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for once i got up at two o'clock in the morning rather than going to bed at this hour. by time the bike was packed i had shaken off my drowsiness and said goodbye to the guys of the queen hotel who were still smoking sheesha and drinking tea.
considering the dangerous times we live in i fully appreciated the need to completely unload my bike and put piece by piece through a scanner, before boarding the ferry.
and, having a swiss sense of thoroughness, i was delighted to repeat the procedure as we landed in sharm-el-sheikh. packing and unpacking is fun, that's what travelling is all about, and considering the fact that the officers behind the screens were dozing everybody must have been happy, the tourist, the police and the potential evil guys.
sinai is beautiful. i drove north on a desert road that snaked its way through narrow valleys that lay between imposing, rough mountains. eventually i reached the eastern coast of the peninsula and was struck by the deep blue of the ocean. it shone out brightly from the dull-grey beige frame of the rocky valley and the dull-grey beach.
on the horizon, where another mountain range closed off the eastern finger of the red sea, was saudi arabia. it felt incredible to look across the water to another country, actually seeing the outline of a geographical structure you've seen so often on maps.
as i thought of geography, picturing the outline of africa, i realized that i had just left that continent. although belonging politically to egypt, sinai is arabia and i had left africa by stepping on board of the ferry this morning. a wave of sadness and joy mixed curiously as they rushed through my body: i had completed my trip around africa, i had done it!
orientation had definitely been easier in africa and it took me more than an hour to find mauro's place. after searching for more than an hour i finally saw a bungalow on the beach with a black honda africa twin parked in front of it. happy as i was i drove too fast across the sand and lost control as i attempted to stop, landing with a perfect dive in front of his little hut. "mauro," i laughed at my surprised friend as i got up from the sand, "good to see you!"