The Fayoum by bicycle

The Fayoum is the closest thing Egypt has to a European cycling holiday, and almost nobody takes it. The land is flat, the roads between the villages are good, the air is agricultural rather than dusty, and every turn gives you a different view of water, sugar cane or date palms.

We did it on two bicycles, over four days, with a support car that mostly followed at a distance and was mainly there for the flat tyres.

The route

Fayoum to Qasr Qarun (28 km). Straight down the middle of the agricultural land, past the ruins of the pyramid at Hawara, and into the Roman palace. The palace has a striking entrance hall with intact frescoes, and from the top of the mud-brick walls you can see the whole of Lake Qarun, which is what the Fayoum was before the sea and the desert took the water away.

Wadi El Rayan (60 km from Fayoum). Out west into the desert to a chain of freshwater lakes. The last few kilometres are unpaved and sandy, so this section is worth doing with a wider tyre or on foot. There is a cafe at the edge that sells grilled fish caught in the lake that morning, and men who will rent you a boat.

Lake Qarun shore (24 km). The southern edge of the lake, mostly salt, but the road runs past a few villages where the ground is firm enough to ride, and the light at sunset on the salt crust is extraordinary.

Practical notes

• October to April. The Fayoum gets genuinely hot in July and the ride from Wadi El Rayan is exposed the whole way.
• Flat water is everywhere on the route, but the tap water is not what you want to drink.
• Take more water than you think and refill at the villages.
• A bicycle with a wide tyre (35–40 mm) handles the sand sections; a road bike will suffer.
• The lake is saline in the south. It looks inviting and it is not a swimming spot.

Why it is worth the detour

Because it is green. After a week of desert, the date palms and the sugar cane at Faraoun and the fields of the Faiyum come as a physical relief. And you will have the place almost to yourself.