It’s been a bit of a rough start to the trip so far.
A quick internet update on the morning of departure revealed 59 officers and militants were involved in a shootout, a few kilometers west of Cairo leaving all the officers and very few of the insurgents dead. Honestly it shook me up a bit.
I was really looking forward to the western route up the Nile, but I think I better try the easter route to Sudan. I’ve been asking around and it sounds like I should be able to find a convoy, maybe with a group of truckers headed to Aswan. There is a fine line between the unstable Red Sea State of Sinai peninsula and the Nile River valley. Hope I find myself on the right side of it.
My Cairo hotel is nice. Surprised to see ISIS has their own suite on the same floor, luckily I’m blending in pretty well with my white boy Irish complexion. I guess when you run the largest terror organization in the world, you get a few perks at some choice hotels. Hopefully they aren’t looking for a place to stay with the recent fall of Raqqa.
I spent the last couple of days at Cairo Airport Customs mingling with the SFR’s (Sneaky F*!#ing Russians) Agents, trying to get my bike out of jail. No such luck yet. Its a crazy scene down there, quiet the experience, and let me tell you, this is a rough crowd of men. I’ve been pulled out of the crowd of SFR’s by the police and frisked several times, not to mention had my backpack taken yesterday until I left the grounds – kinda crazy. I look like Howdy Doody compared to these guys, I guess racial profiling goes both ways.
I know it sounds odd, but after a couple hours with the French and a couple days in North Africa and I’m already looking forward to Sudan.
Chad Rothacher 