Day 204 Egypt 10/4/2011, Dahab – Luxor. A very long bus journey, a camp-site, train tickets & some overlanders. 4.70miles/7.53km, 25mins, av 11.2mph

Using a travel agent to book our bus tickets turned out to be a waste of time. The seats he promised to get us didn't materialise, the lift to the bus station that we didn't really need was useless and we had to arrange the fee for our bikes (30LE each). We really may as well have gone and got them ourselves; anyone considering using 'Laurence of Egypt' would do well to look elsewhere.

The bus was a bit more dilapidated than the ones we had taken previously, but crucially it had more legroom. With the bikes stowed on board along with our luggage, we set off on what was to be a very long journey.

There were a lot less passport checks than before, but to compensate we made a lot more stops. For some reason while taking the bags off at Suez, two soldiers decided to question us continually about where we had come from. They seemed convinced we had come from Israel, despite us saying otherwise. Quite why this would have been relevant when Egypt and Israel are on reasonable terms we are not sure. Perhaps they just felt like justifying their wages or were bored, probably the latter!

Once again, between the loud movie, louder music and even louder shouting between the bus drivers, sleep was hard to come by. Somewhere along the way we must have though, as we arrived outside Luxor at 8:30am feeling alright, if not alert.

Rather sadly while we were unpacking the bikes, we discovered that Debs' bike had got a bit scratched by a wheel that had been unlovingly placed on it by the loader. We are not so precious as to think that the bikes weren't going to pick up scrapes, but is a bit annoying when you know that it could have been avoided. Maybe we will have 'Yellow Narna' resprayed when we get home and have the name changed to 'Purple Sumomo' (Japanese for plum)!

Loading the bikes, we left the bus station behind and rode the 7.5km into the city. Despite the lay off, it felt good to be back in the saddle, even though the weight took a few kilometres to get used to. Fortunately for us, 'Rezeiky camp' where we planned to stay, was just off the main road that we came in on. We were soon pitched and heading into the city to try and get train tickets to Aswan.

At the train station Debs discovered something good about being a woman in a Muslim country, you get to go to the front of the queue. While I was fighting it out, jostling for position and generally trying to hold back a group of Egyptians all hell bent on pushing in front of me, she was called to the front and asked where she wanted to go. We knew there had to be at least one compensation, she is now our official ticket purchaser! Tomorrow we will be heading off on the 7:30am train to Aswan, to get our Sudanese visa and our ferry tickets. With any luck we should then have nearly a week to amble our way to Aswan in time for next weeks ferry.

Having successfully got the train tickets, we bought some fruit and veg and then headed back to the camp-site. Liking to have a bit of adventure we took a slightly different route back, which to my delight and Debs' groans saw us ride past a Koshary restaurant. Lunch was taken care of! Debs is sticking with it, but she will not be sad to see the back of the pasta, rice, lentil, chickpea, tomato and oniony goodness!

Back at the camp-site we met a lovely South African couple who have ridden their motorbikes from South Africa to here and are now heading onwards to Europe. Thanks to Larry and Sharon we have been given loads of useful information about potential accommodation and some of what to expect over the coming months. We now have a slightly better idea about our route onwards from Ethiopia.

After an afternoon nap we joined Larry and Sharon for dinner by the Nile. The meal wasn't up to much but the company more than made up for it. Avoiding the touts we wandered back to the camp-site and sat chatting for a while before it was time for us to go to bed, we have an early train to catch tomorrow. We wish Larry and Sharon all the best with their continuing travels and hopefully we will see them in South Africa.

Day 200 – 203 Egypt 6/4/2011 – 9/4/2011, Cairo – Dahab. Buses, Restaurants, sunbathing and another bus hopefully!

Fortunately we were too early for another go at the hostel breakfast this morning. Instead we headed straight to the bus station to catch our 8am bus.

Aside from the fact that they had double sold our seats, we held our ground having secured 1 and 2 so that nobody could recline their seats onto our knees, the day bus was infinitely preferable to the night one. The constant security checks of course remained, but we were not delayed at Suez for anywhere like as long as we had been previously, Plus being daylight we had a chance to look at the scenery. The route to Suez along the Red Sea coast is desert, interspersed with building sites and seemingly abandoned resorts; not the most attractive area we have seen, but it was nice to be able to see it!

We arrived back in Dahab just before 5pm feeling pretty good. We were soon checked back into the hotel room and then dived in the pool to cool off. After the noise, pollution and general mayhem of Cairo it was good to be back in the peace and quiet.

The next day we asked at a travel agent about the possibility of taking our bikes on the bus to Luxor. He said that it would be no problem and has hopefully arranged our seats for us. He has promised to get us seats at the front of the bus, but Egyptians tend to be a little vague so we will keep our fingers crossed.

Nearly 20 hours on a bus is going to save us probably two weeks of cycling, which in any other country we would be glad to do, but we have really struggled to warm to Egypt. Dahab aside, which we would visit again if we just wanted to relax, the country seems like one big tourist trap. Very little is offered without request for payment, plus the tensions that remain have made it feel a little uncomfortable. We are sure others have had different experiences but we won't be sad to leave the country behind. There is of course a small bit of that us that feels guilty about not cycling, but we had never planned to cycle along the coast any further than Sharm el Sheikh anyway. Had the Ferry to Hurghada been running we would have taken that and then ridden across the desert to Luxor. As it is our visas are running out and we are keen to get on the ferry to Sudan.

The rest of our time has been spent resting, snorkelling, sunbathing, eating and having the odd beer. We are catching the 4pm bus today so the next blog should be from Luxor, Take care all, wish us luck with the bus and the bikes!

Day 188 – 195 Egypt 25/3 – 1/4/2011, Dahab. Sun, sea, relaxing and a little bit of snorkelling, oops and the odd beer!

It's amazing how quick the week has gone. It doesn't seem that long ago that we were heading out of Jordan, still we have had a lovely relaxing time in Dahab.

We haven't taken a single tour since we have been here, the bikes have been ridden all of twice and the most effort we have made is walking to a restaurant for dinner.

The only things of note to mention are a bit of bike maintenance and Debs going to see her friend Sarah and her mum in Sharm el-Sheikh.

We also managed to work out roughly where we are going when we reach Sudan and Ethiopia.

We are leaving Dahab today for the bustling city of Cairo, via an overnight bus. We have decided to leave our bikes and luggage here where they are safe and go and get our Sudanese and Ethiopian visas. Hopefully the whole process won't take too long and we will the return to Dahab for a few days and then hit the road.

We have a feeling that the next few days won't be anywhere near as relaxing as the last week! Take care for now, expect to hear tales of terrifying taxi rides, mayhem filled visa offices and hopefully success!

Day 187 Jordan/Egypt 24/3/2011, Aqaba – Nuweiba – Dahab. 46.01miles/73.47km, 4hr39minutes, Av 9.9mph, Max speed 41mph!

Somewhere around 1:30am the ferry finally moved and we were on our way to Egypt. Following a certain amount of contortionist moves, we managed to find a marginally comfortable way to lay on the seats and drifted off at about 2am. By 5am we were awake and the ferry had stopped just outside the port. While we were waiting we had some breakfast and availed ourselves of the frankly disgusting toilet facilities. Bearing in mind that the ferry ticket for a foot passenger is $60, you would think there might be somebody who actually cleans the ferry.

Somewhere just before 6am we were allowed to disembark. We retrieved our bikes and headed down the ramp and into the equally un-signposted Nuweiba port. Eventually we found the customs area and had a bit of a shock when we had to remove all our bags and put them through the x-ray machine.

By 6:30am we were reloaded and on the road in Egypt. By 6:35am we were reflecting that 3 hours of sleep on an uncomfortable chair wasn't the ideal preparation for the 70km ride to Dahab, especially as the first 20km was climbing! At least being early the traffic was light and the temperature wasn't too high.

Eventually we made it to the top and stopped for a break before the long descent to Dahab. During the break we learned what could be a valuable lesson while riding in Egypt, the edge of the road is deep sand. If we slide off the road, the chances of remaining upright are slim.

After our last promised downhill turned into something of a disappointment, we were thankfully rewarded this time with nearly 50km of downhill or flat road. With a helpful tailwind we raced along until we reached Dahab, encountering the first check points of our trip along the way. These are quite common in Egypt, although the ones we encountered today were content with just knowing where we were going and where we were from.

The last few kilometres into Dahab were against the wind, but driven on by our desire to get to a hotel and have a sleep, we soon got to the town. We needed a bit of help to find our hotel but it wasn't long before we were checked into our home for the next week the 'Dahab Plaza Hotel'.

The late night and cycling caught up with us after we checked into the room and we both fell straight asleep. It will be really nice to have nothing to do for the next week, other than eat, drink, sleep and do some planning for the road ahead. Unless something really exciting happens I will write one blog for our time here. Take care all, the pool and a beer beckons!