Thursday August 27, 2009
 
Once again I had a dodgy stomach, but was spurred on by the thought that Asyut was only 85 km's away and a nice bed in a youth hostel would await me there.

At the first checkpoint of the day I was stopped by a young, arrogant, plain clothes policeman. He held my passport for ages, and I think my frustration showed. He asked me if I was angry. I lied and said no.

Finally I was let through, but this minor vistory was short lived, as at the next stop a km down the road I was told that i must ride in a pick up truck. I declined twice but they persisted. I pulled out my map of the world and showed them that I wanted to ride all the way to Cape Town. They reluctantly let me ride. Round 2 to Pete.

I thought I was home free, but looked around to find I had a tail. At each check point the escort would change. I bought food and water, but my "protectors" were very impatient and told me to hurry up. It seemed that I would also be fasting today, there was no time allowed for eating.

At the next escort switch I insisted that I be allowed to stop at the checkpoint for 5 minutes to eat. They allowed me this, but once we set off they questioned me when I stopped to take even a sip of water, as if I were deliberatly trying to annoy them.

They were clearly frustrated that I had insisted on riding and threatened to put my bike inside the vehicle if I grew tired and slowed. I was determined to keep my pace up.

It was a horrible ride. I arrived at the youth hostel dry mouthed and exhausted after 2 hours of almost non stop cycling. I entered Asyut with a car behind and infront of me, with 4 armed men in each. I was told not to move from the youth hostel until they came to pick me up tomorrow. A prisoner!