15 January 2011 - Cairo to desert camp - 134 km
Finally, the wait is over!!! All the months thinking, planning, talking, dreaming of it has finally arrived! Still to sure if I practiced enough, still not sure about a lot of things, but finally all will be revealed! No place to hide anymore! This is it! This IS the real deal! We woke up at 4:45 am for breakfast at 5, and you could definitely feel the excitement and tension in the air at breakfast. And everyone was eating for 3 people! Cannot remember when last I saw people east so much! Then met at 6 in front of the lobby where lots of pictures were being taken as well. Our bike ride would start from here and then up to the pyramids, which would be the official start point, and then ride off to our first camp. The police escorted us in a convey from the hotel to the pyramids (anyone that has been to Cairo with its traffic will know this is a must!). And even as we were riding though the streets, it felt pretty surreal. It was a slow pace, as all 60 riders had to ride together! Not so nice for the racers of the tour, but for the normal guys like me, lots of fun. The first 24km would be in a convoy and then after that the riders would be "let loose". Getting to the pyramids was very nice, because it was still very easily, there were no tourist or buses there, and the locals were getting out the camels etc out of the stalls etc, so a very nice sights to see all these camels walk past the pyramids - very Egyptian feel to it. Our start of point was a stunning platform with a great view of all 3 pyramids and a official TDA banner. So everyone was going nuts with pics at this stage! Felt very surreal at this stage. A great feeling, but still do not know what is lying ahead. We had some more snack's again at the start of the race, as a lot of the breakfast was used up on the riding to the pyramids, so the people were helping themselves to loads of cookies, muffins etc. And then we were finally off! One of the Dutch riders almost had a puncture just as we left, as the rode was on gravel before we head the paved highway of Cairo. I drove with Marelie and Kim from Denmark out of the pyramids. The highway section of Cairo was pretty bad, as the traffic is crazy even with the police escort and the pollution bad! Once we reached the end of this section, the second part was pretty tough. This was when i realised that this would not be an easy trip! I definitely had a "what the hell as I doing here" moment at this time, but luckily the lunch break came and all was forgotten! Also this section was very cold and miserable weather, which also added to the unpleasantness! From lunch it was a lot better (more equal terrain and also more downhill). Nice group of people with which I rode at this stage, Pieter from Holland, Kendra from USA and Kim (Denmark). My bum as doing better than I though, as this distance would be way past my previous personal best of 97km! But when I did arrive at camp, I had to give my back side some TLC. The bag thing was a bit annoying, as we could not get access to the lockers so we had to use this one bag for a week thing. So you really had to plan your packing well. Nothing really to see on the roads, just sand everywhere (looks like the movie Dune), with some signs of construction, but not sure what they are building or for whom, because there is nothing out there). After 90km's there were some mountains that appeared. Very nice to roll into camp,but the reality was that there was a LONG way to go! 93 stages still to be exact, with this section considered to be "easy". In general, some people had to stop along the route, as they could not make it, but all in all, everyone seems to be in a good mood. But sure it will change after a while. Setting up tent after a long ride is a pain in the backside and getting a bad spot to set up your tent (because you arrived after the other riders) even more so! What a first day!
16 January 2011 - desert camp to desert camp - 167 km
A day from hell! Today was a mando stage, which is considered to more difficult stages and the winner gets bonus points. There are 15 mando stages. I never came so close to quitting so many times in one day in my life than today! But after some pain pills, Vitamin C, muscle pills and anti-inflammatory pills, I am feeling a little better (just).I still cannot believe I managed to ride almost half of the distance (the last part) of 7km's on my own! Yesterday was my new personal best, today was just in a different league. I felt pretty good waking up in the morning, s I rode with terry and Luke, which are a lot quicker than me - first bad choice of the day. Later Kim and Pieter caught up with us, so I decided to ride with them instead, as I though they were more my pace. I made lunch at the 70km stop, but after that it was all downhill from there. It was such a struggle, big headwind around the 86km mark to 120km mark, and riding something like that on your own with littlee energy, not good! There as so many emotions going though my mind while I was alone. All of them negative and all of them zapping my energy further. Later on even my knees starting hurting! It was a very bad place to be in and one that you should try and avoid. Second bad choice of day, cycling alone in conditions like that. Eventually made camp at 5:30, pretty broken and very tired, but at least I still had my EFI attached. (every freaking inch). But learnt some very valuable lessons. Cycle in a group, use higher gears, adjust seat to higher height and do not start fast! So nice to get an SMS from Stephanie at night, was ust very down and needed some motivation, which I got from her (and from mom). Bum pretty sore as well, and also it made it difficult to cycle, because I could not get into a rhythm, because I had to stand the whole time. Scenery pretty boring. Just sand, sand and more sand. I basically just set up my tent, ate and went to bed. One of the worst days of my life and glad it is over! I spent 8 hours on my saddle that day!
17 January 2011 - desert camp to desert camp - 133 km
Wow, what a difference a day can make! I woke up feeling better than I expected, so I think it made a bit more optimistic. Still a long way to go for the day. I knew that if I could get through today, that tomorrow would be "easier" to do, as it was "only" a 100km, but it would also determine how I would go for the next odd 100 days. This was a key day. I could not struggle again as much as yesterday. I needed to apply the lesson learnt from the day before, otherwise this trip would be over pretty quickly. Also my pills worked out really well from last night. First lesson learnt, ride with group and do no start fast. I decided to ride with Marelie, another Pieter (also from Holland), Sarge (Trinidad) and Beatrice (German). Peter rides at a very good and steady pace, and it also a strong rider, like a energizer bunny, he can just go and go. And because he is a big guy, if you cycle behind him, he takes away a lot of the wind, so it makes it a lot easier to cycle. We picked up quite a few people along the way so our group got a little bigger. Astonishing to see what a differenc riding in a group makes! I will NOT ride alone again, except if i is downhill, a short distance and I know I have a tail wind. I only got annoyed at some of the people that were joining our riding group, as they were just sitting at the back doing very little, and it was only left to some of us to do all of the hard work and ride in the front the whole time. Scenery still pretty boring, although the red sea is on our left hand side the whole time as we are cycling south. Our camp site was pretty impressive being on a hill with a nice view of the red sea. People def getting more used to the daily camp life now, as well as doing your toilet business in the bush (ah, the wonders of a shovel!). The baby wipes are coming in very handy, as none of us have been ale to shower since Cairo. I also saw a cat that looked like Suiker (my cat) back home, so I took a few pictures and it reminded me of home for a few brief seconds. Dinners have been pretty good thus far, nothing fancy, but more than enough to eat - people, including me, have been consuming huge plates of food!
18 January 2011 - desert camp to Safaga - 100 km
Nice short riding day! Funny how quickly your perception of short changes. Back home short would have been 25km! Here it is 100km! I also started putting on 2 cycling shorts at a time, so double padding and it has also helped a bit! A nice tailwind meant we were averaging a very nice speed of about 30km an hour. e had lunch at 9:30 (lunch is at half way mark of the trip), and were at camp in a town on the red see called Safaga at 12. Very nice being in a bit earlier and actually having time to service the bike, put up your tent in day light, relaxing etc. The camp site was on the beach, although some people did go for the room upgrade (there was a huge wind the night before so a few people had tent trouble and did not have a very good night sleep). Again, the sight seeing a bit disappointing as nothing much to see. But in all honesty, it is nice for me, as it is giving me time to adjust the bike,. get to know my bike and also getting cycle fit and used to sitting on a bike for 4-5 hours a day minimum. A good warm up for things to come. I drove with the same group as the day before (Pieter, Marelie and Sarge). We walked around time and I had my first local Egyptian coffee, which was very good. I astcoked up on some chocolates and I could also use the Internet for the first time on the trip. Had a great Skype chat with Stephanie as well (I almost missed dinner because of it). It was Lindsey's bday today, so the resort place arranged to have a big bday cake made for him, which everyone climbed into.
19 January 2011 - Safaga to desert camp - 139 km
Must admit, I was a bit afraid of today. Left knee was giving me problems and it was 2 more days to go before the rest day (and the distance was far and first 40km was uphill!).And the mental games start kicking in as well, as you just want to make it to the rest day. But in the end, I cam probably say that it was my best riding day thus far! We had our normal riding group of 5, which then became 4, and then ended up being 15! Everyone was joining our group, as they could see we were working well, riding at a good pace and also we were a chatty bunch of people. I really got to know quite a lot of the other riders on this ride by cycling next to them and just making conversation. It was amazing to see how quickly the time went by! My knee held up, but I am starting to feel this pain in my next, which is coming from the tension in my neck because of the way that I am sitting on the bike and also probably not enough stretching. Scenery is changing more and more and def feeling a lot more like a desert now - but more Egyptian than before. And the mountains were a nice taste of what was to come later on in Ethiopia. It def knocked some people, but I felt pretty good going up there (at least the training I did in Pretoria was coming in handy for something). We camped next to a polic checkpoint. And because we rode the stage in such a good time, i managed to make Kendras daily yoga class! Tent and toilet life becoming all to familiar now.
20 January 2011 - desert camp to Luxor - 93 km
Nice "short" stage today. Funny still to me how my distance comparison is changing! A few months ago that would have been unthinkable of, now I consider it short! The short ride is a nice reward for all of the riders, because most of the people left by 7, so most of the riders were in by 12, which gives you another hlaf day off to the additional full off day - hey, you have to take eveyrthing you can get here! I did not enjoy the firts part of the ride, as my left knee was still troubling me, and later it became my right as well (getting very fed up at this stage, as I do not know how many times I have moved my saddle now!). Very unpleasant when this happens, as you get various negatvie thoughts, because cycling and knees is a major combo, if your knees go the tour is over! The scenery was a lot better now, as we re rding into a lot more towns so all of the kids come out and wave like crazy! You actually feel like a celeb! Only unfortunat thing was that the some of the little buggers are naughty and trhow stones at the riders (so a little intro of what Ethiopia will be like).I was lucky and did not get anything. What also helps in these scenarios is riding in big groups. On one of the sops Len also suggested that I lower my seat slightly when I told him of my knee problem, and the rest of the ride from there was pretty easy (also makes a huge mental impact when you suddenly do not have any discomfort cycling). I arrived at about 11:30 in Luxor, and Terry arrnaged rooms for us with an Auzzie girl that is married to an Egyptian man, and they run a hotel called Boomerang! She arranged for our group a trip on the nile with some ice cold beers! Great experience, and we also enjoyed our very "hardened" skippers, a 17 and 11 year old boy. It was a great way to start our rest day and the beers were enjoyed by all. Luxor is definately abetter place to see than Cairo, althouhg the people still do tend to bug you a bit (not as much as in Cairo). We had dinner at night at a very casual restaurant and all of us where in bed at 9pm. Man down! Way past our bed time and also so nice to sleep on a bed for the first timne in a week! Oh, how you enjoy the comforts of life when they are taken away!
21 January 2011 - Luxor - rest day
Today was the chill/rest day. We were woken up early in the morning by the surround sound of the Muslim singing and paying in the morning. The whole city is connected to speakers and then these guys just start singing over the micro phones and it echos throughout the whole city. Surround sound, you should check this out! It was a great sightseeing day, and places that we visited were Valley of the Kings and Queens (various Rammes tombs which are stunning!), temple of Hatshepsut (temple againts background of mountain, like something out of Lord of the Rings) and temple of Karnak (stunning! A muts on any visitor's list of things to see in Egypt). Still amazed by how old these tombs and temples are! All dating back to before Christ! Amazing. Egypt might not be the mots tourist friendly place, but boy, do they have some pretty impressive tourist things to see and also old things! Our group of people that went was Terry, Luke, Rodney, the 2 Kim's, Pieter and Ram. Also the breakfast at Boomerang was fantastic and the boys really climbed in. Also funny but inevatable that we ran into various of the cyclist at the toursit places. We headed back to camp in the evening and slept in our tents again (the general consensus was that it would be easier and less hassle if we slept in a hotel and had to wake up early, get taxi etc).I would defnitly recommend Luxor ahead of Cairo, and the sight of the Nile along the city is soemthing to behold. Feel quite privaliged that I have been able to see the wolrds logest river (Nile) as well as widest (Amazon) and had cruises on both of them with some ice cold beers! Updated my blog at night and then also managed to sneek in a Skye session with Stephanie, which was great!
22 January 2011 - Luxor to Edfu- 116 km
Shortish day of riding with nothing to dramatic. But I did not enjoy the ride at all, my knees were giving me serious problems now! I could feel them tehem the whole way. And the frustating thing to me was that i knew it did not have something to do with me just having bad knees, but rather that a big problem was that it was lying in my shoes (cleats position) and my saddle. If these are not spot on, and on a trip like this with the distances we do, it will very quicly show out and you can get serious problems. Luckily there is a guy on the trip, Randy, who had owned a bike shop for 20 years, so he knew a thing or two about bikes and saddle heights etc. So at lcnh stop, quicklly arrnaged that we would meet in the afternoon to go over all my things. It defiantley also feels more like Egypt. Seeing loads more people as we are cycling thugh the villages, next to the water canals, the way the people are dressed (all Muslim dress), lots of donkey cars (who are way over worked and under fed unfortauntely), the buildings style, the mosques we drive by, men sitting down and smoking hubblies, woman all covered up with the black dresses etc Becasue the first week was mostly tough the desert, there was not much to see, but it has changed now (whcih I am glad about, as it makes the trip more interesting). Camped on a old soccer field for juniors. We are still cycling in our core group of 4 riders, but getting some people to join us from the start of they just fall in as we pass them. We ride really well, keeping a very good pace but also stopping regularly. The toilets are getting to those squate toilets now, which I am not too keen on. At least we had some shwers at our camp site, although the water was cold and conditions much to be desired (need to get used to this, will have it for a long way still). Biggest break though for me was being able to spend about an hour with Randy. We ended up adjusting my shoes's cleats, saddle was moved up and backwards. For cyling, these changes are major and you would norally not make all these changes at once. But my case was extreme, and I needed it for my knees (and it was as if we did a bike fit from start). But feeling much more optimistic now for my knees as well! I am getting very used to the camp life now, where eveything comes in my tent - people getting into the routine now. There were some great views of the Nile as well, as we cyclied next to it. Also one of the riders (Sam) and an Egyptian rider had the first big accident on the trip,. but luckily no serious injury. And unfortunately Peter and myself wanted to see the temple of Edfu, which was apprenatly very nice, but we were too late and it was already closed (still I rather have my bike sorted with my knees, so still not to sad I miised it).
23 January 2011 - Edfu to Aswan- 115 km
Here, the end of the Egypt route! Cannot believed it,I cycled though Egypt! Even as I am writing this, it still has not sunk in yet! Sounds unreal! And better to get back to reality, there is still 9 countries to go, but I did saviour the moment with a McDonasls lunch (Bic Mac with McFlurry) and beers at a restaurant next to the Nile! The McDonads lunch was a nice change from the normal pita bread with fillings that we have had every lunch stop in Egypt. Man, the surround sound in the cities are pretty special. Was woken again with the huming and haging of the morning prays and songs of the people. Ride was good, and I could really feel the difference with my knees. It was still hurting slighly, but this was more because of the previous's day's riding, and not so much today's. Again had a great veiw of the nile as we were cycling down to Aswan. Felt pretty good cycling into the city, and I just for one second imagined it was Cape Town and this is how it would feel cycling in. Traffic everywhere and the people do stop and stare at you, wondering from where and to where you are cycling. If they only knew...... Egypt done, tick! Probably 3 things that stand out of Egypt or things that influence the Egiptian people, and it is religion, famiy and business (all of them wheel and deal and it is a real pain in the back side). Cairo is a dump and try to avoid, although the pyramids is a must! It is truley amazing! So the temples and tombs! The cycling was fairly easy from what I heard from the race organises, as it gets much more difficult in Sudan and Ethopa (although it was pretty challenging for me). I guess what it does do is gives the people chance to get to know each other and use to camp life, and also for the cyclist and non cyclist to see how you can can cope with riding consistently for over 100km a day for 6 days in sucsession. And also for some (like me) sort our cycling issues, like saddle heights etc....
Finally, the wait is over!!! All the months thinking, planning, talking, dreaming of it has finally arrived! Still to sure if I practiced enough, still not sure about a lot of things, but finally all will be revealed! No place to hide anymore! This is it! This IS the real deal! We woke up at 4:45 am for breakfast at 5, and you could definitely feel the excitement and tension in the air at breakfast. And everyone was eating for 3 people! Cannot remember when last I saw people east so much! Then met at 6 in front of the lobby where lots of pictures were being taken as well. Our bike ride would start from here and then up to the pyramids, which would be the official start point, and then ride off to our first camp. The police escorted us in a convey from the hotel to the pyramids (anyone that has been to Cairo with its traffic will know this is a must!). And even as we were riding though the streets, it felt pretty surreal. It was a slow pace, as all 60 riders had to ride together! Not so nice for the racers of the tour, but for the normal guys like me, lots of fun. The first 24km would be in a convoy and then after that the riders would be "let loose". Getting to the pyramids was very nice, because it was still very easily, there were no tourist or buses there, and the locals were getting out the camels etc out of the stalls etc, so a very nice sights to see all these camels walk past the pyramids - very Egyptian feel to it. Our start of point was a stunning platform with a great view of all 3 pyramids and a official TDA banner. So everyone was going nuts with pics at this stage! Felt very surreal at this stage. A great feeling, but still do not know what is lying ahead. We had some more snack's again at the start of the race, as a lot of the breakfast was used up on the riding to the pyramids, so the people were helping themselves to loads of cookies, muffins etc. And then we were finally off! One of the Dutch riders almost had a puncture just as we left, as the rode was on gravel before we head the paved highway of Cairo. I drove with Marelie and Kim from Denmark out of the pyramids. The highway section of Cairo was pretty bad, as the traffic is crazy even with the police escort and the pollution bad! Once we reached the end of this section, the second part was pretty tough. This was when i realised that this would not be an easy trip! I definitely had a "what the hell as I doing here" moment at this time, but luckily the lunch break came and all was forgotten! Also this section was very cold and miserable weather, which also added to the unpleasantness! From lunch it was a lot better (more equal terrain and also more downhill). Nice group of people with which I rode at this stage, Pieter from Holland, Kendra from USA and Kim (Denmark). My bum as doing better than I though, as this distance would be way past my previous personal best of 97km! But when I did arrive at camp, I had to give my back side some TLC. The bag thing was a bit annoying, as we could not get access to the lockers so we had to use this one bag for a week thing. So you really had to plan your packing well. Nothing really to see on the roads, just sand everywhere (looks like the movie Dune), with some signs of construction, but not sure what they are building or for whom, because there is nothing out there). After 90km's there were some mountains that appeared. Very nice to roll into camp,but the reality was that there was a LONG way to go! 93 stages still to be exact, with this section considered to be "easy". In general, some people had to stop along the route, as they could not make it, but all in all, everyone seems to be in a good mood. But sure it will change after a while. Setting up tent after a long ride is a pain in the backside and getting a bad spot to set up your tent (because you arrived after the other riders) even more so! What a first day!
16 January 2011 - desert camp to desert camp - 167 km
A day from hell! Today was a mando stage, which is considered to more difficult stages and the winner gets bonus points. There are 15 mando stages. I never came so close to quitting so many times in one day in my life than today! But after some pain pills, Vitamin C, muscle pills and anti-inflammatory pills, I am feeling a little better (just).I still cannot believe I managed to ride almost half of the distance (the last part) of 7km's on my own! Yesterday was my new personal best, today was just in a different league. I felt pretty good waking up in the morning, s I rode with terry and Luke, which are a lot quicker than me - first bad choice of the day. Later Kim and Pieter caught up with us, so I decided to ride with them instead, as I though they were more my pace. I made lunch at the 70km stop, but after that it was all downhill from there. It was such a struggle, big headwind around the 86km mark to 120km mark, and riding something like that on your own with littlee energy, not good! There as so many emotions going though my mind while I was alone. All of them negative and all of them zapping my energy further. Later on even my knees starting hurting! It was a very bad place to be in and one that you should try and avoid. Second bad choice of day, cycling alone in conditions like that. Eventually made camp at 5:30, pretty broken and very tired, but at least I still had my EFI attached. (every freaking inch). But learnt some very valuable lessons. Cycle in a group, use higher gears, adjust seat to higher height and do not start fast! So nice to get an SMS from Stephanie at night, was ust very down and needed some motivation, which I got from her (and from mom). Bum pretty sore as well, and also it made it difficult to cycle, because I could not get into a rhythm, because I had to stand the whole time. Scenery pretty boring. Just sand, sand and more sand. I basically just set up my tent, ate and went to bed. One of the worst days of my life and glad it is over! I spent 8 hours on my saddle that day!
17 January 2011 - desert camp to desert camp - 133 km
Wow, what a difference a day can make! I woke up feeling better than I expected, so I think it made a bit more optimistic. Still a long way to go for the day. I knew that if I could get through today, that tomorrow would be "easier" to do, as it was "only" a 100km, but it would also determine how I would go for the next odd 100 days. This was a key day. I could not struggle again as much as yesterday. I needed to apply the lesson learnt from the day before, otherwise this trip would be over pretty quickly. Also my pills worked out really well from last night. First lesson learnt, ride with group and do no start fast. I decided to ride with Marelie, another Pieter (also from Holland), Sarge (Trinidad) and Beatrice (German). Peter rides at a very good and steady pace, and it also a strong rider, like a energizer bunny, he can just go and go. And because he is a big guy, if you cycle behind him, he takes away a lot of the wind, so it makes it a lot easier to cycle. We picked up quite a few people along the way so our group got a little bigger. Astonishing to see what a differenc riding in a group makes! I will NOT ride alone again, except if i is downhill, a short distance and I know I have a tail wind. I only got annoyed at some of the people that were joining our riding group, as they were just sitting at the back doing very little, and it was only left to some of us to do all of the hard work and ride in the front the whole time. Scenery still pretty boring, although the red sea is on our left hand side the whole time as we are cycling south. Our camp site was pretty impressive being on a hill with a nice view of the red sea. People def getting more used to the daily camp life now, as well as doing your toilet business in the bush (ah, the wonders of a shovel!). The baby wipes are coming in very handy, as none of us have been ale to shower since Cairo. I also saw a cat that looked like Suiker (my cat) back home, so I took a few pictures and it reminded me of home for a few brief seconds. Dinners have been pretty good thus far, nothing fancy, but more than enough to eat - people, including me, have been consuming huge plates of food!
18 January 2011 - desert camp to Safaga - 100 km
Nice short riding day! Funny how quickly your perception of short changes. Back home short would have been 25km! Here it is 100km! I also started putting on 2 cycling shorts at a time, so double padding and it has also helped a bit! A nice tailwind meant we were averaging a very nice speed of about 30km an hour. e had lunch at 9:30 (lunch is at half way mark of the trip), and were at camp in a town on the red see called Safaga at 12. Very nice being in a bit earlier and actually having time to service the bike, put up your tent in day light, relaxing etc. The camp site was on the beach, although some people did go for the room upgrade (there was a huge wind the night before so a few people had tent trouble and did not have a very good night sleep). Again, the sight seeing a bit disappointing as nothing much to see. But in all honesty, it is nice for me, as it is giving me time to adjust the bike,. get to know my bike and also getting cycle fit and used to sitting on a bike for 4-5 hours a day minimum. A good warm up for things to come. I drove with the same group as the day before (Pieter, Marelie and Sarge). We walked around time and I had my first local Egyptian coffee, which was very good. I astcoked up on some chocolates and I could also use the Internet for the first time on the trip. Had a great Skype chat with Stephanie as well (I almost missed dinner because of it). It was Lindsey's bday today, so the resort place arranged to have a big bday cake made for him, which everyone climbed into.
19 January 2011 - Safaga to desert camp - 139 km
Must admit, I was a bit afraid of today. Left knee was giving me problems and it was 2 more days to go before the rest day (and the distance was far and first 40km was uphill!).And the mental games start kicking in as well, as you just want to make it to the rest day. But in the end, I cam probably say that it was my best riding day thus far! We had our normal riding group of 5, which then became 4, and then ended up being 15! Everyone was joining our group, as they could see we were working well, riding at a good pace and also we were a chatty bunch of people. I really got to know quite a lot of the other riders on this ride by cycling next to them and just making conversation. It was amazing to see how quickly the time went by! My knee held up, but I am starting to feel this pain in my next, which is coming from the tension in my neck because of the way that I am sitting on the bike and also probably not enough stretching. Scenery is changing more and more and def feeling a lot more like a desert now - but more Egyptian than before. And the mountains were a nice taste of what was to come later on in Ethiopia. It def knocked some people, but I felt pretty good going up there (at least the training I did in Pretoria was coming in handy for something). We camped next to a polic checkpoint. And because we rode the stage in such a good time, i managed to make Kendras daily yoga class! Tent and toilet life becoming all to familiar now.
20 January 2011 - desert camp to Luxor - 93 km
Nice "short" stage today. Funny still to me how my distance comparison is changing! A few months ago that would have been unthinkable of, now I consider it short! The short ride is a nice reward for all of the riders, because most of the people left by 7, so most of the riders were in by 12, which gives you another hlaf day off to the additional full off day - hey, you have to take eveyrthing you can get here! I did not enjoy the firts part of the ride, as my left knee was still troubling me, and later it became my right as well (getting very fed up at this stage, as I do not know how many times I have moved my saddle now!). Very unpleasant when this happens, as you get various negatvie thoughts, because cycling and knees is a major combo, if your knees go the tour is over! The scenery was a lot better now, as we re rding into a lot more towns so all of the kids come out and wave like crazy! You actually feel like a celeb! Only unfortunat thing was that the some of the little buggers are naughty and trhow stones at the riders (so a little intro of what Ethiopia will be like).I was lucky and did not get anything. What also helps in these scenarios is riding in big groups. On one of the sops Len also suggested that I lower my seat slightly when I told him of my knee problem, and the rest of the ride from there was pretty easy (also makes a huge mental impact when you suddenly do not have any discomfort cycling). I arrived at about 11:30 in Luxor, and Terry arrnaged rooms for us with an Auzzie girl that is married to an Egyptian man, and they run a hotel called Boomerang! She arranged for our group a trip on the nile with some ice cold beers! Great experience, and we also enjoyed our very "hardened" skippers, a 17 and 11 year old boy. It was a great way to start our rest day and the beers were enjoyed by all. Luxor is definately abetter place to see than Cairo, althouhg the people still do tend to bug you a bit (not as much as in Cairo). We had dinner at night at a very casual restaurant and all of us where in bed at 9pm. Man down! Way past our bed time and also so nice to sleep on a bed for the first timne in a week! Oh, how you enjoy the comforts of life when they are taken away!
21 January 2011 - Luxor - rest day
Today was the chill/rest day. We were woken up early in the morning by the surround sound of the Muslim singing and paying in the morning. The whole city is connected to speakers and then these guys just start singing over the micro phones and it echos throughout the whole city. Surround sound, you should check this out! It was a great sightseeing day, and places that we visited were Valley of the Kings and Queens (various Rammes tombs which are stunning!), temple of Hatshepsut (temple againts background of mountain, like something out of Lord of the Rings) and temple of Karnak (stunning! A muts on any visitor's list of things to see in Egypt). Still amazed by how old these tombs and temples are! All dating back to before Christ! Amazing. Egypt might not be the mots tourist friendly place, but boy, do they have some pretty impressive tourist things to see and also old things! Our group of people that went was Terry, Luke, Rodney, the 2 Kim's, Pieter and Ram. Also the breakfast at Boomerang was fantastic and the boys really climbed in. Also funny but inevatable that we ran into various of the cyclist at the toursit places. We headed back to camp in the evening and slept in our tents again (the general consensus was that it would be easier and less hassle if we slept in a hotel and had to wake up early, get taxi etc).I would defnitly recommend Luxor ahead of Cairo, and the sight of the Nile along the city is soemthing to behold. Feel quite privaliged that I have been able to see the wolrds logest river (Nile) as well as widest (Amazon) and had cruises on both of them with some ice cold beers! Updated my blog at night and then also managed to sneek in a Skye session with Stephanie, which was great!
22 January 2011 - Luxor to Edfu- 116 km
Shortish day of riding with nothing to dramatic. But I did not enjoy the ride at all, my knees were giving me serious problems now! I could feel them tehem the whole way. And the frustating thing to me was that i knew it did not have something to do with me just having bad knees, but rather that a big problem was that it was lying in my shoes (cleats position) and my saddle. If these are not spot on, and on a trip like this with the distances we do, it will very quicly show out and you can get serious problems. Luckily there is a guy on the trip, Randy, who had owned a bike shop for 20 years, so he knew a thing or two about bikes and saddle heights etc. So at lcnh stop, quicklly arrnaged that we would meet in the afternoon to go over all my things. It defiantley also feels more like Egypt. Seeing loads more people as we are cycling thugh the villages, next to the water canals, the way the people are dressed (all Muslim dress), lots of donkey cars (who are way over worked and under fed unfortauntely), the buildings style, the mosques we drive by, men sitting down and smoking hubblies, woman all covered up with the black dresses etc Becasue the first week was mostly tough the desert, there was not much to see, but it has changed now (whcih I am glad about, as it makes the trip more interesting). Camped on a old soccer field for juniors. We are still cycling in our core group of 4 riders, but getting some people to join us from the start of they just fall in as we pass them. We ride really well, keeping a very good pace but also stopping regularly. The toilets are getting to those squate toilets now, which I am not too keen on. At least we had some shwers at our camp site, although the water was cold and conditions much to be desired (need to get used to this, will have it for a long way still). Biggest break though for me was being able to spend about an hour with Randy. We ended up adjusting my shoes's cleats, saddle was moved up and backwards. For cyling, these changes are major and you would norally not make all these changes at once. But my case was extreme, and I needed it for my knees (and it was as if we did a bike fit from start). But feeling much more optimistic now for my knees as well! I am getting very used to the camp life now, where eveything comes in my tent - people getting into the routine now. There were some great views of the Nile as well, as we cyclied next to it. Also one of the riders (Sam) and an Egyptian rider had the first big accident on the trip,. but luckily no serious injury. And unfortunately Peter and myself wanted to see the temple of Edfu, which was apprenatly very nice, but we were too late and it was already closed (still I rather have my bike sorted with my knees, so still not to sad I miised it).
23 January 2011 - Edfu to Aswan- 115 km
Here, the end of the Egypt route! Cannot believed it,I cycled though Egypt! Even as I am writing this, it still has not sunk in yet! Sounds unreal! And better to get back to reality, there is still 9 countries to go, but I did saviour the moment with a McDonasls lunch (Bic Mac with McFlurry) and beers at a restaurant next to the Nile! The McDonads lunch was a nice change from the normal pita bread with fillings that we have had every lunch stop in Egypt. Man, the surround sound in the cities are pretty special. Was woken again with the huming and haging of the morning prays and songs of the people. Ride was good, and I could really feel the difference with my knees. It was still hurting slighly, but this was more because of the previous's day's riding, and not so much today's. Again had a great veiw of the nile as we were cycling down to Aswan. Felt pretty good cycling into the city, and I just for one second imagined it was Cape Town and this is how it would feel cycling in. Traffic everywhere and the people do stop and stare at you, wondering from where and to where you are cycling. If they only knew...... Egypt done, tick! Probably 3 things that stand out of Egypt or things that influence the Egiptian people, and it is religion, famiy and business (all of them wheel and deal and it is a real pain in the back side). Cairo is a dump and try to avoid, although the pyramids is a must! It is truley amazing! So the temples and tombs! The cycling was fairly easy from what I heard from the race organises, as it gets much more difficult in Sudan and Ethopa (although it was pretty challenging for me). I guess what it does do is gives the people chance to get to know each other and use to camp life, and also for the cyclist and non cyclist to see how you can can cope with riding consistently for over 100km a day for 6 days in sucsession. And also for some (like me) sort our cycling issues, like saddle heights etc....
Awesome! Thanks for the updates. Happy to hear you left Cairo before the riots.
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