Today is another day that the photos will speak for themselves. However, first a brief history of the place (if your too lazy to Google it). The temples at Abu Simbel were built for Ramses II and his wife Nefertari. They were carved right into the sandstone cliffs along the Nile. They were painstakingly moved from their original spot to a location 60 meters higher. This was done to avoid being flooded by the quickly growing Lake Nasser, that was created by the building of the Aswan High Dam.
150km ride today. I was a bit worried about my tendons and how they would hold up, but at 80km and lunch they were doing fine. Slow and steady has been the mantra. During our lunch stop I could see a distant haze getting darker on the horizon in the direction we were about to head. Uh oh! I started out mentally prepared for a difficult afternoon of cycling. 20km before lunch the wind had started to pick up. It was mostly a crosswind with a slight headwind component. Off in the distance I could tell it was much stronger.
The pictures don’t really do the situation justice. It just looks like a really hazy day, however, after lunch the wind got fierce. It started picking up the sand and blowing it around. I had to pull off the road and dig out my sunglasses so I could see and, much to my chagrin, I realized I’d left my buff packed in my day bag. I usually keep it on my bike for occasions just like this. No face mask for me then. Hopping back on the bike, I got back underway. The wind was still pushing the same direction but the road was turning. It was now at my back! Sand was flying everywhere and swirling all over the road as I pedaled. My legs felt the sting of thousands of tiny needles as it blasted at my bare calves. I looked down at my cycling computer and it told me I was going 45km/hr. I was barely touching the pedals. I was flying along effortlessly. I stood up on my bike and let the wind push me. I cruised a full two kilometres without even pedaling once.
I arrived in Abu Simbel in record time completely covered in dust. What an exhilarating ride! The town itself was strangely quiet. All the shops were closed and there were very few people out and about. I learned that this wasn’t because of the weather, but because French President Emmanuel Macron was visiting town. If only we had rode into town as a full group wearing our high visibility jackets… Even in Africa the “yellow vests” were following him…
Finally our first real desert camp! And just to make it authentic, it’s nice and hot! 30C in the shade! The lizard in me loves it! So happy NOT to be in Toronto, with its fickle -20C snowy / +3C rainy weather right now.
Today was a pretty nondescript day of riding. Desert, desert and more desert. Other than breaking the 1000km distance threshold, nothing really special to report. Instead, I thought I’d describe the group I’m traveling with. Ethnically diverse, we are not. Other than a Chinese Canadian woman and an Indian Canadian man we are a group of white people. Of the 34 full tour people, only 6 are women. The rest, old white guys. We have people from all over the world including Canada (by far the largest group), USA, UK, Switzerland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia, Germany and South Africa.
Our TDA staff consists of a Tour Director, two assistant TD’s, a Cook, a Doctor, a bike mechanic, two drivers and a media guy (new this year). In Egypt we are also accompanied by a small army (literally) to ensure our safety, a fire truck (whenever we stay in a town or village) and two Egyptian fixers. The police presence with us is way overkill, but the Egyptian government is very serious about protecting its tourists and trying to rebuild its shattered tourism industry. I don’t have a clue about the fire truck…
As expected technology is slowly failing the further I get from civilization. I’m in the town of Abu Simbel close to the Sudan border. Tomorrow we enter Sudan! I’m told social media is blocked there so I may go dark for two weeks. Rest assured I’ll pick things up and back post everything I can… when I can.
Please stand by…
Today we got a little taste of what is to come. Riding out of Idfu, we passed through small tree covered streets. Winding back and forth through tiny villages was absolutely wonderful, then everything went brown. The second you turn away from the Nile, everything dies. The vegetation disappears and the corpses start appearing. The desiccated corpses of several cows lay strewn across the landscape. Perhaps driven to far, exhausted, they collapsed in the sand on the side of the road. There they lay for weeks, months, even years, their bodies mummifying in the harsh sun.
Our post lunch ride was the tough part of the day. The Nile wandered away from us, and the road got rough and very sandy. Riding in sand is very much like riding in snow, without the frigid temperatures. My year round cycling in Toronto has prepared me well for some of this…other bits…not so much.
We’ve ended up back on the Nile tonight. We are just a few km short of the Aswan dam. I thought we were going to ride over it tomorrow but after reviewing our route, it’s seems we won’t be. Bummer. I’m a big nerd for huge engineering projects and would like to have seen it.
…”can’t wait to get on the road again” (singing). Ok, so maybe I could wait a day or two. I’d really could use some more rest for my weary tendons. On the bright side, my right Achilles’ tendon is feeling a bit better. However, my left is feeling worse! Thankfully the ride today was almost perfectly flat and just 113.3 km. It was a beautiful calm day, hugging the Nile and several canals along side it. It’s life giving water feeding the farms I rode past. Lots of waving smiling children as I peddled through the small villages on route to our final destination of Idfu.
I had my first rock thrower. A small boy, maybe 9 years old saying “money money money” as I rode by (not the ABBA song) produced a small stone and threw it after I had said “no money”. It was very minor and I wouldn’t have even known he had thrown it if I hadn’t heard it clattering down the road behind me. I turned to waggle a finger at the kid but he’d already darted into the sugar cane field. The take away lesson, respond with the positive. I’m determined to be the “Polite Canadian” and try and turn any negative into a positive. Teach, not scold, future rock throwers why they shouldn’t be doing what they are doing. A smile and a wave goes along way towards preventing that first rock. If I can, I’ll always give a smile, wave and a “hello”. Ignoring the kids as I ride just invites trouble. Plus it’s just rude, and we Canadians are not rude!
I should be resting my Achilles’ tendon’s, but I couldn’t come all this way and NOT see some of Egypts greatest treasures. We visited Valley of the Kings, Al-Deir Al-Bahari Temple and Medimet Habu Temple. All were spectacular in their own ways.
I don’t normally like doing the Tourist thing. Being bussed from site to site and only having a few minutes to rush through and snap photos. It’s a horrible way to see ancient wonders. You don’t actually get to SEE anything. It’s just a blur of photo ops and then on to the next site. I could have easily spent a week here in Luxor and left wanting to see more. But I have a meager 8 hours to see as much as I can, so I don’t regret doing the “tourist thing”; about 2/3rds of our group took up the offer.
Each temple was simply mind boggling with their details and size. Just think, most of these were built three and a half THOUSAND years ago. They are impressive as “ruins”, I can’t fathom what they would have looked like new.
I’ll just let the photos speak for themselves…
We finished the day with a boat ride down the Nile (that most of us would have happily skipped for more time at the temples, given the choice) and a very late lunch.
Then back to base to prep for our day of riding tomorrow. My tendons are killing me but I don’t regret going for a second. Nothing a week of convalescing can’t cure…oh wait…
Back on the bike tomorrow.
No drama today. A simple ride from our police station camp to Luxor. 106km. Only a week ago that would have been a very long ride. Now, at the end of our first segment, it seems short! My tendons are still giving me trouble, but I’m managing. It was a crisp 9C to start the morning and a cold ride to start. It took almost two hours to warm up to a comfortable temperature. Not much in the way of pictures today. Coming into Luxor was a nice change. A lot of very excited locals very amused to see a funny white guy on a bicycle. Lots of cheers and attempted high fives. I even raced a kid on a donkey a short distance. Poor donkey never stood a chance! 🤣
It’s amazing how the land really comes to life as you near the Nile. You start seeing the colour green again. Tomorrow is our first rest day that I’m very much looking forward to. I wish it was in a less interesting place though. I’d love to spend the entire day resting, but I just have to see “The Valley of the Kings” and a bunch of other touristy things. It would be a shame to come all this way and not visit these world renowned places. My tendons will just have to rest later.
Another beautiful sunrise sent us on our way this morning. Today was to be a day of challenges. Longer ride (145Km), a fair amount of climbing (1200m), and sore Achilles’ tendons. On top of that we are heading inland and lost our wonderful tail wind. We climbed on a very easy and minimal grade all the way to our lunch spot (70km in). I took it really easy, babying my tendons. They we feeling sore but not horrible. I ate lunch quickly and started off on the 2nd half of my day (not wanting to seize up from lack of movement). About ten minutes out from lunch, it happened…
A car had just passed me, and I was looking down at my cycling computer. I looked back up and there was a huge dust cloud about 400 meters in front of me. It wasn’t there a second ago. My initial reaction was, “oh it’s just some construction road crew stirring up a lot of dust. As I cycled closer, it quickly became apparent this wasn’t the case! The car that had passed me, mear seconds before, had somehow lost control, swerved onto the shoulder of the road, demolished a road sign, swerved back across the left side of the road flipping on its side and some how ending up pointed the opposite direction. I immediately hoped I wouldn’t find some horribly injured people or someone that had been ejected from the vehicle. I flagged down another passing car and got to the vehicle as quickly as possible. Much to my relief I could see the passenger struggling to get out of the vehicle via the passenger door (that was now pointed straight up). It was a woman in a black burka. She appeared unhurt and relatively calm. I helped hold the vehicle door open as she jumped out. Her husband (assumption) was still in the vehicle and trying to get out. He also appeared uninjured, but was definitely more shaken up. I continued to hold the door open as the man from the vehicle I flagged down came around the car and helped the guy out. I checked the back seats and they were empty! Thank goodness, everyone could walk away from this crash!
By this time other vehicles were pulling over to see what had happened. I was about to contact our tour doctor when one of our security details showed up (we have tourist police traveling with us to make sure we are safe!) and after confirming I was ok went to the aid of the crash victims. With nothing else I could do they told me I could go (no police statement or anything). So off I went and promptly forgot about every ache and pain I had for the next 10km while I replayed the incident in my head.
So after that fun, it was only another 60 km to our police checkpoint “bush” camp. Meaning no water, no power, no toilets. As the ride neared it’s end, my tendons became less sore. Mainly because other parts of my body started complaining louder. My back was sore, my butt was sore, my knees were sore. Even the balls of my feet were sore. It’s was a long and tiring ride, and just wanted to get to camp.
Still, I’m now safe and sound in my tent, well fed and getting some much needed rest. One sobering thought…if I hadn’t taken it easy this morning and I was twenty seconds further down the road…I could very well have been road kill.
And, as strange as this may seem, it’s the reason I’m here. Enjoy life while you can…you might be dead in 20 seconds…
So, my ankle is sore…specifically my Achilles’ tendon. It started bothering me yesterday and today it ached the entire ride and was slightly swollen. The internet tells me it’s Achilles tendonitis., which I tend to agree with. Solution…rest it. Easier said than done when on cycle tour with a set schedule. I’m at a loss as to why it’s bugging me. I haven’t been cycling hard, and with the strong tail winds we’ve had the first three days, it’s been really easy riding. I’ve talked to some more experienced cyclists and they suggested I might need to adjust the clips on my shoes or adjust my cadence, however the pain started on days I wasn’t wearing my cycling shoes (which is how I ride 99% of the time at home). So I’m chocking this up to the sheer amount of cycling. Never having ridden more than 105km in a day before, I’m in uncharted territory personally. Lucky we have a rest day coming up in two days and hopefully it will work itself out. If not I may have to spend a day or two riding in the truck. Booo!
I’ll be riding super slow (for me) tomorrow. Maybe try that cadence thing… Funny, I was all worried about my ass being sore and it turned out to be my ankles!
Scott's Cycling Adventures 