November 11th

I fell asleep early and woke up feeling refreshed. We jumped in the Red Sea and swam in the pool. The entirety of the ride today was along the sea and passed a number of large resorts, most were vacant or deserted. We also passed a group of children who all waved smiling and yelling to us. At mile 37 we came across a border checkpoint. We were told insistently that we could not continue on bicycles but had to get a bus because it was too dangerous on bike to Hurghada. I tried to convince the man for about 10 mins in charge that we would be o.k. and had been through much worse through Cairo. After much arguing Mohammed called somebody above him in the bureaucratic chain. We hung out for several hours and after much interrogation about our business in Egypt and cycling experience etc. we were told that in order to continue our trip through Egypt we would need to be accompanied by a travel company. As much as I wanted to cycle every foot of this route, I had to concede that skipping a section was better than trying to figure out the logistics of having a tour company follow us through the rest of Egypt. We were able to get a bus to Hurghada. However, what should have been a 3 hour trip turned into a 9 hour experience as the bus broke down within 5 miles and needed repairs. we made it to Hurghada around 5 am the following day just as the sun was rising. Today was a difficult day it was devastating conceding to skip 150 miles of the route, however I tried everything I could to get around the problem short of being escorted by a guide company and found no solution.