Tuesday, 16th Jan, 2007

From Desert Camping to Safaga

Safaga, Egypt. Remember that name. A great place. Shops, restaurants, people. O.k., a little touristy and camp, but never mind that. Gone are the days of sand, sand, nothing but sand. Well, at least for now. Those days will probably be revisited soon!

Great cycling day, or I should say "cycling morning". Even after 2 nice stops - one at a random resort (no, not El Gouna, grrrr), and one brief one in Harghada town, still made it here by 12:45. Last one in, as always, but record time for me nonetheless. The tailwinds were amazing - just pushed us all the way here. I rode the last 45 km or so with Shanny (from Toronto, Canada), who was riding sweep today. Nice to get to know the sweepers, tee hee.

Our camp spot is great - on the beach of a hotel grounds, Toublia Hotel. A few of us, including me, decided to take rooms in the hotel. With showers!! Hadn't properly bathed in 4 days, what with all that "desert camping"!

Everybody is just hanging out this afternoon. I decided to take a stroll through town. Discovered two things: (1) Those pipe-smoking men I saw yesterday? Nothing unusual about that. Those long pipe things that come up from the ground are everywhere! They are called shishas. (2) I like Egyptian food. I ate some in a very local restaurant about an hour ago. The owner was friendly and there were several other people, eating their bowls of whatever-it-was that we were served. It was delicious, though don't know what it was. Not cous cous. Spicey. Noodles and rice and fried onions and a mystery sauce and a few other things. Great! And cheap. Cost about 40 cents (2 Egyptian pounds).

By the way, it turns out that I wasn't the only one who stopped at the "coffee shop" with the smokers yesterday. I sat next to Gunther (from Belgium) at dinner last night and he told me that he stopped too!

By the way #2, I missed El Gouna resort today. Couldn't believe it! Not that I'm obsessing over it, but ... how could you miss a resort you've been looking forward to for 2 solid days? Oh well. Stopped at another one instead. Not the same. Not El Gouna. In fact, I'm not even going to dignify it with a name.

(Later at night, sitting in bed in my hotel room): Several people at dinner mentioned being "nervous" about tomorrow's ride. It's going to be 140 km, which might not be too bad, except that we head away from the Red Sea and the first 45 km are apparently going to be a never-ending climb up, up, up. I wouldn't be edgy at all, knowing I can do that, except one thing. My butt hurts. I'm seriously hoping the sores get better and not worse. Also, the left knee, the one I cracked and split about 6 months ago at Nalongo's place. It was finally almost healed, until I fell on it again, 2 days ago. Re-cracked it. Not a problem if I just don't touch it. Ever. Accidentally nudged it against the handle bar when I was starting up at one point today and it hurt a lot and I let out a yelp! Gotta remember - don't touch the Knee. And don't kneel on it in your tent either. And definitely don't fall on it again. But nervous about tomorrow's 45 km climb? Naahh, just excited.


------------------- TODAY ----------------- TOTAL
Cycled ------------ 101 km (62 mi) ---------- 421.5 km (258 mi)
Sagged ------------ 0 ------------------------- 107 km (67.5 mi)
Total -------------- 101 km (62 mi) ----------- 528.5 km (325.5 mi)
In saddle ---------- 5 hrs 3 min --------------- 22 hrs 42 min
Ascended ---------- 841 feet ------------------ 4,250 feet