Galal Zekri circles the country on two wheels
BY HEBA ALAM EL-DIN
@HEBAMAHMOUD268
![Zekri, youngest Egyptian to travel around the country on a bicycle [Courtesy of Galal Zekri]](http://www.auccaravan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/galal-e1446884784997.jpg)
Galal Zekri, the youngest Egyptian to travel around the country on a bicycle, is on a mission to encourage his countrymen to go out and discover the country’s hidden treasures.
Twenty-two-year-old mass communication student at Modern Sciences and Arts University (MSA) Zekri chose to find adventure in Egypt unlike most of his compatriots who would rather travel abroad.
He traveled to 45 cities throughout the country, including Saloum, Siwa and the other four oases of the Western Desert, along with Marsa Alam, Shalatin, Halayeib, the Sinai Peninsula and the Nile Delta.
Zekri believes that life does not end at the bachelor’s degree, and that it’s mostly about the experiences one undergoes.
He took a semester off from his academic obligations and focused on his travel plans, and the preparations needed for such extensive sojourning.
Zekri usually undergoes intense training in order to endure the physical demands of his travels.
One of the most important things he had to learn was identifying weather and wind movements.
He also had to learn how to properly read a map, and know to detect locations and different geographic markers.
Furthermore he had to identify the geolocation of telecom towers in and beyond the cities he visited in order to maintain Internet connectivity which would allow him to upload pictures of his many adventures.
Zekri’s ongoing dream of adventure and travel throughout Egypt started when he was 14 years old when he was traveling to the Suez Canal during a school trip.
In 2008, he hiked to Ismailia.
He then traveled alone by bicycle to Ein Sokhna and Nuweiba through the Sinai Peninsula.
He began to blog about his adventures and making his experiences accessible to people who aspire to follow in his footsteps.
More ambitiously, perhaps, is his plan to write a book and film a short movie of his 45-city adventure in hopes of educating more Egyptians about the wonders that await them in their own country.
“The movie will be released hopefully next March or April because we have been facing problems with the post production budget,”said Zekri.
Zekri firstly thought of publishing this movie on social media but he believes that the movie deserves much more publicity and a broader audience.
“People know me as the bicycle traveller, but I hope with the film of my trials and tribulations , they will come to know me as an adventurer,” he said.
