CAIRO: Tarek El-Guindy decided to challenge himself to a difficult and physically-demanding task. The idea of combining it with a cause has proven to be the motivation he needs to follow through. El-Guindy, along with his friend Omar Abdel Fattah, made their way from Cairo to Sharm El-Sheikh on their bikes, raising money for NGO Afaq El-Hayah, to be allocated in a school development project in the village of Kafr Hmayed. When El-Guindy, supply chain import manager at Nestle North East Africa Region, heard about a friend who cycled to Basata, he found the challenge intriguing and wanted to try it himself. Only, he decided to push himself and extend the trip to Sharm El-Sheikh. He started proposing the idea of a 500-km cycling trip to friends, but only received a response from Abdel Fattah. Abdel Fattah, an engineer at Shell Oil who works in a rig in Western Siberia, was coming for a one-month vacation to Egypt and wanted to make sure El-Guindy was committed to the project. “When he told me ‘Omar I've started collecting donations and I'm going whether you're in or not' I was sure of his commitment and that it's not just enthusiasm,” said Abdel Fattah. Because they weren't professional cyclers, only friends, family members and acquaintances took a chance on their challenge and donated money for every kilometer. With donations ranging between 50 piasters to LE 10, the duo managed to raise nearly LE 30,000 for the NGO. “The fundraising really started when we started the trip, my sister set up a Facebook page and as people saw our updates they started placing donations and raising them,” said El-Guindy. Abdel Fattah, being a sports enthusiast, took charge of planning the trip, preparing the gear and equipment needed and setting the training schedule. He started water skiing at the age of seven and from then on his passion for water sports was born, going into kneeboarding, mono skiing, windsurfing, wakeboarding, and kite-surfing. El-Guindy also played handball for eight years and enjoyed kite-surfing, running and diving. None of them tried cycling professionally. Abdel Fattah only cycled to college and ran a few errands on his bike in order to avoid the traffic. “I borrowed a bicycle from a friend and left the rest to Omar,” said El-Guindy. Two-week training “I have a relative who participated in a cycling rally in Tanzania and he spent months training, so I didn't think we can take this whole trip with only two weeks training,” said Abdel Fattah. “When I talked to [my relative], he told me that if I cycled 100 km two days in a row then the Sharm challenge would be plausible,” he added. The training started. On their first day, Abdel Fattah and El-Guindy cycled for 20 km and added 20 more each day for two weeks until the last weekend before their scheduled trip to Sharm El-Sheikh, when they managed to complete a 100 km-trip. “We cycled 50 km on the Suez road, the trip was fine and took one and a half hours, however cycling back these 50 km was difficult as there was a sandstorm. It took us five hours,” said El-Guindy. “After we survived this day I was confident that we can make it to Sharm,” Abdel Fattah said. The five days before their trip they spent preparing the gear and the accessories needed for long distance cycling as well as learning how to repair the bicycle. A 500-km trip On the day of the anticipated trip, Abdel Fattah woke up with a stomach ache and El-Guindy had a fever, ails they kept to themselves so as not to demotivate the other. As they reached the beginning of the road to Sharm El-Sheikh but were stopped at the tunnel by the police who first thought they are foreigners. “We told them about the challenge and the cause we're raising money for and they were proud of us, and because we're not allowed to cycle in the tunnel, they stopped trucks to take us through,” recalled El-Guindy. The highlight of the trip came on the second day when they stopped to rest when the sun set at a small town called Abu Redis, 200 km away from Sharm El-Sheikh. The town's population does not exceed 1,000 people and only hosts a supermarket, a small coffee shop and a police station. They headed to the police station to set up camp beside it for protection. However, a officer told them they can't sleep there and because he was not authorized to allow them to sleep inside the station, they had to wait for the lieutenant. “We were dying from fatigue and wanted to sleep … We waited inside for three hours, but he wouldn't let us fall asleep,” said Abdel Fattah. When the lieutenant arrived they asked him for permission to stay inside the station until 5:00 am. However, he offered to take them to a chalet where they spent the rest of their night. They cycled 150 km each day for the first two days, and then 100 km for the third and fourth days. They arrived to Sharm El-Sheikh only 30 minutes before hopping on a bus and returning back to Cairo. El-Guindy and Abdel Fattah are currently planning future expeditions under the Facebook group “Cycling for a Cause.” “It doesn't have to necessarily be for a cause … we can build on the spirit of the revolution,” said Abdel Fattah.
