Galal Zekri-Chatilla, a bike rider from Cairo set out nearly five months ago to travel around to have an Egypt bike adventure to prove that it’s still safe to travel despite recent circumstances in the country. This week was Chatila’s last days on the road riding his bike, which he dubbed Sophia, as he expects to be back home in Cairo by Friday, the 17th of April.
Egypt Bike Adventure Faced Legal Issues
Before setting off on his travel around Egypt, Chatilla knew that he would be clocking thousands of kilometers on his bike, Sophia, in fact, the whole Egypt bike adventure has logged an at least 7,000 kilometers during the trek. He says that he performed the trek in nine different stages of travel.
At first, after a travel of only 90 days into his solo Egypt bike adventure, Chatilla faced some legal issues trying to get permission to help him make the trip he needed to complete between Siwa and the Bahariya Oasis. He says he had to wait 30 days to try to get the required permission, but after that long and no results, he decided he had no other choice but to head back to Cairo and try his Egypt bike adventure via a different route. He also spoke of how quiet the desert trek had been and that it seemed hard to be back in a busy metropolitan area like Cairo with all of its crowds, noise, and pollution.
Next Step in the Trek Across Egypt
Once back in Cairo, Chatilla spent two days with friends, never going home as he worried if he did that he would never finish the desired Egypt bike adventure. Then, it was time to head to Bahariya for the next stage of the trek, which others had feared he would have problems with because the route was said to be dangerous, often filled with robbers and thugs who would beat and steal from travelers.
While the determined long-distance biker didn’t have any problems with robbers, he says that the weather made the adventure harder. A major sandstorm reaching speeds of 74-kilometers an hour occurred during his bike ride through the area, thus turning what he had estimated as a four-hour bike ride into what ended up being an 11-hour long, exhausting trip, during his Egypt bike adventure where he had to sleep in a foxhole to avoid the storm.
After that, he spent time in the White Desert, where he got water from public wells and met all kinds of people he never had known existed, such as a man who was puzzled at the idea of buying water. Along the way during his travel in his Egypt bike adventure, he got to see many things like sugar cane farms and even got to earn a diving certificate during a stop at the famous Red Sea Diving Safari. Chatila’s Egypt bike adventure and travel will end on Friday with his joining in with bikers taking part in the Cairo Half Marathon in Heliopolis.
