After a short crossing in boat of Aquaba, Jordan, I am arriving in Nuweiba, Egypt. It is impossible for me to pass by Israel (even for the 50 small kilometres). I am driving through a part of Sinai and arriving in Dahab where I am meeting by chance Finola, an irish girl who I met almost 2 years before in the same place. Now she's working there by giving reiki massages and yoga's courses. I am remaining a few days and am traveling by bus to Cairo where I have to obtain my sudanese and ethipian visas. I am attending a wonderful concert of classical music which a friend is giving by chance on the same time and I'm trying to finish these formalities as quick as possible in order to leave the city that I know already and that I really do not carry in my heart. This second visit is helping me to enjoy a little more the city but I will be never a fan of Cairo. I'm feeling better because I can stay in the house of a friend's friend (a lot of friends or friend's friends in Egypt...) When I am leaving the sudanese embassy, thousands of police officers are paralysing the city and I am spending more than an hour to leave the district of the embassies. The following day I am learning that the Moslem brothers, a religious political party savagely opposed to the governement as well as to the bonds which link the president to the USA, wanted to make a large demonstration. I am reading in the newspapers and on internet that they didn't manage to attract people and that a few hundred people got arrested. What they are not saying in the medias, is that thousands of police officers have paralysed the city all the day to stop any demonstration... Normal that they didn't manage to make their demonstration, a beautiful example of egyptian democraty... Egypt is governated by an iron hand, a dictator that the americans and some european countries support. It seems me that I have heard Mr Bush saying that he wants a democraty on the world scale. "American democraty" means "the one who is friend to the Bush political ideas"?

I am going back to Dahab right before a bomb exploses in Cairo which killed a french, an american and the kamikaze himself. I will litteraly relax during two weeks (almost 3...). The sea, the fruit juices, some repairs on my bicycle, some rest and of course parties as well as the hot and beautiful climate. I am taking a last breathe of "lazy life" before starting my hard crossing of deserts in the north Africa. Still in the splendid moutainous desert of Sinai, I am going to Sharm El Sheikh (that I won't see in fact, the 358 cars and buses of tourists I met on the road don't give me the desire to make a visit downtown) and am taking a boat to Hurgadha. By doing this, I avoid crossing the crazy Cairo by bicycle and especially the north part of Egypt, from Cairo to Luxor, who is forbidden for individual travellers. Never mind, I am following the Read Sea until Marsa Alam. Every evening I am camping on a lonely beach, a beach where I get as companions the stars and the sea's sound. It's a really good time. Especially that between me and the egyptians, it's not an real love story. I appreciate the fact of being alone and especially to have the beach for me and my bicycle. Water is already difficult to find... Several time I am trying to stop buses filled by tourists who spend a lot of money to dive and I am requesing some water. None of these vehicules will stop of course... thank you the western world... I am continuing my road, thirsty, when, at last, I see a small cafeteria which will remain in my memory. The egyptian "commandant Cousteau" is sharing his lunch with me (and he really has the t-shirt of the commandant Cousteau). He is inviting me to fish with his crew the next day. Unfortunately I have to hurry, in 7 days my sudanese visa will not be valid anymore, I have to drive a few kilometers quickly. What's funny for me is that they are taking me for a Syrian. I have to repeat several times that I'm swiss but that I learned my Arabic in Syria, but some people just don't want to think something else than I'm a more or less a white Syrian...

I am trying to cross 240 kilometers of desert to Idfu, but the police is stopping me more or less by force and don't want to let me drive in there for safety's reasons. I am checking with the local police station as well as the tourist police to obtain an autorisation but they don't want to give it to me. They are saying the area is dangerous, gangsters can be in there, but especially no water and no food. They don't think I can survive to this incredibly long distance... They are just afraid that something happens to me and disturbs the business of tourism in Egypt. I am trying again to pass quick through the check point but they are stopping me and putting me in a bus. First they are asking all the passengers to go out, they are checking everybody and we are starting the drive to Idfu. According to the police officers, the bus is now safe, nobody have weapons and I can cross this part of the desert safely... In a way, I'm lucky because on the way I will see one of the most incredible storm I have ever seen. The sky is covered by lightenings, the sound of the thunders is covering the noise of the motor. Because of the flood of rain it's impossible to see more than a few meters and the gusts of the wind almost lay down the bus several times... In the bus, everyone is praying and are requesting the help of Allah, an apocalyptic atmosphere... Arriving in Idfu, I am contemplating a landscape devasted by the storm. The palm trees are lying on the roads or sometimes even on the houses, water is everywhere on the roads, the electric wires are hanging a little everywhere as well as the clink's roofs who flew over all the city. I going to Asswan as quick as possible and go straight to the office of naviguation for Sudan (because once more, the terrestrial border is not open in Egypt, only the crossing of the lake Nasser is allowed). The man is telling me that the boat is leaving Monday (2 days after) and that the boat is full. "Come back in one week". My visa will expire if I don't take this boat. I am eating a good meal in the restaurant, I am drinking a good juice of sugar's cane in the street and I am going back to the office of navigation. I am trying to pay him a small backshish but he is refusing and is giving me a ticket for the boat, at last... Welcome in Africa, everything can be obtained in here, but that takes time and requires a little energy... In a hurry, I a making my food's provisions and various purchases before crossing the Nubian desert. Monday morning I am driving to the embarcation's place, the few 17 kilometres are transformed in almost 50 kilometres, because I'm taking the wrong road (the police don't want to let me cross the roadblock which is forcing me to take a longer road to avoid it), I am crossing my first large rubbish dumb. A "marvellous" place, which is giving you a vomitting's feeling for almost 5 kilometres, without counting the few wild dogs which are running after me, unforgettable place...