Cairo Magic

The population of Australia lives in Cairo, and I’m pretty sure that every single person owns a car, or so it feels like it. The traffic ploughs along in a constant, chaotic swarm and it takes all of one’s willpower to overrule the sensible voice in your head, telling you that maybe – just maybe – taking a bicycle out into the fray isn’t such a smart move.

The closer into Downtown Cairo you get, the worse it becomes. Gridlocked overpasses and highways loom overhead, and as for the local roads, I don’t think the town planners would recognise the concept of ‘pedestrian friendly’ if it slapped them in the face like a rogue sweep oar. Crossing the road is like playing Russian roulette; traffic lights are purely decorative features, lane markings non-existent, motorbikes and scooters drive into the oncoming traffic on the wrong side of the road, and when you finally work up the courage to make a run, it’s like playing a real-life game of ‘Frogger’ on a ten-lane highway. The system is all about chaos and courtesy. Trucks give-way to buses which in turn give-way to cars, giving-way to horse and carts, motorbikes, bicycles and finally pedestrians, the lowest common denominator. As a pedestrian you simply need to ‘move’ about the traffic and make it obvious what you are doing. A car will never stop, but will slow down to a speed in which you will clear the ‘lane’ he is in prior to reaching (hitting) you. Every car on the road will toot their horn as they approach just in case you haven’t seen them, or simply out of habit. (Car horns are still ringing in my ears weeks later!) *

Well despite the deathtrap that is Cairo on a bicycle, I made it to my hostel, weary and still a bit crook from food poisoning (obtained from a 4-star hotel brekkie buffet in Jordan days earlier… note, stick to street food in future) and instantly passed out for 14 hours…

The next morning I was re-energized and pumped for my first full day in Egypt. The Cronulla World Team had literally flown in overnight, landed whilst I was asleep. It was time for a glorious reunion!

It took four hours to cycle the 25km across Cairo to the hotel Le Meridian Pyramids. An hour of that was spent just figuring out how to cross the river Nile, as there was absolutely no way I could see to get up onto the overpasses that linked up with the bridges. Eventually a curious policeman came to my aid (didn’t even want baksheesh, good man!) and before I knew it I was cycling west towards Giza. Eventually I would cross a major railway line which acted like an unofficial line between the richer and touristic central Cairo and the poorer slum and farming districts. Modular residential apartment buildings towered above either side of the road and a major elevated highway blocked out the sun from above. The busy streets became less traffic clogged but full of suburban life; countless pedestrians, tuk tuks and taxis, donkeys pulling loaded carts, smiling kids playing in the streets and shops selling all kinds of fresh produce. Farmers attended the odd field which broke up the monotonous housing blocks, and young boys on bicycles would fly down the street balancing huge trays loaded with hundreds of freshly-baked bread rolls – on their heads! Live pigeons and chickens clucked away in wooden cages stacked like crates outside the local markets, no doubt awaiting their fate on a kebab rotisserie.

Above all this on the elevated highway (which literally blocked out the sun at street level below) tourists whizzed by in coaches and hire cars, completely oblivious to the ‘real’ Cairo that existed and thrived below. I couldn’t help but feel privileged at being able to see how real local Egyptians live. You could only do this on foot or by bicycle; no organised tour group would ever venture into these areas. Later on I would wander further around the local streets with Col Elliott in order to grab some amazing photos of this interesting ‘other world’.

After getting a little lost, I stopped to ask one of the ‘tourist police’ for general directions to the Pyramids and ended up rejoining the highway – the interestingly named “26th July Corridor” ring road. And then I caught my first glimpse of the Pyramids of Giza. Spectacular! The highway wasn’t anywhere near as bad to cycle on as my first impressions led me to believe. Being in a motor vehicle it turns out is much more nerve-rattling. I must admit however, though it clearly left an impression on me, it was nothing compared to the reaction of the rest of the touring team. I think there was no other topic of conversation on the mini-bus other than the pure amazement at the traffic system and ‘quality’ of Egyptian drivers. Greg Cook’s amazement at the traffic and regular exclamation at the odd special driving maneuver we witnessed, was actually a bit of a realization to me at just how far I had travelled, and how seasoned and accustomed to the conditions I have become. Was I really that green a traveler once? You bet – and reading back at some of my own blogs when we first landed in Germany back in 2008, I showed exactly the same excitement and enthusiasm about everything that I saw! I have to admit in Greg’s defense however, that even I was amazed that we weren’t actually involved in any accidents or incidents over the course of our stay in Egypt. Anyway, with the Great Pyramid in sight, I made a beeline towards it, and eventually found the hotel, literally 500m from the Pyramids. Sandra, you certainly picked a great location! The view from the balcony of our ‘Pyramid View’ hotel room was literally ‘the Pyramids’. Awesome!

I caused a small scene and entertained the lobby staff, for whom it wasn’t everyday some crazy Aussie on a bike rolls up to check-in. Standing in the lobby of a posh hotel in filthy cycling gear, unshaven and wearing an Arab headscarf, I was quite the sight when I inevitably ran into the first of the touring team – the first time I’d seen anyone representing the Club in nearly two and a half years! Paul Larssen, Daryn Metti and Paul Day were the first I ran into, as they made their way back from the beer garden down the road. It’s worth mentioning Fern Elliott, who didn’t even recognise me until the second time we ran into each other. Wow, I haven’t changed that much, have I, Fern?

Bessie found her way into the hotel car park (bloody Egyptians made me pay per day to ‘park’ my bike! Can you believe that?). And literally 40 minutes later, I was back downstairs and off to the beer garden with Paul Day, and Paul and Carole Larssen and Greg and Ann Holland. A fine crowd to enjoy my first Egyptian Stellar beer with! By our 5th pint, it felt like I’d never even left Cronulla and was just picking up a conversation that we might have only had just yesterday.

Well I can go on and on about how much fun we all had over the next four days in Cairo before heading to Alexandria, but I don’t want to kill too many trees if this is being published in the Capers! Suffice to say, our wonderful Harvey World Travel representative ‘Magic” had us whisked away in a bus and taken all over Cairo to see the sights. Of course the most obvious highlight was a half-day out at the Pyramids, literally walking around them (and over them if you believe the rumours about the Larssen’s getting arrested). A large group of us ended up on a camel ride that can only be described as unbelievable fun, and we were able to go right inside the burial chambers deep within the Pyramids. You would not want to be claustrophobic – the tunnels inside the Pyramids were built for dwarves, very hot and there wasn’t a lot of oxygen once you reached the centre. All in all, you can’t go wrong visiting the Great Pyramids and their guardian, the Sphinx. They are truly a marvel, a great ‘Wonder of the Ancient World’ in every sense!

Grave robbers had managed to strip the pyramids and most discovered tombs of all valuables long ago (kind of easy to find them really, I don’t know who’d great idea it was to build gigantic Pyramids on top of all the early tombs, but they were virtually beacons advertising where the kings’ buried treasure was!) The one tomb that was not plundered was that of Tutankhamen, and the contents of his burial chamber are displayed at the Egyptian Museum. It has to be one of the most spectacular displays of gold and ancient treasure in the world. The enormous gold and bejeweled sarcophaguses and other treasures are mind-blowing! We’ve all seen images of these on TV or in books, but to be able to see them with your own eyes is just incredible. Other museums we visited were nearly as spectacular, with large statues of Egyptian figures, stone tablets engraved in hieroglyphics and so on. Arguably the ‘Laser Light Show Spectacular’ was not that spectacular. More like a bad 70’s David Attenborough documentary, it put half of the team to sleep mid-performance!

It is interesting to note just how close the city has ‘sprawled’ towards the Pyramids. Most people think that the Pyramids are out in the middle of the Sahara desert among wind-swept sand dunes. It couldn’t be further from the truth. Where we watched the light show – at the base of the Sphinx – we literally walked out the front gate to find ourselves faced with much modern development, mostly from the past couple of decades. In fact we learned that apparently there are now excavation issues because of this. Archaeologists are hoping to uncover more ruins discovered in relation to the building of the Queen’s Pyramid, but it’s going to be a bit difficult because there is quite literally a new KFC and residential complex built on top of it! ‘Magic’ joked that at the rate of expansion, in 20 years time, the Great Pyramids will be located in Downtown Cairo!

Dealing with the tourist touts in Egypt is an art form on its own. Thankfully I was well travelled enough not to get into too much strife, but I will hand it to the touts in Egypt. They are clearly some of the best in the business, and when you are walking around the Pyramids, beware – it literally is a jungle out there! Without mentioning names, I can report two of the younger gentlemen on the team had an expensive encounter with the ‘tourist police’, having to fork out Egyptian pounds for the return of their camera!

The market place we were taken to was just as bad, with every shop keeper vying for your trade. You couldn’t take a step in any direction without someone trying to sell you gold or perfume or silk! It was fun however, and eventually gathering in larger groups, we learned not to become too intimidated by over anxious salesmen. Who on the team can ever forget ‘Abul to Toothless’ who insisted that I just had to show my four most beautiful brides (Maddi, Jamie, Raz and Fern) to his perfume and silver shop, “just down this (dark) alley”…

Coming home from the beer garden down the road from the hotel was risky business. A little convenience stand on the corner opposite was the base for one of the local area’s biggest scams. Just buying a bottle of water or even walking by was hazardous, as touts disguised as regular locals worked the corner, pretending to engage in friendly banter all the new tourists that booked into the Le Meridian every day. Paul Day gets a mention for falling right into the trap; after stumbling home from the beer garden on the second night, he stops to buy something from the store, only to be ‘escorted’ into a perfume shop. They literally locked the door and refused to let him out until he purchased a bottle of perfume. Not to be entirely outdone, for the equivalent of $20, Paul successfully negotiated them down to one bottle of fragrance and one bottle of beer!

Three jam-packed days of sightseeing later, we’d had a great taste of Cairo, from museums to mosques, plenty of pyramids and even a glimpse of the sprawling City of the Dead – an enormous, ancient area to the northeast of central Cairo. With a chronic housing shortage, over 5 million ‘Cairenes’ live here among the cemeteries and tombs where centuries of history are buried. At least it was something different to the rest of Cairo’s high-rise development which consisted of red-brick modular construction, to which an identical new level would be added every couple of years to accommodate an extension of the ‘family’. Never mind planning and construction laws!

And so after all the wonderful sights and experiences, the fantastic dinners and drinks by the pool-side bar (yes you could literally swim up and order a draught beer!) it was time for the touristy part of our trip to end, and get down to the business end. The team boarded the bus (Bessie fit nicely underneath in the luggage compartment) and we rolled out towards Alexandria on a quest for our own Egyptian gold!

It was fantastic being back with the team from Cronulla, after the buggers forgot to bring me back home from Rescue 2008 in Germany. The great cycling trip was now all but over and the last three weeks would be spent in the best of company. With another ten days to enjoy by the beach in Alexandria, there’s worse ways to end an unforgettable chapter of your life!