Our Route to come

Tomorrow and Sunday we will be travelling down to Aswan ... about 115km each day (probably lots of traffic, chaos, etc)

On Monday we travel briefly to the ferry and then cruise over night to the Sudan landing ... at Wadi Halfa. Should arrive lunchtime on Tuesday ... expect the border process to be bureaucratic and in need of lots of patience ...

We then enter the SAND ... apparently nothing can prepare us for the barren, endless, tough and awe inspiring appearance of the Sahara Desert ...

We travel close, but not directly on the Nile, southwards through Dongola and leave the Nile at Abu Dom towards Khartoum. After Khartoum we will have a little bit of sanity and tar under our tyres as we head for Gedaref (South-East) and then really rough it down to the border to Ethiopia at Qallabat/Metema

Not sure about our Internet access in Sudan (Khartoum should have) ... so besides a possible quick "Hello" at Aswan in two days time I will be gone for a while ...

Security Madness!

Ten years ago Egypt was rocked by some severe bombings and killings - where many tourists lost their lives. The were several different incidences round 1997 and 1998. And due to Egypt's severe dependence on Tourism for income ... they do have a VERY evident security presence all over!!

Our days on the road, as well as nights at the camps, are continuously supervised and supported by military and police entourages. We have lead vehicles, sweep vehicles and vehicles driving up and down along the whole distance covered by all the riders.

We go through regular police checkpoints ... probably every ten kilometers on the main road from Qena to Luxor and less in the previous areas along the Red Sea and towards Qena. All Tour buses have to travel in convoy, with police escort, between Cairo and Luxor - so we had convoys of well over 50 buses creaming passed us as all other traffic gets stopped for the convoy. All traffic also gets stopped for us as we progress thru the countryside.

There are some major checkpoints out of some bigger towns ... where those cyclists leaving early in the morning were getting lots of hassles about cycling alone ... especially the women. We started out Safaga- Qena day from the check-point and we were all stopped and our Race Numbers were noted down (probably as registration numbers??) before we could continue. By the way ... my number is 127.Throughout town there is also always a very strong police presence.

On our Tour of Luxor (today) we had a plain clothed police/security person travelling on the bus and walking to the sites with us - armed with both a machine gun and a hand gun. No other tour groups had this type of escort ... maybe they don't trust us crazy people who cycle thru Africa?? Oh, yes, we also had some fancy, well dressed and stiffly cold (high ranking?) official from the Tourism Police travelling with us on the bus.

Thru Qena to Luxor

Everything changed from Qena!!

We camped in a desert camp a good 15km before Qena. The traffic was noticeably denser closer to Qena and we had no choice but to ride in a convoy ... security pressures/instructions. We were led thru Qena ... still in convoy and witnessed our first Tour Bus Convoy ... over fifty tour buses screaming past with intermittent police vehicles escorting them.

From Qena to Luxor we travelled along one of the irrigation canals - supplied by the river Nile. There are continuous houses and shops along the way, people and ample cultivated fields.

The people persistently call out greetings and requests for money and endless screams of "Hello!!" from waving children on all sides.

We were going at quite a pace ... all the "racers" together ... when Andrew unfortunately broke his chain and I dropped back to watch him - sorry my mechanical skills are useless so I only offered to watch.

We ended up having a very pleasant and relaxed ride ... tagging along with Alice, Darrel, Gerhard and Remy ... who had a puncture on the start line ... aagghh - I hope I never have that.

Luxor to Qena

The hectic hill ... was an absolute joke ... not sure what they were smoking last year if they remember there being a hill. It was the most gradual of inclines - that one didn't even notice it. Not even 700m climb over a distance of 40km!! The wind was not too bad in the morning ... but we were quite hungry and tired by the first lunch stop after 60 odd kilometers.

Food, Music, Bike and an Open Road ... HAPPINESS!!

After the lunch stop I put on my ipod and felt totally exhilarated. We were once more cruising along at over 40km/h and simply having an awesome time. It is difficult to put in words how I really feel ... it is unbelievable to be under the sun, on an open road, speeding along, with little to no stress and knowing that the whole of Africa is still lying ahead ... ;-)

I spent most of the day cruising along with Remy and Andrew ... and the never absent police support vehicle. We later caught up with Pierre, Janet, Nels and some others and worked very hard into a strong afternoon headwind.

We were very happy to find our desert camp a little earlier than anticipated ... and we had a hosepipe to shower under!!!

You are getting spoilt!!

Hi all ... arrived in Luxor today - our first rest-day of the trip tomorrow!! Yeeha ... my legs can do with a little rest and recovery after nearly 800km in the last six days. I'm still absolutely ecstatic about the tour ... simply awesome ... cruising thru the countryside with no stress and all the time to see and absorb the world around us.

Off on a tour of the West Bank tomorrow morning and maybe fit in the Temple of Karnak in the afternoon. I'll fit in some blogging and e-mailing in the afternoon.

This town is much nicer than Cairo ... but full of tourists ... especially all the Krauts!! Got a hotel room again ... yes, I know, I'm going thru Africa and shouldn't take it so easy ... but I recon I'll be real sick of my tent very soon ...

I'll be in touch tomorrow ... cheers for now.

once more today

uugghh ... just had garlic laced dinner ... even for me too much. I'm not complaining ... food on the trip is absolutely brilliant! And way more than enough.

I'm absolutely pooped and ready to dive into bed in the next thirty minutes or so.

Just got our race briefing for tomorrow: Gentle meander out of town to the police check-point. Then the racers can head off ... 45km uphill (continuous) with a guaranteed head-, or possibly side-wind. No downhill to follow ... we travel another 110km along the plateau with the sane continuous wind ...

Some more interesting tit bits:

• If one wants attention or guaranteed service from the local men ... sit with Alice ... the blond hair attracts all their attention immediately
• Darrel was interviewed by The Cape Times on day two ... one question the interviewer asked: "So, would you do the tour again?". My, my ... not the brightest ...
• Not sure if one calls it culture or what ... but littering is absolutely crazy here. We set up bins (packets and cardboard boxes) at the camps. Only for the local support group ... or some of them ... simply to throw the stuff out in the open, into a ditch or so once we are done.
• My legs are stiff and sore!
• The hotel here is odd ... 80EP for a single room (which has two beds) and 182EP for a double room (exactly the sane type of room) ... don't even try to reason with them ...

That's all for now folks ... hope to catch up in two days whilst enjoying our first full rest day in Luxor.

Lotsa love ... Patrick

heading off for now

i'm getting kicked out of this chair by my fellow cyclists ... i have been sitting here for a good three hours ... i'll check in later again ... after dinner

ciao

Some more thoughts

• The picture above is what we have been looking at for the last four days ...
• Many more English signs around the towns, resorts, settlements in this area ... even a ERA Steer FOR SALE sign
• The towns Hugada and Safaga are noticeably cleaner, more upmarket, better sign posted, etc ... but then these are tourist areas - especially for the Germans!!
• My Polar Watch stopped reading my speed/distance ... it seems to be the battery in the sensor ... and the agents said they checked it in December ... THANKS for nothing. I did get another speedometer from someone else ... truly thanks to Nels.

keep the comments coming

hi there ... i really like the short comments and greetings here on my blog and to my email address ... keep them coming ... even if they seem arb and simple ...

Daily Kilometers: 110/170/140/130/140/95/rest

aagghh ... 170km on day two!!!

Day one was tiring - the convoys are slow and tedious! The adrenalin and excitement all made us very tired.

Day two was not too bad ... actually very good .. but long

Day three was awesome ... eat your shorts all you cyclists!!!! 140km at an average of over 42km/h. We completed it in under 3h30 with a lunch break, on an MTB!! ... But I must admit that we had no real hills and a gale force wind of note pushing us along!!!

Today was not 130 ... closer to 110km. Bombed along with the wind again ... ran out of gears several times and clocked 78km/h at one stage - was even doing 54km/h uphill!!

Unfortunately this euphoria will end soon ... probably tomorrow as we head for the mountains, direction Luxor ... and the wind in our faces ... I recon my good mood will be destroyed half way through tomorrow morning.

Day after tomorrow will be a quick 95km into Luxor and a rest day to follow ... so the first very important WASHING DAY will soon be upon us!