Today may have been one of the most amazing experiences of my life.
Myself and about 40 other Tour d’Afrique riders took a short 25K cycle trip through the outskirts of Cairo to visit the Sakara pyramids.
I must admit to being daunted by the prospect of cycling in the absolutely insane Cairo traffic however Cairo drivers are far, far more considerate than British drivers despite the chaos. I was also a little paranoid about becoming the first person to fall off 
For the entire 25K, people at the side of the road were utterly amazed. Most waved, some called out “welcome” or “hello”, children ran out of houses and some literally stood open mouthed with surprise. Kids were “high 5-ing” the riders as we passed and some shouting for us to give them money. The areas we passed through were clearly very poor by our standards but the people seemed happy and simply amazed to see us.
Considering how overtly wealthy we all looked compared to these people as we cycled through their streets, you might expect there to be some kind of resentment, however the feeling I got from everyone I saw was “wow, go for it !!”.