Sudan again

The nearly inevitable technological set-back occurred in The Sudan.  The sim card for the mobile works in the phone, but not in the computer.  This makes blogging cumbersome.  So me again, safe and warm in my home,  instead of Marelie out there from the wilderness. 

According to our protagonist Sudan is a beautiful country inhabited by friendly people.  Not something you hear a lot. I guess CNN is not into good news.  The roads next to the Nile are good and the dominant landscape remains desert.  She can confirm one stereotype.  It is hot.  Extremely hot.  Like the curries at our favourite Langebaan restaurant Froggy’s.  FH.  That be Froggy Hot.

They slept in a place called Dead Camel Camp.  Nobody touched the stew. (A joke.  Obviously you can eat dead camel.  Live camel ....) The food otherwise is good, as it has to be to keep the cyclists going for 150km a day. First leg of the Tour ends 4 February in Khartoum.  We hope to hear from her then.

And a correction to the previous post.  The tour is not going through Uganda, therefore all that tropical training in Ghana will not be so handy as I thought.

A reminder of the JAG foundation.  There is a tab at the top and a link to the right.  Click and follow instructions.




NO37

Sudanly She’s Famous!

On the ferry to Sudan, photo from terry wall

Glad to report that our heroine left the Egyptian dust accumulated over 1000km in Egypt.  We know this because she bathed in the Nile today, whilst in the Sudan.  Crossed by ferry from Egypt yesterday.  Here is an action photo taken by a fellow rider.

The communications work from the Sudan, so expect a blog from her around the end of the month on a rest day.  But before then, she has to cycle a repeat of today’s 148km and then another 100km on the day after tomorrow. 

The Nile Bather is currently not in the top 25 riders of the Tour (I did not know it was competition either), but that is probably due to the desert conditions.  She did most of her training in tropical Ghana, so from Uganda on, I predict our favourite cyclist will use her superior knowledge of humid Africa to leave the other riders in the mud.   Or she will have none of this competition thing and simply continue with the idea that it is a journey and not a race. 

Marelie is the first person I know that has been in the Sudan.  The news here is quiet on the referendum or its result, so I hope no news is good news and the trip can go on without let or hindrance. 

The local paper, The Weslander, published an article on Marelie and her trip on the back page of the 20 January 2011 Edition.  Fame at last!  The picture shows the layout.

Cairo to Luxor

It has been seven days since we left Cairo, and today we are enjoying our first rest day. I decided to take a room in the Sawiki Camp hotel where we are staying at and it is simply great to have a warm bed and a toilet near by! I am sharing with Alice, a Scottish lady from England, who grew up in Africa, spent some time in Egypt and is fluent in Arabic..very resourceful and interesting she is.


We have cycled from Cairo to a desert camp, to another desert camp and then Safaga at the Red Sea, then another desert camp to end in Luxor. The first day 2 days were very hard with strong head winds in the afternoon. I was very lucky to have cycled with a group and it has gotten me through the 130 and 168km days. Only after cycling such distances can you say: "yipeee-- tomorrow we are only doing 100km!"

Camping in the desert with nothing but your little tent, can be tough when your knees are sore and you legs are stiff! It is not fun trying to squat in the hole that you dug at 5am in the morning to have some privacy, and not being able to bent your knees!

On the third night we had very strong winds and some rains. Some tents actually blew away and Beate even lost her ground sail. Sarge, an ex-captain from Trinidad, came to my tents’ rescue, by hammering the tent pegs back into the ground.

From the desert camp we cycled along the Red Sea all day, which was a nice change to the desert dunes scenery to Safaga red sea camp. The camp was just lovely! Riders pitching their tents on the beach, enjoying a nice cold one, just relaxing after an easy day of only 100kms finished before lunch time.

The next morning it was 139km again with a 826m ascent and 647m descent. All the climbing was done in the morning and by lunch stop, we have ascented 600m! After lunch it was all downhill and great!

Yesterday we did an easy 93km again to end in Luxor. The last few kilometers were a bit tricky with children trying to touch us and throwing stones at our bicycles as we cycled next to the Nile. Kim who cycled infront of me, bicycle got hit and his rim actually bent. We finished before lunch time and enjoyed the afternoon exploring Luxor. We also went for a nice, relaxing sail on the Nile on a Falucca

Each day after the ride, we are served soup

My tent in the desert camp

Falucca on the Nile

The road to Luxor

Kendra's Yoga class

The Kitchen

We are given instructions like this every night at rider meeting for the route of the next day

Escaping the Pyramids

Finally the adventure proper start.  All the anticipation, all the planning, the training and the stress will pay off.  Technology permitting I will be keeping you up to date on the progress of our heroine.  At the end of day 2 she sounded in good spirits although the legs are sore.  Very relieved that she is not the slowest rider and commenting that it is an interesting group of people.

Day 1.  They start in convoy to the pyramids (yes again) and from there on it is own pace to the desert camp.  Where there was nothing.  And thanks to all the poop handling lectures, no sign of the riders after they left.  Food is plentiful, dinner consists of soup and pasta. Apparently enough pasta to feed a family is dished out to each rider.  The first 133km completed by 14:00.

Day2. Wake up 5:45 to start cycling at 07:30 on the 165km next to the red sea.  A headwind today, but she shamelessly slip streamed some Netherlanders until finishing at 16:00 at another desert camp. 

So this week it is riding to Luxor for the first rest day on the 21st.  The Sudan looms, but from what I hear it is still OK.  As I hear more about Marelie, I will update it here

NO37

Egypt - fiinally!

After years of dreaming and months of planning - I am finally in Cairo for the Tour D'Afrique 2011!

Packing your bags with all your spare parts, cycle clothing, baby wipes, tent etc and the bike is very stressful with  a weight limit of 46kg per rider on the trip and a 20kg weight allowance for the flight. I ended up with 55kg (including my bike) and 10kg handluggage.

The fees on Egypt Air for excess luggage is $25 per kg! I was very lucky and on booking in my luggage a very kind man  let me pay for only 10kg.

Our bicycles arrived  in Cairo and unharmed, which was a great relieve! As I learned later on - one of tshe riders' new bicycle has "vanished" in transit.. He had to order a brand new one - which he will only get in Ethiopia.

We took a white taxi to the pyramids. It was so great the first time I saw them - and never thought I would actually come back and see them again.. The renovation of the sphinx is still not completed and they are building a highway or something right between the 2 big pyramids. The locals are still very persistent. It is still amazing
Then we visited the Khan el-Khalili market in Downtown Cairo and had lunch at a small local place

Finally meeting all the riders at the hotel was just so surreal after seeing all the profiles on the TDA website. Here are 62 riders from all over the world. Today we had a bike workshop to see that all the bikes are ready and then a rider meeting to again learn how to cover poop.. ;) And what a typical day will be like on tour, meet the staff and briefed on other technicallities. Our support trucks will only meet us in Sudan, as they were waiting to see what would happen after the Referendum before taking the chance of riding through the country. On the moment we will cycle through Sudan and the trucks will meet up with us at the border. In the meantime the tour hired support trucks from Egypt on which we will not have individual lockers.

In the afternoon we went on a warmer up - funride to the pyramids, but had to turn around halfway there. The traffic was just to hectic. Taxis, trucks, busses and cars on the left and then people, donkey carts, holes on the right. Then the "you are beautiful" from the very "friendly" egyptian men to us girls in latex cycling pants.


Today I feel very excited and more at ease, as now I feel the rest of the riders are also only human and not all super racer heroes. It looks like a great group of people from all sorts and it is going to be a very exciting tour!!!

not a photo you see on National Geographic

  

koshary - very nice local meal - for only 10 Egypt pounds



2 more Sleeps!

cha·os : a state of extreme confusion and disorder

With only 2 more days to go before I leave with Cairo, the packing has begun. We tried to gather most of the items on the recommended packing list of the TDA and started dumping it all in the spare room. Then today I started to organize and pack everything in 5 bags, which will be packed into 2 x 100L duffel bags.

We decided to replace my old tent with a Trek 3 from Sportsman's Warehouse. The tent is 1.5 kg lighter and I can assemble it easily in only a few minutes.

After much stress and consideration, I decided not to sent my bicycle as cargo a week before departure. The flight with Egypt Air from Cape Town to Cairo, only allows for 20kg of luggage with no allowances for sporting equipment. It would have been an almost R2,000 less expensive option than paying the R160/kg excess luggage fees to the airline. The feeling however from the Tour was that we would have a problem with customs in Cairo and maybe not get the bicycles in one day or maybe even a few days..

With the best summer weather this week in Langebaan, it was very difficult to focus on the trip. We spent most of our time on the beach and in the sea.