Christmas and New year have come and gone.................uneventful! Definitely not !!

We arrived in Hurghada the day before Ed's flight home and settled into the apartment nicely. Not quite sure why people buy these places or come here but they appear to be popular, plenty of new blocks and resorts going up all the time, will the infrastructure cope, only time will tell.

On the Friday I said goodbye to Ed and settled into my own routine, finding a nice little coffee shop to spend a bit of time in and watch the world go by. Actually, to be more precise, miserable faced tourists being hassled in the local shops, always a source of amusement or are they! Maybe they are the sensible ones without motorbikes.............more importantly I found a restaurant to sell me some alcohol.

So when we arrived I gave the order for my tyres to be shipped to me - DHL express 2-3 days - they'll arrive Monday or Tuesday! So I chilled out over the weekend, caught up on my sleep, filled up on alcohol and loads of food.

Monday came and went - no tyres!!!

Tuesday came and went - no tyres!!!

Maybe they are caught up in customs. Checked on the DHL website for my tracking, further address information needed.

Further address information needed, I gave them the full address when filling in the paperwork !!!!

So I phoned home and was given the DHL customer service number in Port Said - non operational !!!

Further phone calls and still no luck !

Later found out that they don't phone mobile numbers only local !! Well what was the point in giving them a phone number.

By this point it was Friday and still no damned tyres..........

Saturday !! Christmas day !! Maybe Santa would find me and deliver me my lovely Continental TKC 80's............

The phone rang, strange number, so I answered it ! It was DHL in Port Said wanting to know my address ! So I gave them the address and the site managers phone number, he assured me the tyres would be delivered! So I waited...........

Saturday came and went......no tyres! Ok, so it is there weekend even if it wasn't their Christmas!

Sunday came and went......no tyres!

It had now been a week and this express delivery was just not happening!

Next plan of action was to head to the DHL customer service point at the airport. So Monday morning I climbed into my rather grubby biking gear and headed along the middle ring road to the airport. There was little petrol in the tank but I knew it would be enough......

Arrived at the airport check-point!

No motorbikes! 'What do you mean no motorbikes?'

'It's a military zone, only cars and coaches'

By this point I was beginning to think that the Egyptians were conspiring against me !

So after a frantic phone call home I headed back to the apartment ! Phone calls, I needed to keep trying these numbers I'd been given.........re-checked the website and the number I'd been given was wrong! So I re-dialled and someone answered, I was then put through to the original man who had phoned me on Christmas day.

Apparently I had been unable to give him the address when he first phoned ! That was bulls*** because I had given him the address word for word. It was at this point I managed to grab Achmed (one of the apartment handy men) to talk to!

It was OK ! The tyres would be delivered.......thank-you!

So I went upstairs and waited!

My doorbell rang ! It was Achmed ! He handed me his phone !

The tyres wouldn't be delivered, the van had broken down..........

You're joking ! This meant I needed to go and get them ! But not at DHL ! No DHL had used an agent in Hurghada........where the hell were they!

Don't worry a taxi was coming to take myself and Achmed to the tyres !

After a little searching around the back streets of Hurghada, we managed to find some tiny little office where my beautiful new tyres we sat waiting for their rightful owner to claim them.........

I paid the shipping company the customs and administration duty and promptly left a very happy, if not slightly perplexed person !

In the meantime I was in communication with 2 overlanders named Raf and Andri. They were heading straight for me from Nuweiba and I'd offered them a place to stay for the night!

Feeling a little apprehensive about my impending hosting skills, I couldn't sleep and got up to make myself a cup of coffee .........I know I'll drink it on my balcony! As it had been raining the previous night I was keen to make sure no mossies came in, so I carefully closed to patio door ! Only I closed it a little too well..........it locked! Shut !!!

s*** ! Now what was I going to do ? I could just imagine Raf and Andri thinking I had abandoned them, I couldn't give them directions......my phone was in the lounge!

So I waited ! By this time I was getting quite good at this! And in true British style I had to summon help......at a respectable hour! I figured 8am !!!!!

So at about 8am I began to shout for help! No one heard me ! For 30 minutes I shouted from that balcony, until a passer by looked up, I grabbed his attention and asked for him to get Achmed in the office !

Few minutes later Achmed appeared and soon had me back in.........twice in less than 24 hours he had rescued me. First the tyres then the balcony ! This guy must think I'm an idiot !

So I set about cleaning the apartment, well as good as I could get it for my impending visitors.

An e-mail ! They were nearly here ! I'd given them specific directions and they had made it.....

It was great to finally meet them, so other overlanders did exist ! So after the initial formalities we went to the apartment so they could at least grab a drink!

They also needed some tyres changing, so I rode with them the few hundred meters to the local garage where the deal was struck and new tyres ordered or the following morning.

In the meantime I think we had all decided than none of us were axe wielding homicidal maniacs and they graciously accepted the offer for a bed for the night!

But what about having a few beers and dinner out ? Sounded good to me ! I'd had enough of being stuck in this damned apartment thinking of bloody tyres!

So we quickly got ready and headed out to town ! Oh s*** ! We walked out of the apartment into the biggest thunderstorm Hurghada had experienced. The lightening was blinding! The rain torrential ! By the time we'd walked a few meters we were all soaked, still we made it to the road and flagged a passing taxi. Who I have to say wasn't too keen on having wet visitors in his vehicle.

We eventually decided to head to 'my bar' ! Which way? Bit difficult really at that point because the driver kept refusing to use his wipers. Raf was sat in the front and in between trying to argue about using the meter and using the windscreen wipers, it was a short if not very amusing journey.

We finally got there, and the beers started flowing ! It's at this moment in the blog I should really recall some of our conversation, but to he perfectly honest, I can't really remember. Except to say the night was going well and these guys were great to talk to and I was having an awesome evening out with them. Of course information was exchanged about who, what, where, when and why !

It was getting late and we hadn't eaten yet. But not to worry the bar was kicking us out and escorting us to their restaurant. More beer, good conversation and some food later, it was time to call it a night and another interesting taxi ride home. This time an argument ensued concerning the price, so Raf gave him some money and we all walked off - with the driver I think shouting obscenities at us ! Oooops !

The next morning they took the truck to the garage and had the tyres changed. It was time to say goodbye.......it was at this point I really wished I was catching the ferry with them. Handy to have a 7 tonne truck to load your bike onto if anything happened !

And they were gone, off to Luxor then Aswan for the ferry on the 3rd.

Now Ed is back and tyres have been fitted, bikes maintained and ready for the off again.

The only problem there was we needed a letter of introduction from the British Embassy for our Sudanese visas! Damn and they didn't do this from the consular in Luxor!

To Cairo ! By bus!

So here I am, in Cairo ! We arrived at about 9.30am after about 6 hours on a coach from Hurghada.

The British Embassy issued the letter straight away and the Sudanese Embassy have told us to come back tomorrow at 10am. Fantastic 24 hours for the visa. Now should we try the Ethiopian Embassy and get that out of the way also.........

Well tomorrow is another day !