day 1 June 2

Day 1 2 June 2009-06-02

Following the news of Friday when my passport didn’t arrive I collected the passport at the airport in JHB without my vaccination certificate! MDS Visapak haven’t excelled with this small job. Anyway I was able to get a replacement without new injections as I had a copy. Hopefully that’s the end of the drama. Maybe bad starts make for good finishes!
I arrived in Cairo at 6 am to find Mark and Justin waiting for me. They had made good progress on Sunday and got licenses etc sorted out. We had some time to
kill as customs only opened at 9. I met Mr Said our customs agent who has been doing a great job .
Customs took most of the day. We got to see the bikes, all appear to be intact, but at 14:00 they shut shop for the day so we start again tomorrow at 9. It all appears to be going well and Said thinks we’ll be finished by 13:00 tomorrow. All being well we’re heading south immediately, perhaps a picture at the Pyramids to start.
Don’t complain too much about the government service in SA. We saw about 70 people and very few boxes moved! Nobody was rushing and they don’t believe in a paperless society. Evertything has a form! Also no cameras allowed so you wont get the inside story.
Justin took fright with Mark’s booking at the Cascades Hotel so we’re living it up at the
4 Seasons. Very luxurious overlooking the Nile, the KTM tents won’t be quite the same.
Hopefully tomorrow gets the bikes to us. We’ve heard of storys where bikes take 6 days to clear. I wouldn’t like to attempt this without a Mr Said.
Let’s see what happens.

Jim.