Bicycles. Everywhere. And if it’s not some form of bike part, tool or accessory, it’s spandex. Nice.
We joked that it would have been great to enter “professional cyclist” on our landing cards – it sounds a fair deal more exciting than “finance”, and ironically not all that far from the truth. But the welcome could not have been more enthusiastic. The Irish side of our contingent have played out of their cycling boots – and organised superb contact with the Irish ambassador in Cairo. His team wasted no efforts in looking after us from meeting us at the airport, walking us through customs, taking us to our hotel that they had organised, providing us with the heroic services of a driver Mahadi – who has had the equivalent task of looking after what must seem like six noisy toddlers, and then hosting us in style at the ambassador’s home last night.
Sudanese visas are shrouded in mystery. We had discovered that Cairo is the only place to collect a Sudanese visa without it passing through Khartoum. We have landed on blogs that amount to plaintiff calls from Addis saying that they have been camping at the Sudanese embassy for months and have had no luck as yet. My suggestion? – Come to Cairo! We walked in at 11, armed with letters from the Department of Foreign Affairs, letters from Millennium Promise, letters from contacts in Khartoum, a detailed itinerary and a good dose of irish charm. It appears that will do just about anything. And so after high chaos levels and a never-ending barrage of handshakes and “shukran”s – three o’clock saw a photo opportunity with our new-found Sudanese mate and the team displaying our Sudanese trophies! Yeehaa!
With one less barrier to starting a certain level of nerves have established themselves. Today is Monday. We start Tuesday. We have a day of pyramids and camel rides – not to mention press releases, final contacts, and packing the bike – a monumental task in itself.
We joked that it would have been great to enter “professional cyclist” on our landing cards – it sounds a fair deal more exciting than “finance”, and ironically not all that far from the truth. But the welcome could not have been more enthusiastic. The Irish side of our contingent have played out of their cycling boots – and organised superb contact with the Irish ambassador in Cairo. His team wasted no efforts in looking after us from meeting us at the airport, walking us through customs, taking us to our hotel that they had organised, providing us with the heroic services of a driver Mahadi – who has had the equivalent task of looking after what must seem like six noisy toddlers, and then hosting us in style at the ambassador’s home last night.
Sudanese visas are shrouded in mystery. We had discovered that Cairo is the only place to collect a Sudanese visa without it passing through Khartoum. We have landed on blogs that amount to plaintiff calls from Addis saying that they have been camping at the Sudanese embassy for months and have had no luck as yet. My suggestion? – Come to Cairo! We walked in at 11, armed with letters from the Department of Foreign Affairs, letters from Millennium Promise, letters from contacts in Khartoum, a detailed itinerary and a good dose of irish charm. It appears that will do just about anything. And so after high chaos levels and a never-ending barrage of handshakes and “shukran”s – three o’clock saw a photo opportunity with our new-found Sudanese mate and the team displaying our Sudanese trophies! Yeehaa!
With one less barrier to starting a certain level of nerves have established themselves. Today is Monday. We start Tuesday. We have a day of pyramids and camel rides – not to mention press releases, final contacts, and packing the bike – a monumental task in itself.
2 comments:
Didi, wow wow wow.. So good to read your updates and I am now in the picture, EXACTLY in the middle, this blog thing is amazing and I feeel I am on the tour with you! Pleaaaase keep it going! Am so impressed with your mileage so dar, don't have burn out please and keep those boys in line okay,. thinking of ya .. lots
gDidi - a pleasure getting all this news . Keep it going. I am finding my way thru all this new tech.
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