My Diary

Monday 17th February Morning

Wake up at 7 am...........not much shut-eye but would be too excited to sleep anyway!

We're still on the move. The view out of the window is stunning .... The West Bank complete with lush green date palms set against the mountainous desert behind, all bathed in hazy February sunshine. It's beautiful.

Breakfast is fab. If the food is all like this no one will complain!

We finally go through the only lock on The Nile at Esna where Egyptians are working on constructing a second lock so that disruption to the tourist cruise boats are minimised. Typically all the activity seems to be centred around one spot where 6 or 7 men in gallabayas are shoveling and another 6 or 7 are watching shouting instructions in abrasive sounding Arabic!

Coming into a more built up area we see all our bikes lined up on the bank. Everyone is chatting nervously ..... all of a sudden we actually have got bikes and we are going to have to ride them!

The boat moored, we visit the Greco-Roman temple at Esna passing through the colourful bazaar to get there with the tradesmen trying hard to make us part with our Egyptian pounds.

The temple is dedicated to the ram headed god Knu. The colours on the reliefs on the columns in the hypostyle hall are still very vivid. I am amazed that something so ancient can have survived this long ......I'm dead impressed.

Next I'm fitted up for my bike. It doesn't look very glamorous but it seems sturdy enough. It has 21 gears and breaks which work (just!) I have my wonderful gel saddle fitted onto the frame ...... reckon I may be grateful for that by the end of the week! Looks like I'm all set .... There really is nothing stopping me now!

Monday 17th Feburary Afternoon

..all of a sudden we actually have got bikes and we are going to have to ride them!

We carry our bikes up the steps onto the road ....... surely this seems like enough exertion already!
It's hectic and busy. There are 55 bikes and 55 cyclists including Phillip and Theo (the organisers in Egypt), Sarah and Felicity from Mencap, Julia the doctor and Fiona from Classic Tours. There are also 2 trucks containing an armed guard from the Egyptian Tourist Police, a lead car and a rear car, a minibus for those who can't carry on any longer (feel like climbing in there right now!) and a truck containing spare bikes, parts and mechanics. All in all we look and feel like the circus coming to town! None of this pandemonium is doing anything to calm the nerves although I do feel very privileged and excited.

Finally I put foot to pedal and I'm off .......bit of a wobbly start trying to avoid other peoples back wheels but WOW I'm actually doing it! - Cycling in Egypt for Mencap!
Am pleased to find that my bike here is significantly easier to pedal than mine at home .... I feel like I'm flying in comparison. Looks like survival may be a possibility! (Steady on! I've only cycled 100 meters, I have another 409900 meters to go!)

I am loving this ..... spend first few kms in tears as every child along the route shouts out "hello, hello!" and "what's your name?" They wave and laugh and run by the side of us in their bright coloured clothes. Bizarrely really thick stuff like jumpers and leggings - it's in the high 20s this afternoon but then I suppose it's their winter in Egypt too and it's what you get used to!
I am in total awe and remember why I love Egypt so much. I love the people's attitude - smiling through adversity. A friendly, contented disposition despite their apparent lack of westernised materialisation.

spend first few kms in tears as every child along the route shouts out "hello, hello!" and "what's your name?"

See donkeys pulling carts laden down with sugar cane, oxen eating grass from the verges, dogs running around and the odd goat minding its own business! All the animals look well looked after (all except the very smelly, half- rotten dead cow at the side of the road!)

The sounds are fascinating. Where there are fewer people you can here the sounds of water shooting out of pipes in the irrigation systems, donkeys braying, goats bleating (if that's what goats do!) and the distant sound of the mosque's call to prayer and of course the whir of bike wheels turning!. This peacefulness is frequently shattered by the beeping of horns belonging to the passing dusty vehicles, often carrying far too many passengers and hence clattering over all the bumps and pot holes in the road!

I pass older women all clad in black, some of whom, by their raised voices I gather, are disapproving of us female bikers wearing T- shirts and cycle shorts. The older men are not nearly so disapproving it would appear and they grin exposing their, in many cases, donkey looking teeth!
Some kid throws a stone and it hits my helmet .....good job I've got it on! Then in the next group of kids one of them manages to smack my bum ....cheeky s*d! Maybe some of them are not so angelic after all!

..a very bizarre sight, a large camel peering out of a small pick up truck! You don't get that in South Wales!

Time for our first stop. All this has happened and I've only gone 20 kms! We have fruit, water and a "toilet" ( bit of a posh job ..... hole in the ground with children peering in at the opening!)
Off we go again. Am finding it harder work now .... knees and bum are beginning to feel it a bit and my toes feel quite numb ...must remember to keep altering my foot position on the pedals.
We pass a funeral where all the women are dressed in blacker black than before if this is possible.

It's getting busier now as we approach the outskirts of Edfu. Oh great! I can feel the distorted vision coming on that's associate with the start of a migraine ..... manage to shove some pills down my throat as I carry on cycling. I must remember to take in enough water. More sugar cane, more trucks, more bumpy railway tracks to cross (v. Painful at this stage of the game!)
Next, a very bizarre sight, a large camel peering out of a small pick up truck! You don't get that in South Wales!

Edfu is mad. Busy with cars and shops selling crazy combinations of items ....bright silver pans
next to the odd blue plastic potty and dusty bouncy balls. Barbers looking like dodgy Sweeny Todds with the battered red leather chairs and butchers with rank looking cuts of meat hanging up outside!

Finally we're back at the boat. What an achievement ..... 52 km ......very emotional!!
Relief all round. Hurrah! Looks like we might be able to do it all!
We clean ourselves up and tend to our wounds! Then it's dinner after which we learn of our 115 km tomorrow. Time to contemplate ........can I, will I be able to do it? All that confidence and enthusiasm from earlier is melting away. I sit up on deck with Ted and we talk about more or less everything. Funny how we get on so well .... 24 hours ago we hadn't even met.

Everything is an education here!

Our conversations are interrupted by lots of horn honking and we witness a bride and groom departing from their wedding. The bride is wearing a hugely decorated affair in white and is hanging onto the arm of her groom. They are unceremoniously bundled into the back of an unlikely looking wedding car all decorated with multi-coloured fairy lights whilst the photographer takes a mad amount of photos judging from the number of bright flashes taking place. The associated entourage are all clapping and whooping and as the bridal car departs they all chase up the road after it jumping up onto the bumper and clinging on until there are 5 or 6 men weighing down the back of the car! Everything is an education here!