Photos from Sudan

First photo - playing around in an abandoned boat in the desert at Dead Camel Camp...still wondering why the boat was even there...

Second photo - hence the name of Dead Camel Camp, where we were cycling was along a camel trade route, the camels are raised in Sudan where they are not eaten by the inhabitants, north to Egypt where they are consumed.  A few dont make it and the desert has its way of getting rid of them.

Third photo - the Stanley Cup beside the Blue Nile in Khartoum

Fourth photo - bikes being engulfed with sand during the raging sandstorm.  A bit hard on all the components, but it gave us something to do today in Khartoum, cleaning sand out of every nook and cranny.

More to come....

Cairo to Khartoum - done!

Section One is done!  We are now in Khartoum, brought safely in to the Blue Nile Sailing Club by a police escort with lots of staring onlookers.  Actually, they were most probably wondering what that awful smell was, as our 4 days in the desert, including a bonus sandstorm, left us all quite filthy and definitely less than fresh.

1960 kilometres of cycling has been pretty easy on us, with amazing tailwinds which we hope will continue!  Coming up, we have 2 more days of pavement, then we start to climb, off-road for 6 days. I think that might be more of a test than this last section!

Photos to follow...

Photos

First photo, the laundry of 52 cyclists drying at the hotel in Luxor, second photo, riding alongside the Red Sea (disappointingly blue, but still a lovely color), third photo, the view from our tent of one of the desert camps.  We all tried to hunker down among the sand piles to get out of the ferocious wind a little.

Fwd: Salaam from Aswan

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mail Delivery Subsystem
Date: Sunday, January 20, 2013
Subject: Salaam from Aswan
To: pagaudet107@gmail.co

      

We have made it all the way to Aswan and the riding has, for the most part,
been a breeze.  Literally, a breeze, those blessed tailwinds kept on
coming!  We are quite astonished at how fast this whole rolling circus
moves along.  Wayne and I kind of thought we were something when it came to
biking but it seems we are barely in the ordinary category among this
group!  But, I do keep noticing some fast road bikes, which fly on the
smooth asphalt of Egypt and wonder how durable they will prove to be on the
rougher roads ahead.  I am quite content to ride along behind the packs of
riders that form, I am not much of a group rider and would rather look
around at what there is to see than watch the back wheel of the guy in
front of me.

And there is such a lot to see!  Lots of times on long rides I tend to use
my bike computer as entertainment, first I'll watch mileage, then time,
then try to figure out my average, then switch to that screen to see if I
am right, but here the panorama of life is keeping me amused every inch of
the way.  The scenery has varied from stark barren desert consisting of
rocks, sand and no vegetation to the lush area around the Nile, bursting
with verdant life.  Where there is water, there are people, and that means
kids, so we are all getting repetitive stress injuries from waving so much.
 The kids are hilarious, they jump up and down with excitement when they
see us coming like it is the best thing that has happened to them ever!
 The adults are a bit more restrained, but my favourite was the man who
held up both his arms and greeted us with a hearty "welcome, welcome,
welcome to Egypt!" and a huge smile!

All that makes the hard parts less hard.  Yesterday, I fell off my bike.  I
knew I would and was glad to be moving relatively slowly, but still wish I
had been smart enough to unclip BOTH pedals.  We were riding through
traffic chaos, no other way to describe the honking exhaust-filled
confusion of semis, donkey carts loaded with sugar cane, tractors pulling

More on Luxor

Turning myself inside out to keep you all in the know on what we are doing.....I am thankful for many things and even in this short time I am very glad technology is somewhat more cooperative at home than it is here.  I think perhaps a phone might have been a better option for staying in touch but I will tough it out with the iPad.

Today's ride also included passing through the fairly large town of Qina and we were pretty glad to have caught up with the large group riding in a peloton approaching the town.  So all we had to do is follow the herd through muddy streets, past donkey carts, milling crowds, around buses, waving kids and speed bumps.  We were quite an attraction at lunch, galabayah-clad locals were taking OUR picture.

Once we arrived we wasted no time lining up a room while some others of the group opted to camp in the courtyard.  The room was pretty basic but the shower was hot and we even have a balcony which is our laundry drying area.  Once a few chores were done and we were all cleaned up we headed out in search of food and entertainment.  It will surprise no one that Wayne struck up a conversation with a friendly local who ended up taking us to a restaurant then to his shop which wasn't actually his but he gets a bit of help from the sales guy if he brings customers in.  Wayne wanted to buy a galabayah to wear while riding, but it had to be shortened, so we had tea and a visit with the salesman while the alterations were done.  He figures he paid too much as the guy threw in a head wrap - FREE!  He even showed us how to wrap it so we walked back to the hotel with Wayne all dressed up like that, which attracted just a bit of attention.  We are calling him half Egyptian since he only has a half a galabayah and I can only imagine what it will look like with spandex bike shorts underneath.  Well that is that day after tomorrow's worry,tomorrow we are off to the Valley of the Kings.

Fwd: In Luxor!

Riding into Luxor today was an experience!  The ride started from our
desert camp (desert camp means no facilities, none at all, take your little
shovel for a walk into the desert and squat behind a bush kind of no
facilities) and once again we were blessed with a tailwind so before we
knew it the stark desert landscape began to green up.  Green means people,
and today we felt like celebrities, so we are pretty exhausted from all
that waving, yelling hello and dodging the young teenage boys who of course
like to play a sort of chicken game with the cyclists.  Today, we always
won, although Wayne did feel the lash of the cane!  At yesterday's rider
meeting, we were warned about how a long stick of sugar cane in the hands
of a kid just begs to be tried out on something, or someone.  Today, that
someone was Wayne and he got a whack across the butt from one zealous
Egyptian kid.

Still EFI!

Short post just to say Day 1 is done! 134km starting with the ride to the pyramids from the hotel, the highlights of which included the constant honking of vehicle horns, stray dogs barking at us, our convoy of riders passing donkey carts, kids waving. people staring and smiles all around on the faces of the riders. After a photo session at the pyramids (they are even more awesome in sunshine) a delicious buffet of snacks provided by the transport company and finding a place to pee with Sandy holding up my trusty long wraparound skirt to protect my modesty, the REAL ride began. We continued in a convoy as our ride took us out of Cairo down a Deerfoot Trail type of freeway. Once we turned off that route we were on our own to ride the rest of the day. All was well until Wayne got a flat about half a km from the finish, just below a small rise so he couldn't see how close he was to our desert camp. I guess somebody had to have the first flat of our little group of three! It was a bit of a struggle setting up our $@&! tent but the ever helpful Natalie came to my rescue and we got it done. Almost 8 pm now so I think it is time for sleep. Tomorrow is another long day - 166 kilometres but mostly flat.

Tomorrow we start the ride, so no more sleeping in! I am not quite fully in this time zone and woke up at about 3:30 this morning. Next thing I knew, the 5:00 am call to prayer was being broadcast over nearby loudspeakers but I managed to ignore it, pagan that I am, then just like that, it was 8:00 am and Wayne was the first one out of bed again. All our fellow riders are here now and we have decided to join the contingent of racers. For me, this does NOT mean I will be actually "racing" but by timing out and in at the start and finish of each day's ride, my time and mileage will be tracked and that should make an interesting record of how things go. So, I have an iDisc just like the one I used to have at OJHS but with an entirely different purpose. It was funny how yesterday at the rider meeting, not one single person put up their hand when we were asked who might be racing...to win, but today there sure was a crowd picking up I discs. We were also given our bike number to zip tie onto the handlebars; it looks like a race bib for a run but much sturdier. I guess it does have to last for a looooong time. I am #114 and Wayne is #115 and I think our stats can be tracked on the TDA website or Twitter page. I have packed and repacked my gear because we are down to one bag each while we are in Egypt, due to the TDA using a different transport company until we are in Sudan. Once we get there, we will unload all our stuff into our lockers and it should become much easier to find that elusive thing that is in the very bottom of the fourth bag. We have been buying bottled water at the hotel, but today ventured out across the road to the local convenience store for a different shopping experience. This small business was set up in a lean to type structure covered with a tarp. The proprietor's family were right beside the shop in their home, another little lean to, complete with a black and white TV. He was kind and courteous, and even walked out into the road to stop traffic to ensure we could cross safely to get back to the hotel. Time to fuss over my remaining gear triple check everything for our 5:30 am start and get to sleep! Tomorrow's ride starts in a convoy from the hotel to the pyramids, with a total distance of 132 km for the day. PS. We LOVE to read any comments you may have on any of the blog posts🚴

Photo try...

Trying again in my battle with technology...

We are in Africa!

We're here! We arrived without incident, after two flights, many meals and several inflight movies, we landed in Cairo. We were met at the airport by the pre-arranged pickup man holding a sign with "Tour d'Afrique" on it...that was us!" The rest of the process went smoothly, ALL the luggage arrived almost instantaneously, including our bikes - hurray! Yesterday we had a leisurely start, a huge breakfast, then we tackled the task of reassembling the bikes. It took some time but we got it done in the end. Then it was time for a visit to the pyramids. It was an exciting drive there which makes me glad we will be leaving very early Friday morning and following more or less the same route, I hope with much less traffic than midday. The pyramids were surreal through the haze, and it was very apparent from the vast expanses of empty parking lots and vacant vendor tables that tourism has fallen on hard times here. Our guide told us quite plainly to ignore the aggressive souvenir sellers or to tell them "no thanks" in Arabic (she taught us how but of course I have forgotten now). However, we almost lost Wayne to an especially persistent seller of pyramid models and postcards. The man would put a pyramid in Wayne's hand, Wayne would try to put it back in the guy's backpack and the guy would put another pyramid into Wayne's other hand. This seemed to go on for some time; eventually the guy gave up but he sure put up a spirited effort. The pyramids and the Sphinx were worth all that though, amazing us with their size and grandeur! Who knows what other treasures might be buried under all that sand? We have met almost all the staff and participants and it will be interesting in the days to come seeing how we all do once on the road. It is a varied group of nationalities, although Canadians outnumber all the others; and everyone is friendly and seems to be the kind of people I will like getting to know. I'm a bit surprised at the weather here, very cool and rainy off and on, with a chilly wind. I did not foresee wearing my wool jacket AND my little down jacket at the same time, but I am very glad to have them both and were not even camping yet! I don't think it will be long before we are wishing for some of this coolness though!

Great new look!

Thanks to Adrienne, the blog now has a much more pulled-together look! She spent some time tweaking things...centering the picture at the beginning of the blog, giving me a profile and adding some fun features like the survey (don't forget to make your thoughts known on the all-important survey question!). Plus you can add your email address and get an email whenever the blog gets updated. Departure date is only 5 days away!