Tour d'Afrique - Cairo to Cape Town by Bike

Well, it certainly feels weird saying this, but the first country of the tour has been completed!  Okay, to be exact, we have a 40km convoy ride to get to the ferry here in Aswan, then endure the gong show that is the actual embarking of the ferry, then sit on the ferry for 24 hours.  Why the ferry you ask?  We will sail the length of Lake Nasser not because we are sallies and are trying to cut distance off the traversing of the continent, but rather because Egyptian officials enjoy the monopoly that the ferry has for access to the Sudan making it the only place we can cross the border.

 

To recap the last couple of days, we had a fun rest day in Luxor where we saw a bunch of tombs in the Valley of the Queens and the Valley of the Kings (including King Tut's tomb), then saw a few different temples, walked around the city, enjoyed showers, did some laundry and the usual exciting stuff.  The next day was deemed a "non-racing" day because of all of the traffic ( i.e. car, truck, bus, donkey, tractor, bike, train, etc.), police stops and other stuff.  I enjoyed the decision and took our time to interact with the locals, with the kid that kept up with us at 30km/h, the other kid that used his rear rack as a seat (and the cringe that we all had when we thought he was going to sit on the bare seat post), and all of the other usual entertaining stuff.  We camped in a soccer field in Idfu which was another entertaining town where we got to walk around.

 

Today, we had a race day again.  Though I thought I had hung up my racing hat, the police insisted that we stay as a group en route to Idfu and it seemed that today was going to be the same so I stayed with the front group.  We hit some roads under construction (or not ever finished, not sure which) about 25km to the end so there was a break of 6 people that I hung with.  Once we got into Aswan, the finish line was unexpectedly at the far end of town.  We would race for a bit, but all slow down for each other when the traffic got a little more hairy.  About 1km from the end, the police shut down the road for our little group and we got to have a good sprint.  I had stuck with these guys all day and still didn't have a stage win to my name so you bet I was giving 'er!  I was the first to spot the finish flag so I broke and managed to open up ~20m behind me.  I was pushing pretty hard (heart rate 97% max) and thought I had it, but Adrie (the current tour leader) caught me with a few metres to go and beat me by half of a wheel to catch his 5th stage win (of 7 stages so far).  Well done Adrie!

 

We had fun this afternoon walking around Aswan and enjoying the sights that we flew by on the way in.  The Nile is beautiful here with tall limestone craggy islands and sandy dunes on the far side.  We also entertained ourselves with a quest for food since we need to provide our food for the ferry.  We got 12 pita breads straight out of the oven for the equivalent of ten cents Canadian.  The plastic bag they came in was just as expensive as the breads!  Mmmmm...are they ever good!

 

I'm sorry I was not able to include any pictures, there is no USB access here.  I will sign off for a little while.  Internet access in the Sudan will not be as readily available.  This is where the tour gets way more fun, hard, hot, different, and most importantly, more memorable!

 

Wish me luck in the Nubian desert!