The Sinai MTB epic ride, December 2010, Part I
Last Wednesday, four MTB Egypt riders (Kandil, Neal, Samer and myself) loaded up two cars with bikes and gear for a two-day adventure ride deep into the Sinai mountains. Here is a photo documentation (video coming soon) of the trip:
Wednesday afternoon we loaded up the cars…
3 bikes (mine, Samer's and a spare) and lots of gear, tools and spares crammed into Samer's Nissan...
...and Kandil and Neal's bikes + more gear in Neal's Jeep..
...and off we went! Destination: Neuwiba.
We made it to the beach-side camp to spend the night. After a quick dinner, we went to bed dreaming about the adventure ahead…
We woke up to a beautiful sunrise...
...and started preparing our riding gear. We couldn't wait to hit the trails!
Those straw huts are cute, but taller people will need to cut out holes to extend their legs if they expect any kind of comfort :)...
Breakfast plates were wiped clean. Total annihalation was the fate of every meal that we had on this trip...
We loaded up our bikes and gear onto the support truck...
Four bikes, riding gear for four, tents, sleeping bags, food, water and everything we need for two days in the mountains was on this truck. The guy on the right in this picture is our guide. More about him later...
Then we crammed ourselves into our guide's Toyota. The bike on top is his.
And off we went. Sinai mountains, here we come!
A police officer at a checkpoint was apparently having a bad day and decided that we needed a "permit" to go where we were going. Such a party pooper! We spent a little over two hours waiting to obtain the piece of paper we need to get going again.
Clearance obtained, and we're on the go again!
Finally at the start point (at 1000+ meters above sea level) but about 3 hours behind scheduele, we scrambled to get our gear together and start riding. We didn't have adequate night riding gear and wanted to make it to our campsite (where we regroup with the support trucks) before darkness.
And it begins!
End of part one. Stay tuned for part two and three! (stories of epic trails and how our guide broke his bike!)
