Screaming kids

I'm setting in front of a fire pit in Luxor and drinking a beer.  Luxor brand wheat beer, of course.  We all needed this rest day.  I never thought I'd miss a mirror.  But without it, there is no way I can check out the saddle sores on my butt.  And yes, they are sore.  My body is going through some strange transformation - my legs are getting stronger, but my upper body is getting fatter.  We've been eating a lot of food - usually oat meal for breakfast, sandwich for lunch and a hearty dinner.  Bananas and oranges are also available sometimes, but they are a luxury. All of us try to squeeze in 4~5 candy bars during the day as well.  Our riding day starts at 5am.  After packing up the tent and our bags, breakfast is served at 6am.  We'll fill up our water bottles and Camelpak,  since there is the mandatory 3 liters of water we have to pack.  At 7am, riders start to leave camp.  The racers generally leave later to start the peloton.  There are some serious racers in the group.  Paul raced professionally. At the half way point, lunch is served.  Depending on the rider's speed, we roll into camp.  First thing I do is to grab my bag and set up the tent.  With minimal privacy and space, I can take off the cycling jersey and shorts and start the wipe down.  It's amazing with only 2 baby wipes, I can clean myself pretty good.  Hot soup awaits all of us! The soup is always full of vegetables and very salty.  It does a good job of replacing electrolytes. Dinner was great this week.  A lot of carbs, vegetables, and some protein.  We are generally in bed by 7pm, unless a rider has dish cleaning duty that night.  EAT, SLEEP and RIDE!

Cairo stay was really hectic.  Between all the meetings and fighting jetlag, I didn't manage to get out to the market at all.  Except a couple of us went to a western style mall with Chili's, McDonalds and Starbucks etc.  to get some extra supplies for the trip.  I did go out to the neighborhood hear the hotel to find some food.  It was cheap, but the sanitation grade would be a 0!  No one got sick fortunately.  We also took a three wheeler Tak Tak, our dirver was no older tha 12 years old, like Short Round from Indiana Jones.

Stage1 - It was crazy - 5am wake up, breakfast, then we are off to the Pyrimids.  The police escort was superb.  Unfortunately I didn't train for the pollution.  The smog was terrible.  It was a cold morning (and day actually), never got above 55.  A few minutes into the ride, we had our first flat tire and injury, it was quickly resolved though.  Once we got out of Cairo, it was a breeze.  There were some long gentle hills.  The wind was to our side/back.  There are three Egyptian riders with us.  They will ride down to Aswan with the group.  They are professional riders.  According to an egyptian rider, 1 day of tail wind is followed by 8 days of headwind.  Hope that's not true!  After a very cold lunch, there seems to be more downhills than up.  I rode with Kim (Norweigan) for a long while at a decent pace, like 22mph.  At points, I had some doubts about what the heck i signed up for.  I had to invoke the "iron will" motto.  Might be too early for that.  Since most riders didn't really train for the last month, this ride allowed us to release some energy.  I think all of us burned out a little.  We were so elated to see our camp site.  Once we got to camp, the first order of business is to set up tent and get changed.  The soup and dinner was fanstatic.  I never ate so much food before.  Tomorrow is going to be a long day - 100 miles.  Also I changed the computer on the bike to KM instead of miles.  They all use the metric system.  I got screwed by the metric system!!

This is my first time setting up this tent.  Easy enough.  But getting the stuff out of the daily bag was another matter.  Lessons learned on how to pack everything in reverse order.  The night was cold.  Burrrrr.  Waking up in the middle of the night and wanted to go pee.  It was so cold.

Stage 2 - Beep Beep my alarm goes off at 5:30 am. Mandatory day for the racers, a 100 miler! After packing up and breakfast, the racers are off!  The first 70km was a breez, seemed like.  I rode with Kendra as we got to know each other.  After a good lunch stop, we are headed to the next refreshment stop at 134km.  The pace seemed to slow a bit, then a lot with a very strong headwind.  Every hill seemed longer and never ending.  My butt was hurting like never before.  At about the 133km mark, I just stopped.  Finished all the water and ate two candy bars, I was tapped out.  Finally Kendra and Christina came up and took a break in sympathy with me.  We maded to the to refreshment area.  After a couple of bananas, and topping off water.  We are off again for the last 32kms.  John from Zimbabwe, rode with us rest of the way.  We played Categories.  Whoever loses had to peddle on one leg for 20 seconds.  Finally the finish line was insight!!!  180+ miles in two days!  It felt good!  Paul from Arizona won the mando stage today!  Looking forward to tomorrow - 133kms ONLY!

Stage 3 - After a much improved camp setup and take down process, packing up was a breeze.  All the stuff that I needed to setup the tent are at top of the bag.  The day started slow.  The 100 miler took a lot out of me.  My knee joints are hurting and my butt is still in a lot of pain.  Imagine biking 133kms of slow up hills all head with a strong head wind.  That's the best way to describe the course for today.  I struggled the first 30kms.  As I forgot to top off the camelbak, water ran out quickly.  It was a chilly, cloudy, and windy day.  I never took off the windbreaker.  Finally lunch stop came and I ate a pita bread filled with peanut butter, honey, and "spam" like meat.  The pita bread was the size of a small pizza.  It was so delicious.  Getting back on the bike was hard after lunch, the knees just didn't want to move.  I was biking with Adrian, John, Steve and Randy in a pack.  We hit a pretty good pace.  After a quick coke stop, we ran into Ram on the side of the road and helped him to fix a flat.  We could see our camp site from far away, but the road just never seemed to end.  

Kendra started a yoga class after the rides to help us stretch.  I saw a lot of Egyptians waving to us when riding or they honk their horns.  It's a lot a like running a marathon and total strangers rooting for you.  It's an amazing experience. Tomorrow sets up very nicely - a "short" 100K ride to Safaga.  Then we'll be able to shower and get online!  I have not showered at all for the last three days, just baby wipes.  I can seriously get dreadlocks.  But I'm thinking of shaving it all off!  It's going to be very easy to maintain that way.  Safaga awaits!!!

Stage 4 - We had a major sandstorm last night.  In the middle of the night, the wind howled and it almost blew the tent away.  My tent has meshed vents and sand got into the tent.  It was everywhere - inside the tent, inside the sleeping bag, on the mattress, on my face.  It was not a great feeling in the sleeping bag, the sand felt like a billion ants.  It was cold and windy night.

The ride to Safaga started at 7am.  I rode the first 30kms with the Egyptian riders.  They are really fast, we were going about 40kmph on hills.  At some points we averaged over 60km per hour.  The pace was too fast for me.  I droped back for the next 20km til lunch.  After lunch, I missed the peloton group and rode by myself for the most of the morning.  At 11am, after 100kms, we arrive at Safaga!  It's a resort town by the Red Sea.  This is like paradise.  I parked my bike and headed straight to the ocean.  It was cold but very refreshing.  This is the first time my hair saw any type of water.  After the swim, I went directly to the shower!  ahhhhhh, bless!  The first shower in over 3 days to wash off the sweat, sun block, sand, etc.  The water was hot.  I did not want to get out.  I tagged along with three German riders, Horest, Hardy and Dennis, into town.  Safaga is a tourist town.  Most tourist are from Germany or Russia.  It suppose to be really inexpensive for them.

We had a very nice dinner and after there was a surprise birthday party for Lindsey, a rider from New Zealand.  People organized a huge cake with very fancy decoratings and even fireworks!  It was a good moment for the team.  The morning prayer calls blasting through the speakers at 5am.  My legs are still tired.  This suppose to be a climbing day, a very long and slow ascend.  It took a while for the legs to work out the sorness.  The scenary was beautiful in the morning.  The rising sun light hitting against the mountain gives it a very dramatic scene.  As we rode up the hill, it just keep on going and going.  Even after we make a turn, there are more hills waiting for us.  I looked at my watch's altimeter to keep track of the altitude.  We started at 60 feet below sea level and at the highest point, we were over 2300 feet above.  This climb was over 50kms long.  We finally hit the descend.  It was long and effortless.  After a quick lunch the road became very flat.  It was desolate and barren, it's riding on Mars.  For the next 70km, there was nothing.  I can see for miles and miles, but very little life.  We took a quick Coke stop and had a Fanta.  That gave me some energy to push for the final 35K.

At camp, Randy helped me to adjust the bike.  He and his son Steve are riding together.  Randy also coaches cycling.  We received the news that we'll be going through Sudan!  Between now and Luxor there are only 90kms!  Three more cycling stages and we'll be out of Egypt and straight on to Sudan.

Stage 5 - We camped at a police check point last night.  Everyone is excited to get to Luxor.  The morning ride was flat desert.  Then, all of the sudden, the scenery changed to green!  Fields, trees and a canal.  I started to ride with Carrie, James, Mike, Beate, and Christine.  We were moving at a good pace.  Children screaming and waving as we cycled past them.  It's an incredible feeling.  Total strangers cheering you on.  I will never forget a man on a donkey gesturing to me to pedal faster.  The 95km went by really fast.  The police escorted the peloton group.  Carrie and I latched on for 10km, but we couldn't keep up.  Nick, Christina, Ryan, and I finished that last few kms together.  

Luxor - Once we arrived in Luxor, I took a shower immediately and checked in the mirror on the condition of my saddle sores.   Andre, Jean, Daniel and I went to the market after.  I picked up a Yasser Arafat scarf.  We wanted to do some hot air balloon ride.  Our taxi driver gave us a great deal.  Pierre, Peter and I got into this cab and the driver started to tell us a great deal about hot air balloon ride.  It was actually a lot cheaper than what they offer at the camp.  Hope it's safe!  More update later!!!