The broken down van adventure seemed like a walk in the park compared
to our trip back to Cairo. Not trusting that the van would be fixed, we
took the Shell people up on an offer to go back on their bus, and made
our way to their hotel. After getting settled on the bus, we were informed
that the drivers would not allow us to be there. Travel for tourists is
tightly controlled, and they felt that we would not be able to get through
checkpoints without travel permits from the police. So we were stranded
again and ended up having to pay extortion prices for two private cars to
drive the six of us back to Cairo.
The trip was much shorter than on the way down since we were
zooming around other traffic on the two lane road at about 160km/hr (100 mph).
However the trip felt longer, probably having something to do with seeing our lives
pass before our eyes. It became especially "interesting" after dark since the
practice is to keep the headlights off most of the time, occasionally turning
them on to see if the road is still there. Our two drivers further displayed
their skills by chatting with each other on their cell phones (without
reducing their speed or putting on lights, of course).
