Sand on all sides
Dominic Gill
Dear friends and family,
It has been so long since I have written to you all. Life has been moving quickly as per usual and although I have I think been in touch with a great deal of you I haven’t used this email list for ages…….so, here goes.
I sit on the rooftop of a small hotel looking out at what looks like the giant and broken remains of an impossibly ornate sand castle, surrounded by dusty palm trees and an occasional 2 or 3 storey cement structure sprouting rebar out of its top floor like weeds. I am in Siwa – a more stereotypical Oasis would be hard to find. The sometimes rumored resting place of Alexander the Great. Only 100km from Libya, 300km from the Mediterranean, and 900km into a 4000km journey around Egypt. On what?
A tandem.
What else?
At the beginning of this year my girlfriend Nadia planted the seed for another ‘Take A Seat’ project. There was light at the end of the tunnel in the edit process for my second documentary (Sharing A Ride Across America), and after light starved weeks in the edit bay in Los Angeles I was ready to see the sun again.
Nadia chews through newspapers and feeds off history and politics like its necessary to maintain a steady pulse. She is half Egyptian and the world had taken a sudden turn. The Egyptians were leading the way unbelievably non-violently in the Arab Spring. The mystery of over 4000 years of human history. The temptation of a vast desert and of course the vast and silty river on which my father once rowed a race against the Egyptian Police force. The Nile Boat Race? I had to see this hallowed ground.
I am on a rest day. I pedaled out of Cairo alone – well, with an empty back seat. Despite the fact that my bike is loaded with everything I need to survive, there is a vehicle involved, housing the camera man Bashir, the fixer and driver Tamer, and of course Nadia, the producer and manager. After 4 windy days, camping in dusty and mosquito filled villages trying not hard enough to fix the language barrier, I picked up my first companion in Alexandria, feeling like I’d been on the road for an age already.
Ayman is a handsome graphic designer – photographer that rarely thinks in a straight line. He loves to take panoramas, and if not found nursing his behind or the knee that plagued him on the bike, he would be standing by the road turning in a slow circle, a camera stuck to his brow and the shutter clicking reassuringly as he turned.
The last 3 days of our journey together have been my favorite. Being back in what is undoubtedly the desert has begun to satiate my thirst for isolation and adventure. Camping in wind and sand, where the horizon is straight and gives little away, or quietly sharing food outside a tiny village mosque. It has taken me a few days to warm up to this journey, but its happening. And it better be happening, with 300km of desert on one side and only one other drifted sandy road out of here. 367km of crested sandy dunes, smattered with small army posts and one or two tiny oases – perhaps the most physically demanding part of this journey. I’m looking forward to it! Furthermore, it looks like I have a companion. A 24 year old man called Hesham is keen as mustard. All he has to do is ensure he gets leave permission from work. I have tried to explain and Ayman passed over all the knowledge he had gleaned from 6 days in the saddle, but I still wonder whether Hesham know what he’s getting himself into.
We’ll see.
And so it goes on. While many of my dear friends create families and keep those inviting home fires burning, I cannot help but try and make a success of documenting adventure. The major downside to this lifestyle choice is, while I am very lucky to have found someone happy to ride these waves with me, I see most of you very rarely. Rest assured not many days go by when I don’t think about all of you. There is as much time as there ever was to think while grinding out hot desert miles. Sand on one side, more sand on the other, perhaps a dead camel. Ahead of me, a never-ending stream of thoughts that tumble through my brain and trail away in a turbulent wake behind me.
Love to you all
Dom
p.s. Anyone on FB that has not come across my group page, its 'Dominic Gill, Inclusive Adventure' where I post quick updates regularly!