Trip to Rehab

It seems that I liked the idea of trip rehearsal so I decided to repeat it once again yet this time the destination was Rehab City.

Planning

My initial idea early on was to take my i10 and follow the Rehab bus from Nasr City (in front of Tiba Mall) till it reaches its final destination inside Al Rehab City. I later dismissed this idea not only because the bus stopped repeatedly during the trip to Rehab but because the path the Rehab bus took turned out to be a longer-than-usual path.

Ever since I thought of trying to drive to Rehab I been repeatedly contemplating this and wondering how come the bus takes so long to reach Rehab City from Nasr City when several others have told me it takes only 20 minutes to reach Rehab by car! I thus concluded that it can't be that those reaching Rehab city in 20 minutes by car were taking the same path as the Rehab bus. Indeed, upon checking Google Earth I discovered a parallel path, yet from the south rather than the north of Rehab City, that goes directly from Nasr City to Rehab City without passing through the many hurdles of the bus path and presumably is less busy.

Taking Off

After making a final revision of the Google Earth map very early today I got dressed and started warming up the car. It was around 5:20 AM which is after Fajr yet before again before sunrise.

The round trip was around 40.5 km door-to-door including entering Rehab City itself (from Gate 9), parking in front of the Office Building inside Rehab City then leaving from Gate 6. It took me around 1 hour 20 minutes to complete the trip 50 minutes of which were spent on my way to Rehab City and only 30 minutes on my way back. Again the reason why I returned faster was that it took me more time to go to Rehab due to taking my time to slow down and read the various signs. On my way back I drove with a higher speed yet still was mostly driving at around 60 km/hour which was anyhow better than the average 40 km/hour I was making on my way to Rehab City.

Impression

I was satisfied to have made the trip. I was especially glad to have entered Rehab City easily from the gates and having parked there. I'm looking forward to making this trip again yet that time not as a rehearsal.