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
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| Each day after the ride, we are served soup |
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| My tent in the desert camp |
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| Falucca on the Nile |
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| The road to Luxor |
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| Kendra's Yoga class |
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| The Kitchen |
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| We are given instructions like this every night at rider meeting for the route of the next day |
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