It’s been a busy couple of days playing tourist and site seeing around Cairo and Giza.  Its now 4pm on Thursday 29th of December and we’re about to pack up our bikes and have a cruisy night before we leave for our first day of riding tomorrow.   I’m quite nervous about the first day’s ride- I’m very anxious just to get going and get out of Cairo, which is not going to be easy on account of the ridiculous traffic.  We’ve got a rough route planned out of Cairo and we plan to leave about 6:30am, which won’t be any quieter (on the roads) than midday. 

Yesterday involved a day entirely dedicated to tourism.  Nagy, our taxi driver, picked us up at 9am and we headed straight to the Sudanese embassy to collect our passports and visas.  After the circus the day before, we were surprised to be in and out in less than 5 minutes.  We are now permitted entry into Sudan, thankfully.  Without visas, we would have to completely re-do our route which isn’t something we want to have to even contemplate at this point in time.  During the 5 minutes we were at the embassy, Wade took a photo of a car number plate (Arabic lettering) and managed to attract the attention of who I presume were some Sudanese embassy officials who didn’t appreciate Wade’s great eye for photographic subjects and quite firmly told him not to take photos.  We lied and said no photos were taken and then proceeded to act very calm and casual despite almost pissing our pants in fear. 

After almost getting arrested, we went to check out the Muhammad Ali Mosque (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosque_of_Muhammad_Ali) which was spectacular and beautiful.  After an hour or so there, Nagy drove us into the City of the Dead (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_the_Dead_(Cairo)) which is an enormous Muslim Cemetery which is many, many kilometers long.  Aside from obviously being where you bury loved ones, it’s also where up to half a million very poor people live.  We were told not to go in there alone, so Nagy came with us and took us into Muhammad Ali’s family’s mosque which was, like so much in Cairo, grand and beautiful.  We had a guided tour by one of Nagy’s friends and ended up on the roof top of the mosque, jumping from roof to roof after our old but very agile guide.  I felt like I was in a real life game of Assassin’s Creed (for your geeks out there).   Inside the mosque, the guide demonstrated the acoustics by giving us a mock call to prayer which gave me goose bumps.  Check out the video here. 

Afterwards, we went to Khan el-Khalili souk (market) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_el-Khalili) and spent a couple of hours walking around and looking at the hundreds of stalls and being pestered to buy everything (seriously, everything).   Gavan needs a pair of occy straps for his bike and attempted to mime these to a non-English speaking store owner in the hope that his hardware’esque store stocked them.  After a couple of minutes of Gavan doing his best occy strap impersonation, the guy’s eyes lit up and he gestured for us to follow him where he’d sort us out.  I suggested Gavan take part in charades world championships when they come around (London 2012?).  We were lead to a store and Gavan was given a pair of the biggest fishing hooks I’ve ever seen in my life.  We laughed.. A lot. 

After this we came back to our hotel and went in the search for some beer (in a predominately  Muslim area).  This is impossible.  A young enterprising kid saw our despondent faces and told us he can get beer for us.   “Just follow me” he gestured, “we go to my family’s shop”.  True to his word, we ended up in his family’s gift and art shop where he pulled out 3 beers and 2x small bottles of vodka from the fridge, wrapped tightly in a black garbage bag.   He was clearly impressed with himself.  We asked for more and he jumped into a cab and returned about 40 minutes later with our order fulfilled (at 50% of the price of beer at our hotel).  Chuffed, we returned to our hotel and consumed our beer only to to return to the gift shop 3 hours later for more.  Same deal- another cab, more waiting, and more cheap beers.  The shop didn’t  have one single customer in it for the hours we spent in there, but we all got along famously with the local guys in the store.  We ended up going back again (yes, a third time) only to talk and drink tea and coffee with them and get an idea of their thoughts on Cairo in its current state.  We had such a good night with them.  Afterwards, we ended up at a bar and were treated like celebrities.  There was a live band playing and Gavan told the band that I was a great drummer and suggested the band let me play.  I had no idea this was going on until I was demanded to play.  Drunk and overly confident, I jumped behind and proceeded to pretend I know how to play the drums, much to Gavan & Shane’s hysteria.  My performance was woeful, but we all thought it was great laugh.

Bleary eyed and quite hungover, we awoke today to go and see some more pyramids outside of Cairo and also spend some time in the Cairo museum which was incredible.  I had no idea just how many Egyptian artifacts there are!!  What a blast.

We’ve done a basic shop for supplies for when we ride out tomorrow (noodles, beans, stock and some sanitary pads which wade jokingly snuck into the shopping basket, and none of us realized until we got home).  We’re tired but very excited about tomorrow.  Sleep may not be too forthcoming tonight.  I hope it is.

A couple of random points;

1-      As people who know me know, I have a tattoo sleeve which I’ve never regretted having.  Never, until coming to Africa that is.  Everywhere I walk, people point at me, approach me (nice tattoo man!) and just generally gawk.  It’s so intimidating and is counter productive to all of the effort I’ve gone to being non-descript for this journey.  The last thing any of us want to do is draw unnecessary attention to ourselves (I realize how ridiculous this sounds, considering we’re 4 lycra-clad cyclists in Africa) but I am furiously trying to source some kind of light-weight long sleeve shirt to cover my tattoos in public spaces.

2-      I have just bought a local SIM so should be able to make some phone calls over the next couple of days.  Shu, Mum and Dad- answer the phone is you get a random international number in the next few days….!!

3-      I have had an eye-popping amount of visits to this webpage over the last couple of days.  Please feel free to drop me an email at justinmolik@iinet.net.au to say hi and let me know how you found your way over here.

4-      New photos and videos are up.  Photos are on this website (here) and videos are on my youtube channel at  http://www.youtube.com/justinvafrica . 

So, this is it…  My next update will be somewhere along the Red Sea.  We’re riding about 130kms tomorrow and about 160-170kms the following days, so the next update will be done with some seriously tired legs.

Thanks for visiting

New videos up on youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI567TpZpww&feature=g-upl&context=G2ff5fa7AUAAAAAAAAAAhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qohxCpRZmq4&feature=g-upl&context=G21a207aAUAAAAAAABAA
;
Bookmark my youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/justinvafrica?feature=guide 

What a day!! The four of us set out at about 9am this morning to get our Sudanese visas sorted.  We grabbed a random taxi outside our hotel and haggled a price to go to the Australian embassy in the centre of Cairo.  Nagy, our taxi driver, was a great guy and had no problem waiting 1 hour for us while we were getting a letter of introduction from the Australian embassy (where I accidently tried to smuggle a knife into).  After paying way too much money for a 3 line letter which basically confirms who we are and that we are Australian citizens, Nagy patiently took us to the Sudanese embassy (which he’d never been to  before and had no idea of its location).  At one point, we were driving the wrong way down a one way street.  I have no idea how we made it without being in an accident.  Egyptian drivers are undoubtedly the most skilled in the world.  The Sudanese embassy was hilarious.  Long story short: we were messed around for hours and after 2 hours of jumping through hoops were told to come back at 9am tomorrow to collect our visas.  We went back to Nagy and asked for him to take us somewhere local and nice for lunch (i.e. no tourist places).  On the way, we asked Nagy to take us to Tahrir Square where Wade, Shane & I hopped out and had a walk around.  I wouldn’t say I felt unsafe, but we were certainly became the focus of a lot of attention.  After a few photos and a 5 minute walk around, we ran the gauntlet back to our chauffer/cab and went for lunch which consisted of a kickarse bean soup, breads, dips, lamp, chicken, beef (all wood grilled), rice and tea.  All for the equivalent of $10AUD. 

Spontaneously, we then decided to head over to the pyramids for the last 3 hours of sunlight for the day.  What a spectacle, and I’m not referring to the pyramids themselves.  Tourism in Cairo has effectively ceased to exist and all of the peddlers literally pounce on you to buy their wares, ride the camels, take photos with you etc etc etc.  Nagy, being the great guy he is, gave us detailed instructions of what not to do and what to say to these people.  Within 4 seconds of entering the gates, the pestering began and did not stop for the 2 or so hours we were in the pyramids.  At one point, I got sucked in by an old guy on a camel who swore he just wanted to give me some rocks as a gesture of hospitality.  I told him I didn’t want them and that I had no money.  He still insisted I take them.  I did.  Sensing my weakness, he then thrust his camel reins into my hand and started posing with photos neck to me.  My scam-o-meter started going off and I threw his reins back to him and started walking away.  He grabbed me, demanding money.  I refused..  He yelled.  I yelled.  He yelled some more and told me to burn in hell.  Wade and Shane stood by laughing hysterically.  I learned a valuable lesson and spent the rest of the afternoon treating the peddlers with unnecessary malice. 

The pyramids were unbelievable.  I’ve always had a thing for ancient Egypt but to stand there in their shadows was spectacular.  We all had a great time today and I honestly cant remember having laughed so much before in my life.

We’re built our bikes tonight and are planning on heading out tomorrow to do some more tourist things.  We’re off for a couple of beers tonight to celebrate what’s been a great day.

Having the time of my life so far!  I've uploaded a heap of photos from the last couple of days so head over to my photos page and check them out.  I haven't commented on any of the photos yet, but i plan to over 

We’ve arrived safely in Cairo.  What a grueling flight.

We all arrived at Melbourne airport about 5 hours pre departure in readiness for a painful check in.  I’m not entirely sure how, but Wade somehow managed to convince the unimpressed check in attendant not to charge us any oversized luggage penalty, which should have been in the vicinity of $1,500AUD. 

We headed straight to the Emirates lounge and their complementary alcohol (at 2am).  Many beers and champagne were consumed.  My pockets were loaded up with Lindt chocolates ready to have on the flight- only to forget about them and end up covered with melted chocolate.  3 hours into a 4 month trip and I was already a mess. 

Fast forward 24 hours and we arrived in Cairo airport.  What a scene that was.  We passed through immigration easily enough and went to collect our luggage.  A guy was standing next to our bikes.  I presumed he was an airport official, but can’t be sure.  We showed him our tickets to collect the bikes then was swamped by men helping us load the bikes on trolleys while demanding cash for their effort.  No one was paid.  We then piled our bikes, bags and ourselves into our undersized mini bus and headed to our hotel.  I’ve seen some bad driving before but nothing compares to Cairo traffic.  There are no rules.  At times there were 3 lanes with about 5 or 6 cars travelling abreast all sounding their horns and maneuvering in and out of lanes.  It was an almost graceful chaos.  How we didn’t see one single accident was a miracle. 

We arrived at our hotel at about 8:30pm local time (26 Dec) and went straight to bed and woke at about 7am for breakfast which we’ve just finished.

We’re heading to the Australian embassy this morning and will then by applying for our Sudanese visas.  Afterwards, if time permits, we’ll do some sight seeing and return to our hotels later this afternoon and build our bikes.

Having the time of my life so far.  I’m so lucky to be a part of this journey with these guys. 

Want to thank everyone for all of the well wishes- it’s been very overwhelming.  Special thanks to Sophia Knol and Joze for their kind words and support.  Also wanted to thank Bernard K for his kind email and well wishes.  I'm sorry i haven't had the chance to reply- the last couple of days before I left where a whirlwind and internet access here isn't too 

In 3 days, I will be on my way to Cairo with the guys to kick off our adventure that’s been front & centre of our focus for the last year and a bit.  It still doesn’t feel real.

I finished up at work on Friday (16th December) with a very overwhelming send off.  I work with some fantastic people who went to a LOT of effort for me (check out one of my cakes!).  It’s only been 4 days away from work but I really do already miss the team I work with.  I recognise how crazy that sounds, but I also think not having had a holiday for such a long time kind of blurs the lines where work becomes a large part of your life.  Thank you AC team & PFS!

Before I was invited to take part in this trip in November 2010, I’d never ridden a bike more than about 10kms.  I’ve spent most of my life riding bikes in one way or another (generally launching over dirt jumps, or breaking bones at skate parks), but had never actually tried any kind of endurance or distance riding.  Living approx 40kms from where I work I decided to use this to my advantage and start cycle commuting to work.  I have to say that this has been by far the most exciting “hobby” I’ve ever done.  Cycling is now deeply rooted as part of the person I am and will be here to stay.  I see a future full of bikes and an equal amount of justification as to why I need this new bike considering I have 4 others in my “bike room”.  The fact that I survived this year of cycle commuting is in itself fairly miraculous.   As best as I can calculate, in the 12’ish months, I’ve cycled about 7,000-8,000kms, had 2 bad accidents, about 50 near misses, had 1 puncture (yes, 1!), almost struck by lightning twice, whistled and smiled as I rode through no less than 10 summer storms, met more like-minded people than the other 30 years of my life combined and honestly had the time of my life.  Despite what I’m about to undertake almost certainly surpassing this in terms of fun, I’ve enjoyed embracing cycling and welcoming it into my life. 

 Not being content with a lazy week off before my departure, i’ve decided to pack up my house and ready it for sale while i’m away.  There are times in my life where the clouds part and I get an interesting self-perspective where I can’t help but feel absolutely batty.  This is one of those times.  So not only am I mildly freaking out about this impending trip, but am now drowning in a sea of anxiety after packing my house away into boxes.

Speaking of boxes, my bike is dismantled and neatly packed away into a bike box and ready to go.  I’ve also packed and repacked my panniers in an attempt to get everything (including the boxed bike) under the arbitrary 37kg luggage limit for our flight.  I’m currently at 41kgs with the additional 4kgs attracting a prospective $80 per kg additional charge.  You really start to scrutinise your gear closely when you know that your laptop battery charger is probably going to cost you $50 to take and your shampoo approximately $35.  At one point, I contemplated whether the air in my tyres resulted in unnecessary weight.  No, I wasn’t paying attention in year 9 science.  I deflated them anyway.  I am now down to a scarily minimalistic amount of gear.  Aside from your category 1 absolutely necessities (water filtration gear, cooking stove, cooking pans, steri pens, medications), i’m not taking much else other than 3 bike shorts, 3 bike tops, 1 pair bike shoes, 4 pair of socks, 2 pair boxer shorts, 1 pair non-bike pants, 2 t-shirts, 1 pair thongs, 1 pair shoes, 1 pair shorts, 1 light weight jacket.  And that’s it (in the way of clothing).  There’s been days in my life where I’ve gone through that entire range of clothing in one single day.  To say that I’m going to come back feral is an understatement.  To say that I’m not excited about this is an absolute lie.

Wade has recently set up a great blog which I recommend you all head on over to check out (http://sevenbythree.com/blog/).  We’ll both be updating as much as possible and between our 2 blogs you should get a good account of events and our different perspectives. 

Wade’s a networking superstar (of the social kind, not the geeky computer kind) and has managed to contact current Guinness World Record holder Robert Knol (http://www.11000km.nl/ halfway down page, click “translate to English”) to get some advice about our trip.  Robert cycled, solo and unsupported, from Cairo to Cape Town in earlier this year in an astonishing 70 days, 3 hours and 50 minutes with an average quota of 160km per day.  Robert’s been very accommodating and has offered some very helpful advice and we are all very fortunate and thankful for.  Wade’s been very productive this way and has managed to make contacts with a few people who have helped us so much.  I feel indebted and look forward to hopefully being able to return the favour to some people undertaking a similar journey in the future.

I’m getting the usual “how do you feel” questions and to be honest, I don’t know.  “Numb” seems about right.  I can’t help but wonder whether I’ve trained enough, whether I’m strong enough and whether I’ve done everything I possible could have.  The answer to all of those questions is definitely “no”, but despite that, I feel a sense of confidence.  Whether this is misplaced confidence, we’ll soon see.  I just want to get there and get this show on the road.

So people, that’s it.  I won’t bore you with the details of my box packing in the next 3 days.  The next post will be from a hopefully stable and peaceful Cairo on about 27 December 2011. 

We officially leave this month.  We.leave.this.month.   Part of me wonders how the hell we got here so quickly.  One minute the trip was six months away and the next it’s just a few weeks away. 

I have 11 days at work left before having 1 week off to run around like an idiot and get all of my last minute preparations done.  

Update wise, I’ve finished my three rounds of injections (almost $1,000 worth…!) and am now ready to take on the world of infectious diseases.  Except rabies- that can stay the hell away.  My loving girlfriend sent me this video (warning, graphic and confronting) which resulted in me contemplating trying to ride 12,000kms through Africa in one of those dog suits.   The 10kg I’d lose each day from sweat almost seems worth it.

Speaking of videos, Gavan stumbled across this one where, from 24 Jan 2011 to 4 April 2011, a guy set a Guinness World Record by cycling from Cairo to Cape Town (for the most part, a very similar route to ours) in 70 days.  All up, it’s a daily average of 160kms (ours is 125kms).  It’s a 14 minute video and shows some of the sites/towns that we’ll be going through. Well worth it- check it out.

My bike is now absolutely 100% finished.  Gavan, Wade & I spent last Saturday rebuilding my wheels and finishing Wade’s bike.  To say that I’m ecstatic about my bike would be an understatement.  It is now officially #1 on my “what 3 things would you grab if your house was burning” game.    Here’s a video clip of the bike (all loaded up) and yours truly making sure my newly built wheels were somewhere close to circular.

It looks as though I’ll be heading over with commercial quantities of prescription and over the counter meds.  I had an awkward moment at the chemist the other day when I bought 8 boxes of lipoamide (anti-diarrheal meds) and a very confused check-out girl queried whether there was a limit on quantities of lipoamide.  Another checkout lady asked why I needed so much.  I thought this was hilarious- they were clearly concerned that someone had discovered a new way to get high by sitting at home rocking out and doing line after line of anti-diarrheal meds.