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