We're starting to lose track of days.
Day 10 - 21 Jan - It rained overnight - a very rare occurrence here. Today is the Ferry from Aswan - we convoyed across the low dam, then back across the high dam, to get to the ferry terminal. Boarding for us was as unchaotic as could reasnably be hoped. After we were on (about 1230), there was truck after truck, loaded three times higher then the cab top, all unloaded by hand and every box hand-carried onto the ferry, that plus all the local travellers. Departure was four hours late, at 2000. That was a good thing because had we been on time, we would not have gone past Abu Simbal in daylight the next day.
Day 11 - 22 Jan - arrive Wadi Halfa at 1400 after a fairly relaxed ferry ride. Immigration and Customs formalities took a while. The building was bright and clean, people friendly, pace a whole lot more subdued than Egypt. Convoyed about 3 km to camp, getting there with about an hour till sunset. The support trucks have not made it - they were on a different barge - the ferry doesn't take vehicles. One vehicle was there - one that had come up from South Africa and they had arranged for a meal of beans and goat cheese to be brought in locally - it was quite tasty and we all got to bed in good time. Sunset is now about 1830 since there was another hour time change - we're now GMT/UTC +3.
Day 12 - 23 Jan - still no trucks - Lake Nasser was rough during our crossing and apparently when it's like that, the barges just pull in and stop. We get an extra day of rest. The atmosphere in town was just so very relaxed compared to Egypt. We once again had clear skies. We are told that the rain of two days ago is a matter of significant concern here since it damages the sundried brick. A local Nubian - chemical engineer by profession - he has studied in Germany and in Toronto - came to camp and gave us some Nubian history, then showed us his home. Back to camp - vehicles have arrived - the full moon rises, and we have an early start tomorrow - we have to make up the lost day.
Day 13 - 24 Jan - Mornings are about 10 deg. Afternoons mid-to-high twenties. Easy 70 km on good roads this morning. That all changed after lunch. The road was rock and sand and our speed dropped to barely double-digit. But we made it. We hardly saw anyone all day - lots of barren but beautiful desert scenery.
Day 14 - 25 Jan - The plan was 110 km. It took us almost 5 hours to cover the 60 km to the lunch stop. Deep sand in many places meant we did a lot of walking, even though our tire pressures are now quite low - Ursula was still pretty strong at lunch - Rae was dragging, but we decided to keep going, see how far we could get - we were sharing tail-end with another couple. Well Rae's bicycle made the decision. His front tire was flat after lunch - the last of the desert tires - failed at the base of the valve stem just like the other three. We took that as a sign and hopped on the truck for the rest of the trip to camp. Very slow travelling because the roads continued to be very bad. Camp was beside the Nile so we got a sponge bath.
Day 15 - 26 Jan - Another 110 km in even worse roads with lots more sand to push through. But the afternoon rest yesterday was a good thing and we did well till lunch. Afternoon was a bit of a struggle but we got in okay, not even the last ones. A lot of people are having difficulty with the rough roads and heat.
Day 16 - Today - 27 Jan - 86 km today to Dongola. The idea was to stick together as a loose group but that idea fell apart within the first few km. Ursula and Rae got separated so Ursula reported Rae missing. Rae in the meantime had gone back part way to look for Ursula and when he couldn't see anybody at all, he continued down the road where four other riders had gone and which most closely matched last night's instructions. Rae rode totally alone, in sight of no one, for about an hour before catching up on the four ahead. The police eventually 'found' Rae and the other four who were not officially missing, and they had them wait until the rest of the group caught up. Somehow, the main group was off on some much sandier road than the one intended, so Ursula had a few falls and less fun than Rae in the morning. The last 20 km was paved surface, really quite marvellous after the last four days. Caught a ferry across to Dongola and 3 more kilometres to camp in the town zoo. Looks like at one time it was a very nice place with playground for kids and a nice cafe-restaurant. It was all fallen pretty much into disuse. The only remaining zoo resident is a big tortoise that wanders the place at will - it's his. There is water so we all had baths in the red boxes and then got hosed down (warm water) so we're a bit cleaner. Okay - none of you know what a red box is - it is a plastic box that each rider uses on a daily basis to store camping equipment and clothing that is used on riding days - everything else stays in a 'permanent bag' which is on top of the truck under canvas until rest days. Tomorrow is a rest day.
No facility for working photos, so you'll have to wait till Khartoum for that.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Day 9 - Aswan, Egypt
Day 8 - Luxor to Idfu where we camped in the football stadium. No real grass. Lots of real dust. Shower and bathroom facilities. Neither of us ventured into the shower because we had the choice to stay with the dirt we knew. We had no choice about the WC, but if we had, we would have dug our own hole out back.
120 km ride today. More kids lining the street. More stones, spitting, sugar cane swings, etc. Don't get us wrong, there are a lot of very nice Egyptians along the route who encourage us and smile and greet us. But the experience is spoiled by the others. We are fed up with hearing money money money and with kids that essentially crowd us over into the oncoming lane of traffic. Traffic of course is utter chaos. One never has any idea of which side of the street the donkey carts will be on. The good thing is that drivers are very good and seem to keep out of our way.
Day 9 - Idfu to Aswan - another 120 km. We're well into the routine of crawling into the sleeping bag at 1930 in the evening and rising at 0500 or thereabouts when the calls for prayer are blasted over loudspeakers from the local mosque. The support vehicles left last night to catch the truck barge to Sudan so breakfast was served by a locally-hired entrepreneur - how do you serve 60 people from one hot-dog (or Egyptian equivalent) cart? It was a good breakfast but slow in coming.
Same complaints as yesterday about kids - but today is the last riding day in Egypt, so it will be Sudanese kids in a couple of days. We convoy to the ferry tomorrow morning for what will probably be another unique experience - it is overnight and we're told that the facilities will be almost as good as the Idfu Stadium.
We just had a nice dinner, complete with a bottle of Egyptian red wine, on the Corniche overlooking the Nile. No more alcohol until Ethiopia - Sudan is dry.
Also, reportedly no more internet until Khartoum in about two weeks.
120 km ride today. More kids lining the street. More stones, spitting, sugar cane swings, etc. Don't get us wrong, there are a lot of very nice Egyptians along the route who encourage us and smile and greet us. But the experience is spoiled by the others. We are fed up with hearing money money money and with kids that essentially crowd us over into the oncoming lane of traffic. Traffic of course is utter chaos. One never has any idea of which side of the street the donkey carts will be on. The good thing is that drivers are very good and seem to keep out of our way.
Day 9 - Idfu to Aswan - another 120 km. We're well into the routine of crawling into the sleeping bag at 1930 in the evening and rising at 0500 or thereabouts when the calls for prayer are blasted over loudspeakers from the local mosque. The support vehicles left last night to catch the truck barge to Sudan so breakfast was served by a locally-hired entrepreneur - how do you serve 60 people from one hot-dog (or Egyptian equivalent) cart? It was a good breakfast but slow in coming.
Same complaints as yesterday about kids - but today is the last riding day in Egypt, so it will be Sudanese kids in a couple of days. We convoy to the ferry tomorrow morning for what will probably be another unique experience - it is overnight and we're told that the facilities will be almost as good as the Idfu Stadium.
We just had a nice dinner, complete with a bottle of Egyptian red wine, on the Corniche overlooking the Nile. No more alcohol until Ethiopia - Sudan is dry.
Also, reportedly no more internet until Khartoum in about two weeks.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Day 6 - Arrived in Luxor
Day 5 - 140 km to a desert camp approaching Qena. First 40 km is all climbing. Wind is cold, fortunately only occasionally a headwind. A few more climbs before lunch at 60 km. Then a pleasant relaxed 40 km to a refreshment point, flat, generally okay wind. 40 km to camp - pice of cake - no such luck - last 40 km uphill and into a strong wind. Another rather barren desert campsite beside the road. Tonight would be the coldest yet. We're weary. Our bums are suffering.
The first flat of the entire tour, ten km from the pyramids.
Day 6 - 95 km past Qena and into Luxor. Should be easy. From Qena most of the way to Luxor there are kids everywhere, all yelling and waving, some right beside the road wanting high-fives. Most are kids. Some are mean. Not just heavy-hitting high-fives but a couple of riders were grabbed and nearly pulled off the bike. Somebody swung a stick at one rider, maybe trying to get it into the spokes. Meantime traffic is going by in its usual chaotic fashion. Truck frivers seem to give us good space though. Then the convoys of tourist bussed, police escort, very fast. Arrive in Luxor at noon and get hotel room and a hot shower.
Along the way... the kids
And high-fives....
An elderly Egyptian chasing Ursula on his bike.
Notice the satellite dish on the roof behind the kids.
Evening excitement - a sail on a felucca on the Nile at sunset - about twenty of us - got started a bit late, felucca essentially becalmed so they got a tow from a powered sightseeing boat. Left the sail up. Control a bit didgy. Eventually we run into another boat. All very frantic but no damage and lots of fun.
Friday was a day of rest in Luxor - did the ancient sites - all wonderful stuff done 3000 years ago without modern technology. Rather impressive how wll organized the ancient folk were although I doubt that the builders on temples in ancient Thebes were considered comfortable and affluent. No pictures from the sites yet, but here are some from the first four days:
Let the expedition begin - up on a hill behind the pyramids.
The first flat of the entire tour, ten km from the pyramids.
day two - somewhere in the desert....
Day 4 - near Hurghada
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Day 4 - Safaga Egypt
We've made it through the first four days. 544 total kilometers so far.
Day 1 - departure from Cairo - ten km from the hotel to the pyramids, then about twenty-five km back through Giza and around Cairo on the ring road. Air quality terrible. Noise too - everybody honks horns. Rae was the first in the entire Tour to have a flat tire... now that's a great start - didn't even get to the east side of the Nile. Ursula had her flat at km 40. Both were the fancy new desert tires - they failed at the base of the valve, so a tire change both times.
After that, there was a long steady climb eastward, general direction of Suez, but we skirted Suez the following day. Somebody sent us an email with the Cairo forecast for Saturday and said temperature 15, wind southwest at 25. Let us tell you, it seemed like a hundred and twenty five. Last year, the lady's top racer did it in under 3-1/2 hours. She is on the tour again this year and it took her over 6 hours - and that was just the time after lraving the pyramids. The total length for the day was about 140 km. Unfortunately by sunset we still had ten km to go so we had to get picked up and we lost the EFI (Every F---ing inch) status - takes some pressure off for the rest of the tour.
Then pitching the tent in the dark was another great challenge. We even missed dinner.
Day 2 - it has to get better - up at 0600, and by the time we got organized we were about the last out of camp. Just 168 km today. JUST... yesterday was the first time we'd been over about 105. The wind was still strong and cold, but fortunately after the first 25 km, it was a tail wind. Then another flat for Ursula - the third of our desert tires, same thing as before. After lunch, we didn't think there was much hope for finishing, but to out surprise, we were able to generate a cruise speed of 30-40 km/hr for the entire afternoon so we finished just after 1600 - the last ones to go the distance and arrive in camp - quite a few abandoned voluntarily en route.
We got dinner and we were better organized. Pitching the tent was challenging in the gale. Sort of woke us up at regular intervals. In bedby about 2000 - it was a definite improvement on day 1.
Day 3 - 'Only' 138 km today. Up at 0530, out of camp before 0730. We're not the last to leave. Another strong cold wind, but it was a tail wind. Into camp shortly after 1300. The tent really nearly blew away today with only softish ground to anchor it. Got down to the Red Sea for a sponge bath. Water too cold to swim. Got supper. Food tends to be some sort of stew, very tasty, rice or potato, and some veggie. Served with fine red wine... sorry about that... served with water coffee or tea. Temperature not bad until sunset, then it was freezing - that's been the way it is every day so far. In bed at 1930. Hard to sleep with the wind and the trucks on the highway.
Day 4 - Up at 0530 and on the road before 0730. We skirt by Hurghada this morning and continue to Safaga for the night. Today is only 110 km and we're finished just after 1200. We thought about it last night, thinking how absolutely wonderful it would be to do only 110 km - piece of cake - how quickly we change - just three days ago we hadn't gone that far in our lives
Safaga is a town. Burgeoning resort developments along the Red Sea to the North. Nice thing about town is there are hotels and we decided to part with $30 for a room with a bathroom that we don't have to dig in the desert and also a hot shower.
And a chance to get to an internet cafe and send this email.
How are we? Sore bums. Sore I-T bands. Ursula's knees are sore but pain manageable with Advil. Rae's hips are doing just great Ursula has a cold. We've both picked up quite a bit of sun (not a cloud in the sky). Spirits excellent.
Coming up - tomorrow we leave the Red Sea and have to go up into the hills and head to Qena. It promises to be tough - uphill and probably mostly into wind. Thursday into Luxor for a rest day on Friday.
Day 1 - departure from Cairo - ten km from the hotel to the pyramids, then about twenty-five km back through Giza and around Cairo on the ring road. Air quality terrible. Noise too - everybody honks horns. Rae was the first in the entire Tour to have a flat tire... now that's a great start - didn't even get to the east side of the Nile. Ursula had her flat at km 40. Both were the fancy new desert tires - they failed at the base of the valve, so a tire change both times.
After that, there was a long steady climb eastward, general direction of Suez, but we skirted Suez the following day. Somebody sent us an email with the Cairo forecast for Saturday and said temperature 15, wind southwest at 25. Let us tell you, it seemed like a hundred and twenty five. Last year, the lady's top racer did it in under 3-1/2 hours. She is on the tour again this year and it took her over 6 hours - and that was just the time after lraving the pyramids. The total length for the day was about 140 km. Unfortunately by sunset we still had ten km to go so we had to get picked up and we lost the EFI (Every F---ing inch) status - takes some pressure off for the rest of the tour.
Then pitching the tent in the dark was another great challenge. We even missed dinner.
Day 2 - it has to get better - up at 0600, and by the time we got organized we were about the last out of camp. Just 168 km today. JUST... yesterday was the first time we'd been over about 105. The wind was still strong and cold, but fortunately after the first 25 km, it was a tail wind. Then another flat for Ursula - the third of our desert tires, same thing as before. After lunch, we didn't think there was much hope for finishing, but to out surprise, we were able to generate a cruise speed of 30-40 km/hr for the entire afternoon so we finished just after 1600 - the last ones to go the distance and arrive in camp - quite a few abandoned voluntarily en route.
We got dinner and we were better organized. Pitching the tent was challenging in the gale. Sort of woke us up at regular intervals. In bedby about 2000 - it was a definite improvement on day 1.
Day 3 - 'Only' 138 km today. Up at 0530, out of camp before 0730. We're not the last to leave. Another strong cold wind, but it was a tail wind. Into camp shortly after 1300. The tent really nearly blew away today with only softish ground to anchor it. Got down to the Red Sea for a sponge bath. Water too cold to swim. Got supper. Food tends to be some sort of stew, very tasty, rice or potato, and some veggie. Served with fine red wine... sorry about that... served with water coffee or tea. Temperature not bad until sunset, then it was freezing - that's been the way it is every day so far. In bed at 1930. Hard to sleep with the wind and the trucks on the highway.
Day 4 - Up at 0530 and on the road before 0730. We skirt by Hurghada this morning and continue to Safaga for the night. Today is only 110 km and we're finished just after 1200. We thought about it last night, thinking how absolutely wonderful it would be to do only 110 km - piece of cake - how quickly we change - just three days ago we hadn't gone that far in our lives
Safaga is a town. Burgeoning resort developments along the Red Sea to the North. Nice thing about town is there are hotels and we decided to part with $30 for a room with a bathroom that we don't have to dig in the desert and also a hot shower.
And a chance to get to an internet cafe and send this email.
How are we? Sore bums. Sore I-T bands. Ursula's knees are sore but pain manageable with Advil. Rae's hips are doing just great Ursula has a cold. We've both picked up quite a bit of sun (not a cloud in the sky). Spirits excellent.
Coming up - tomorrow we leave the Red Sea and have to go up into the hills and head to Qena. It promises to be tough - uphill and probably mostly into wind. Thursday into Luxor for a rest day on Friday.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Arrival in Cairo
Monday 7 January - The flight arrived Cairo on time, no problem getting visa and through immigration, then best of all, our bicycles were already in the baggage area followed within minutes by the rest of the bags and we were on our way to the hotel within 40 minutes of landing.
Tuesday - A bit of a nostalgia walk around Cairo for Rae. Spent half-an-hour trying to find Ramses II statue. Rae pleaded that it was supposed to be in front of the train station and how could we miss something that's 200 feet tall. Turns out they removed it last year due to vibration and pollution damage. It will find a new home when a new museum is completed somewhere between Cairo and Alexandria.
Wednesday - Giza and the pyramids. The picture speaks for itself. Then it rained, believe it or not, this evening - not very warm either.
Bags are Packed, We're Ready to Go....
A couple of anxious moments that were beyond our control:
- the Ethiopian visas did not come through as quickly as expected. In fact, if our good friend Hermann in Ottawa had not gone personally to the embassy to retrieve our passports, we would not have had them in time to travel to Switzerland for Christmas and for Ursula's Dad's birthday.
- Our flight back to Toronto from Switzerland was cancelled and we were stuck in Frankfurt for almost a day and a half, finally arriving back in Toronto near midnight the night before leaving for Cairo.
Final packing was a bit rushed and we certainly didn't do all the housekeeping that we intended before getting on the flight in Toronto on the 6th of January. By the way, anybody contemplating taking an extra bag on a flight from Toronto to Cairo should count on $225 per back for the excess baggage.
Packing the Bikes
End of November - time to pack up the bikes. We have to give a lot of credit to our bicycle shop - Dukes on Queen Street West in Toronto - and in particular to Derek - for helping get the bike packed up. Here he is doing the work while Rae stood by taking pictures.
We're a little late posting this, so by now we know that the bikes arrived unblemished so the packing must have been well done - thanks Derek. And they have been reassembled and are ready to go on the road in Cairo.
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