Monday, 15th Jan, 2007

From Desert Camping to ... (surprise!) Desert Camping

Wow! Day 3! Best day so far! Great day! Made a pact with myelf not to pass any more nice looking resorts without stopping. Of course, I couldn't keep to the pact unless I didn't cycle so far. Otherwise I'd be in after dark. Daylight hours is an issue, by the way. There's only 11 of them. Gets light at 6:30 a.m. and dark by 5:30 p.m. This is an issue if one wants to (a) ride lots, and (b) stop lots. Oh. And (c) is slow.

No problem though. Started my groove today, with the initiation of the Pact. One slight kink, though I didn't let it get under my skin, is that again there were no resorts! Haha. Got a lift with the bus up to the half-way point, so that with only half the day's cycling ahead of me, there'd be lots of time to soak in all those resorts! Got on the road, started peddling, and felt great. Within 15 minutes, however, Howard passed me! I couldn't believe it! Having started from camp about 2 hours earlier, he passed me after I was on the road 15 minutes! Great! We gave each other friendly waves and hellos.

So then I started looking for good rest opportunities. A beautiful resort would be optimal, but the lack of one didn't deter me. I managed, today on the road, to find 2 "coffee shops" of sorts. Stopped at both of them. They looked a bit like dives, but no problem. At the first one, a man in a turban was sitting outside. I hesitantly walked in and noted they had pepsi and potato chips for sale, along with some other unrecognizable things, so I bought both of the recognizable items. They were playing Egyptian music and I was the only customer, other than the turbaned man outside. The owner tried to chat with me. Our attempts at conversation were not very successful, but he did manage to teach me how to say "I am tired" in Arabic. It's "Ana taabana."

After some time, I mosied on my way. A few more of our folks passed me. "Hi, hi, everything fine? Yep! Great, see you later!" Then, after about 12 miles, I saw "coffee shop" #2! I slowed down and kind of peeped inside. A man came out and said, "Come in! Come in!" Well, who could pass up such an offer? Inside were 3 men and a kid. They were all smoking tobacco through a long pipe that went through coals and water and I'm not sure what else. I didn't quite get the mechanics of it. The tobacco was in there somewhere. Even the kid was smoking.

They were friendly, but nobody spoke a word of English. So I decided to try out, "Ana taabana." I wasn't really tired, but it was the only piece of conversation I knew. It did the trick. They laughed and started talking to each other excitedly. (At that point, I looked out the door and saw the racing peleton go by in a pack. "Wow! They're booking!" I thought.) Before leaving, one of them offered me a smoke, which I declined.

Now in camp. I told a few people that I stopped at every opportunity today. They said, "But there were no opportunities?" I laughed and said, "They're there! You gotta really want to find them!"

My plan tomorrow is to leave early and stop at El Gouna resort. I've been seeing it advertised since yesterday, when Rachel and I saw the 200 km to El Gouna sign. By my calculations, we shouldn't be more than 10-20 km from it now. Look forward to seeing it.

... Update. Just talked with Mohamed and Ahmed and one-whose-name-I've-forgotten. They are our Egyptian police security tonight. They've told me that El Gouna is about 25 km from here and "very nice." Great! What could be better than "very nice"? I'm calculating now. If I leave at 6:30 a.m., should be there by 8:00-8:30, just in time for tea or something.


-------------------- TODAY ---------------- TOTAL
Cycled ------------- 59 km (36 mi) --------- 320.5 km (196 mi)
Sagged ------------- 70 km (44 mi) --------- 107 km (67.5 mi)
Total -------------- 129 km (80 mi) --------- 426.5 km (263.5 mi)
In saddle ---------- 2 hrs 39 min ------------ 17 hrs 39 min
Ascended ---------- 509 feet ---------------- 3,409 feet