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Immediately after the break we hit a 2km hill, which took us away from the Nile and out into the desert. This stretch was very barren and, with the hill, the most challenging on the ride so far. We soon discovered that we didn't even have the promised tail wind; thanks a lot, Theo! The second stop of the day was extremely welcome. Here I, along with a large number of other women, braved my first wee in the desert - I fear nothing now! It was actually quite comical, wandering through the sand and rocks to find a private place, averting my eyes from the woman crouched behind almost every decent-sized rock! This kind of thing really brings it home to you just how much more convenient it is to be a man! I have included a number of desert pictures, to illustrate how beautiful and desolate it was out in the desert. The first few were taken with the Nile still in view; as you can see, the further we got from the river, the more barren and isolated the scenery became. |
Lunch seemed quite surreal (see picture on right) - a few small buildings in the middle of the desert, and some chefs, complete with silly hats, presiding over some vats of chicken and beef. The chicken, as usual, wasn't up to much, and a small wild cat that was hanging around had a tasty dinner! As we ate our lunch, we were able to watch our boat sail past on the Nile (far right). A few of us were slightly tempted to make a swim for it, but if anyone actually did, they stayed very quiet about it. |
The next stretch was the longest yet, and for me particularly challenging, as I always find cycling immediately after lunch quite difficult. It was by now extremely hot (in the high 20s), and my legs seemed to have turned to jelly. Whenever I stood in my saddle to relieve the aches in my arse (as we were all doing regularly by now), my legs shook. I took this as a bad sign, and stopped to stretch my legs, drink a lot of water, and eat an energy bar. Luckily I still had Jason with me to protect me from the big bad desert! This stretch of the road had a bumpy ridge in it every yard or so - extremely painful, and this only added to the headache that I already had from dehydration, exposure to sun, whatever - at this stage, it was hard to tell. The ridges seemed to go on forever - must have been at least 15km. At times, I seriously wondered whether I would complete today's ride. The next stop (see picture on right) didn't come anything like soon enough. Everyone was very tired by now, and a number of people turned up at the stop on the bus, having been unable to continue. |
The joy when we turned the final corner and came upon Aswan, the Nile and the finishing point for the day! Most of us had never cycled anything like 120km in one day before, and there was a definite feeling of exhilaration that we had made it. Even better, there were cakes - and they were full of yummy cinamonny goodness. Jason excelled himself by eating 5 of them. I only managed a meagre 3! Waited a while for the rest of the group to gather, and some people rode on camels. The bikes were loaded onto boats (shown here on the right) and were ferried with us across the river to our boat. Dinner was chicken and beef again, followed by a tasty briefing in the bar again. Then it was thunk! into bed for me and straight to sleep again. Exhausted. Some of the group went into Aswan for the evening, but although I wanted to I was just too tired - I know my limitations. |
Journal front page | Outward Journey | Cycling Day 1 | Cycling Day 2 | Cycling Day 3 | Cycling Day 4 | Cycling Day 5 | Free Day | Homeward Journey | sponsors | And finally... |