Egypt is becoming less and less Cairo-centric, with the last few years seeing the county's lesser talked about regions and cities celebrated for their diversity and character. You see, internal eco-tourism is en vogue right now and one man who has been at the forefront is adventurer, traveller and all-round action-man, Galal Zakri.

At a tender twenty one years of age, Zekri holds the record of being the youngest solo cyclist to travel Egypt and, currently working with Wild Guanabana as an adventure travel designer and leader at Wild Guanabana, the future holds more epic journeys. Cairo Gossip sat down with the man himself to talk about the dangers of five-month 7,000km trip, social-media haters and the love of his life, Sophia...

What did you do before you decided to pack up and explore the world on two wheels?

At the time, I used to work part-time, as well as attend college. I always tried to use the bike as my means of transportation, and I had this dream to travel Egypt with it. My first attempt was to travel across Al Wahat, which was a journey of 1650km, in nineteen days. I also wanted to film a short movie, to experience filmmaking. I kept the camera rolling for six hours, which I eventually made a video of five minutes with. I discovered myself greatly in this journey. After that, my main priority was to get sponsors and to train whenever I have the chance to be ready for the big one.

Ah, the ‘Big One’ - what inspired you to go on this particular trip?

My first inspiration was my school. There was a school trip to go to Suez on bikes and soon after I heard about someone taking a trip to Nuweiba on bike – something that spurred me on to do it. There was also American adventurer, Christopher McCandless, of Into the wild and of course Omar Samra, while Dominic Gill inspired me to add the filmmaking part to the journey. Everything had its own inspiration. Nothing in particular inspired me. In a way, it comes from within, and the need to push myself. That’s the ultimate inspiration.