It was old, built 600BC. From the outside it had the appearance of a castle with high windowless walls surrounding the compound. Inside the monastery we only visited the old church. It's Greek Orthodox and it's stacked with gold and silver. Every bit of wall was covered in either gold or with paintings. There were so many silver chandeliers that they almost formed a second ceiling. A rare sight in an Islamic country like Egypt.
Following Moses footsteps we also climbed Mt Sinai. It's the second highest mountain on the Sinai peninsula. And by legend the place where Moses received the 10 commandments from God himself.
Today it is a relatively easy 2 hour climb from the monastery to the top. Up there, on the spot where the 10 commandments were received now stands a church and a mosque. We were up on the top largely alone, another testimony of how the Egyptian revolution scared tourists away. Lonely Planet still states that you should be prepared to meet 500 people up there. But not for us. Even most of the souvenir stands were closed. And the coffee stalls gave us a good price to earn at least some money. So all in all Mt Sinai developed into a very good experience, much better than expected after the tales of others and the story in Lonely Planet. The view from the top is just breath taking. You look around towards all the other brown granite mountains. There is no settlements, only a few huts and churches on other mountain tops, often far below. There is also no vegetation, just brown granite and grey shadows which give everything a very 3D look. Apart from a few birds there was no sound at all. No wind. No people. Nothing. We spent a few hours at the top. Just relaxing and enjoying the serenity.
Mt Sinai is very much the centre of the peninsula. From here we planned to go to Dahab, a famous backpackers and diving spot on the East coast. Our map showed us a small 100km long dirt road connecting us straight with Dahab. Also showing the 'Blue Mountains' as sightseeing spot along the way. Sounded much better to us than the long tarmac road which we would only be allowed to travel with a convoy.
This little dirt road was not much more than two car tyre tracks in the sand. It started as an awesome hard surface, heaps fun to ride on. Soon we saw the 'Blue Mountains'. Very different from the Blue Mountains near Sydney these ones were big rocks completely painted in blue by an artist long time ago. He really did it, spending lord knows how many weeks and thousands of litres of sky blue paint to paint some rocks in the desert far from anything. But it looked cool of course. Just strange.
After the Blue Mountains the path deteriorated quickly into deep sandy tracks. For 20 to 30 km we really struggled, fish tailing through deep sand in an awesome desert valley surrounded by redish brown granite mountains. Rather disturbingly we also went past some green patches of Marihuana and Opium plantations. The loneliness of the desert has obviously some advantages for some business. Every now and then when we stopped we also noticed a car following us in the distance and people watching us from outside that car. It did not really feel like the safest place in the world. Discovering drug plantations and being followed by strangers?
When we once stopped to discuss which of the deep sandy tracks to choose suddenly we noticed a car heading straight for us from one of these green patches. No point in attempting to outrun a four wheel drive with our heavy bikes in deep sand. So we just waited for the car to arrive. There were two people in the car. An old man, really old, with a beaming smile. And his son. The old man even speaking some English. They were incredibly friendly and invited us to follow them for a tea. It was also obvious they wanted to check us out. So we followed them straight to their Opium plantation. There was a weird uncertainty on all sides because no one was sure what the other one was up to. But having a tea together within the friendly atmosphere of a Bedouin tent soon cleared all worries. We probably had four teas each, sitting only a few metres next to Opium plants ready to be harvested. The old man happily smoking a few Marihuana joints and offering them around. Also some brownish Opium paste for us to try. Apparently it makes you strong. We did not feel so strong then after battling the sand for an hour or so. However, his offer we kindly declined. Which was no problem at all. We'd rather be strong without drugs. After probably an hour sitting in the shade drinking tea we were off again. On our way to cross the desert and get to Dahab.
But maybe 10min later we passed another car with 5 or 6 people standing around it waiving us towards them. We thought we better let them know who we are to avoid misunderstandings. And the same story happened again. We were kindly invited to follow them for a tea. We followed them right to their hidden Opium field and had tea together and checked each other out. Kind of nice feeling, to know that some people get kidnapped and others just invited for tea. Bedouins are sure friendly people.
The amount of tea we had and the friendly conversations really did wonder to our morale. The road turned much better, no more deep sand but now beautifully hardened tyre tracks. The landscape got better too with the mountains narrowing our valley into a steep gorge. Everything was perfect. The terrain just ideal for our bikes. The track meandering along the centre of the valley in the shade of the huge rock walls on either side. Every bent produced another breathtaking picture. We did not meet any other person that day. We had all this awesomeness to ourselves.
Delayed by the events of the day in our quest to reach Dahab and keen to enjoy this landscape a bit longer we decided to camp in the gorge for one night. And so I am now sitting here, typing this report in the light of the three quarters full moon shining it's pale light onto the mountain sides around me and onto my little Suzuki right in front of me. Cool day really.

__________________
no risk - no fun

Sunset view of the tall bridge across the Suez Canal near Ismailia.


Lots of sand and dust in the atmosphere on our way down Sinai's West coast


St Catherine monastery on the site of the biblical burning bush.


Coffee stop on the way up Mt Sinai


The view from the top of Mt Sinai.


The 100km dirt road between St Catherine and Dahab


It's a stunning trip through the mountains, kind of trapped inside a deep gorge.


Long exposure photo by moonlight - our bush camp in the Sinai mountains.

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no risk - no fun

Hi Marco,

The last few days I have been reading about your trip. Great stories and very inspiring

Do you think you can get back to a "normal" 9 to 5 job after this adventure ?

I wish you a safe and enjoyable trip through Syria and further to Germany.

__________________
Jan Krijtenburg

My bikes are a Honda GoldWing GL1200 and a BMW R1200GS

My personal homepage with trip reports: https://www.krijtenburg.nl/
YouTube channel (that I do together with one of my sons): motormobilist.nl

It will be hard but I will try...

__________________
no risk - no fun

We are now at the East Coast of the Sinai peninsula. Life here is very comfortable. The wind has ceased. The air is warm and clean. The water of the Gulf of Sinai turquoise and clear. Again I am sitting here in the warm evening air just outside my tent in a wadi. Surrounded by mountains and shone upon by the full moon.
We spent a few days in Dahab. Dahab is quite strange, the whole town seems to be built for one purpose only: to serve tourists. Unfortunately not our kind of tourists. When you arrive here with your own noisy motorbike, with your dusty clothes, the smell of not having had a shower for a few days, the sand baked onto your sunscreen saturated skin, then yes, you sure stick out. Dahab is a town for divers who stay in hotels or resorts and worry much less about money than we do. They are clean. They arrive in buses. They use aftershave. Is not the type of fancy resorts, resembling Disney castles as we found in Hurghada. But still the big hotel brands are all there. There was no 'local' part of town. At least we couldn't find one.
The main attraction of Dahab is the 'Blue Hole'. It's a deep hole in the coral reef some 10km outside of town. Although it's famous for diving, snorkeling is also heaps fun there. We thought to just pass by on our way out of town and snorkel around the hole for a bit.
The Blue Hole is easy to find. There is a big stretch of restaurants and dive shops just there on the beach. Hundreds of cars parked everywhere and water and land are full of tourists fiddling with diving gear. We also met Sofia and Jordi again, two overlanders we keep meeting again and again since Nairobi. Sofia and me, we were both hungry. So we embarked on a mission to find some affordable food where there is no affordable food. The southernmost building, quite far from all the dive hype, seemed to be best place for it. There were a few camels parked in front of it. And a few local Bedouin people inside. The only affordable things they seemed to have were peanut bars. And with something as simple as a peanut bar a truly remarkable story began.
The shop was owned by an old Bedouin man. After our time in Dahab and the experience with the other expensive shops and restaurants around the Blue Hole I guess we started a bit straight forward, asking for the price before even saying hello. The old man spoke no English. But gestured us to relax and to sit down on the cushions inside. We sure needed to calm down a bit. And he had something amazingly calming on him, hard to describe. We sat down on the dirty but comfy cushions. He brought us the peanut bar. And some tea. We took our time to relax a bit and enjoyed our tea. When the other young Bedouin fellows started talking to us. They were playing Domino while asking us all the typical questions of where we are from, what is our name etc. The guy speaking the best English worked with camels, offering camel rides to tourists. But not bothering us with it. A few minutes later we were all sitting together playing Domino. And drinking Mirinda Green Apple, really awesome stuff. Time was flying and Sofia and me, we probably spent two hours in there when we left to finally go snorkelling. By now it was afternoon. After so much relaxing we decided to not travel any further that day. To camp just there. And to snorkel the Blue Hole. A quite impressive bit of ocean to see. The shallow coral reef right next to the beach steeply drops into a perfectly circular more than 60m deep hole. You happily snorkel along the beautiful corals and find yourself suddenly staring into a bottomless deep blue abyss.
When we came out of the water some of the guys we played Domino with earlier invited us to sit down at some beach chairs in front of the shop of the old man. The old man quickly joined us. Nothing else to do for him, no tourist would ever venture down the street far enough to find his small shop. We had some good conversation when the other Domino players arrived with their camels. Camels are big animals. But standing right next to one makes them seem huge. While we were chatting the camels had a bath in the ocean right next to our motorbikes. And became very happy and clean camels. Once clean and sun dried the guys asked us if we wanted to try riding them. What an offer. Of course! So up we went, Sofia and me on our two camels. Up in the sky, these beasts are surely tall. And bloody shaky when they move. And they move fast! My internal risk assessment just screaming into my head 'HOLD ON!!!'. Racing all the way up and down the beach we did and had heaps fun. Very different riding style compared to my little Suzuki. When we arrived back and safely touched the ground again with our own feet the guys invited us with them. They had as much fun watching us as we had on top of their animals. 'I want these people to come with us!'. They promised us it only takes 20min. And we would see their home. And their 31 camels. It sounded good so we joined them. A nice group of Martin and Sofia sitting on their two camels and me with the two young Bedouin guys walking alongside them. The sun was low, the temperature comfortable. All tourists had left by then, being back in their hotels in Dahab. We had the whole beach to us. Us three tourists and some Bedouins and some camels.
Their place was truly a camel paradise. 31 camels happily chewing grass and other leftover food from the shops in town. A small shack in pretty desolate state formed the home for the people. And outside a fire place with cushions and blankets covering the sandy ground defined their social area. Of course we needed to have at least one tea together.
Tea was boiled in a small black pot, not unlike a typical 'Jeannie in the bottle' type of dish. Right next to a slowly burning big branch of an Acacia tree. In this pot was as much sugar as there was water which made the tea delicious. It was a perfect scene. Us sitting there, just us in the vast landscape. Sitting around the fire drinking tea, surrounded by camels noisily enjoying their meals. The fire slowly burning with lots of aromatic smoke. Nothing else. Bedouin people understand to generate a relaxing atmosphere like no other people on our trip. So again time flew fast. After I don't know how many cups of tea more people arrived. They brought more glasses so more people could drink tea. They also brought dinner, fish and bread and salad. And lots of Marijuana. And a Shisha (waterpipe). Soon the air was filled with the aroma of smoking Marijuana, the smell of fresh bread and fish and the smoke of the slowly burning acacia branch. There was a lot of quiet calm conversation and laughter. There was music, played with a big blue water barrel. And people singing and all of us clapping our hands. Watched over by 31 camels in the moonlight.
Many many hours later, each of us having consumed at least 15 cups of sweet tea, we walked back to the Blue Hole area and to our motorbikes. The whole group came with us. Once there the old man from the peanut bar shop offered us to sleep for free on the top of his house's roof. Of course we did. So we slept after a great day on a roof top right next to the ocean, next to the famous Blue Hole. Watching the stars and the moon from our sleeping bags while the tea kept us awake. A really awesome day. It all started with one peanut bar.

We still don't know for sure how to move on from here. Syria is still closed and visas will be hard if not impossible to be obtained. Jordan is now very close but seems to be a dead end. And now, that we are almost ready to check out Jordan, another door opens on the other side of Egypt. We found out that a Transit Visa for Libya is very easy to get in Cairo. No letter of invitation required. Getting through Libya would still be the most interesting option. Also an opportunity to stay longer in Africa, after all this is an Africa trip. The only problem we have now is that our Egypt visa expires sooner than we can get a Libya visa. I am sure we will figure something out during the next few days and the journey will go on again. Insh'allah.

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no risk - no fun

The Blue Hole area near Dahab when we arrived. It's a crazy place for tourists


The beach front at the Blue Hole later - all cars, all tourists disappeared by 3pm


View from our roof top sleeping place - only our bikes and Sofia's and Jordi's car remain at the beach.


My little Suzuki in the wadi near Dahab where I am typing this very report.


Many weeks of dust and sand and dirt leave their mark

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no risk - no fun

This isn't criticism of your earlier writings, because they're terrific, but I think your writing has gotten even better as you've continued on your journey.

Your posts are wonderful- very well written, and very interesting.

I suspect you attract the kind of people like the Bedouins you spent time with in this post.

Cheers and good luck finding your way to Germany. I hope you don't get there too quickly, though.

Chris

Cheers Chris, writing has become more fun too. Particularly now after some nice feedback like yours

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no risk - no fun

Plans can change quickly and often even reverse. All of you who already considered us in Jordan - nope, we're not there. We're back in Cairo. In fact I am sitting on the balcony of our cheap but good hotel right now. Eight floors below me I can see, hear and smell the constant chaos which is Cairo traffic. Horns sounding like three dimensional beeps all around. I can hear people's voices. Talking and shouting. There is a small protest on Tahrir Sq, the ever repeating slogans in Arabic coming through the loudspeakers right to our balcony. We are in the middle of a huge concrete jungle, a fast ocean of brown dusty concrete buildings, their roofs filled with rubbish and Chinese satellite dishes. So different to the calm empty desert which is Sinai.
What are we doing back in Cairo? After all this time in Sinai we were almost ready to go to Jordan. It was all so close. We could see Jordan and also Israel just there, on the other side of the narrow Gulf of Sinai. But we hesitated to take the last step. Because it would commit us to a dead end which is Syria. And the only exit from that dead end are expensive boats from Israel straight to Europe. No, we don't want to go by boat. We want to ride our motorbikes. Ride for as far as possible.

And then we gave the Libya option another go. By phone, calling the Libyan embassies in Cairo and Alexandria. There was one visa we did not know it exists last time, when we first came to Cairo and went to the Libyan embassy. And that is a Transit Visa. We cleared everything over the phone to a degree when it was worthwile coming back to Cairo and to apply for the visa.
So Cairo it was. Our Egypt visa is almost at it's end so we had to hurry. Nuweiba to Cairo, 500km in one day. We raced through Sinai, the black mountains, the orange desert, the tunnel underneath the Suez Canal. We raced through the sandstorm cleaning all the dead mosquitoes from my little Suzuki. We raced with the trucks along the big highway between Suez and Cairo. We mingled with traffic in Cairo. Which was most fun. Just imagine a city of 25 million people and no traffic lights. Simply none. And the city works. Somehow.
At the Libyan embassy everything sounds easy. No letter of invitation required. No escort during our time in Libya. Only $16 fee. And only one day processing time. The only problem with it, and there is only one, is the validity. Which is seven days from date of issue. Ten if we are lucky. So we have seven days to leave Cairo, get to the border, arrange all border formalities for us and our dear bikes, to cross Libya and exit to Tunesia. It will be a lot of riding. No time for sightseeing. But we found the exit we were looking for. Once in Tunesia it will be easy-as to get to Europe. With many short ferry services connecting Tunis and Marseille or Genua. And best of all, we stay in Africa for longer. As I've said before, this is an Africa trip!
I'm not sure what to think about Libya right now so I don't think. To apply for the visa we had to go and see the Libyan consul herself. She warned us in person that Libya is dangerous and we should consider our options very carefully. She also insisted on a letter from our home embassy stating our intent. To make sure our home embassy is aware that two of their citizens voluntarily choose danger over safety. Since German people do not require a visa for Tunesia but Australians do I will cross Libya on my old German passport. And the German embassy gave us the letter. They don't seem to worry much about their citizens.
In order to make it all in seven days we need to ride and ride and ride. We need to fly through Libya. Hoping deerly that nothing goes wrong. We spent the last two days to bring the bikes back into their best shape. Clean airfilters, clean and lubricated chains, new oil. They will be awesome.

There will be neither the time nor the internet availability to post another trip report till we reach Tunisia. In around seven days. Or ten. Hopefully. Wish us luck!

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no risk - no fun

Riding motorbikes in Sinai is awesome. Good roads, great mountains, no traffic.


The Gulf of Sinai


The motorbike of the cook in our campground in Nuweiba. It is still in daily use. Brand 'Dayun' 150ccm. With broken lights, half the crash bar missing, bent clutch lever. In fact, there was no clutch cable. Also no front brake lever. The tank badly bent and a piece of yellow foam used as lid. The tyres completely worn. No mirrors too. Or side stand. The speedo still working but fastened with cable ties. But why not? The clutch can be manually operated on the little lever right on the engine block. If there is a rear brake you don't need a front brake. Using foam as tank lid does both, it prevents fuel from spilling out but lets enough air through to avoid a vacuum inside the tank. Worn tyres are still good tyres. Mirrors can be replaced by a good look over your shoulder. And who needs a stand if there are trees to lean the bike against? All good! It's the ultimate way to save weight.


Our campground in Nuweiba by moonlight. The lights on the far side of the water are already from Saudi Arabia.


My view right now. The concrete jungle of Cairo at 10pm. From the balcony of our hotel in Cairo. Not a bad view for a $5 hotel, right?

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no risk - no fun

Hi Marco

thanks a lot for taking us along through Africa

On our daily routine it`s always a highlight to have a look at your trip

In fact in fall we will do the same the other way heading south and of course we will watch your progress riding through Lybia with this transit visa

I wonder if we can get the same in Tunis ....

However, still some time to go until our depature and then we will see

Good Luck and enjoy the rest of your trip

Thomas & Andrea

miles-to-ride

Ho Marco,

Good luck with your "race" through Lybia and I'm looking forward to your next story and pictures.

__________________
Jan Krijtenburg

My bikes are a Honda GoldWing GL1200 and a BMW R1200GS

My personal homepage with trip reports: https://www.krijtenburg.nl/
YouTube channel (that I do together with one of my sons): motormobilist.nl

Thank you for your stories, it's really a lot of fun to read. Have a safe trip through Libya.