Maggie's Rambles

Sleeping location: Sama Alsaeeda Hotel, Khartoum, Sudan Distance (km today/total): 103 / 9253 Estimated climb (m today/total): 200 / 61300 New foods: 5! Day in three words: Khartoum: car town After finally throwing out my tattered touring boxers* I went back to the sweet embrace of lycra and put on my bib shorts under my shorts. Of course they were very comfy and it’s a mystery why I forgot about them for the last month. After 950km in 9 days we were both feeling pretty drained and ready for a rest, but the morning was in no mood to help us, supplying a steady cross/headwind and keeping us slow. We stopped for a nice coffee mid morning and discovered that “Captain Majid” biscuits were excellent when dipped in it. The biscuits also promised an “extra stock of energy” which is excellent if true. After the break we picked up speed, perhaps because of a wind change or perhaps because of the extra stock of energy. Along here was the alarming sight of an abandoned bus with a heavily sm...

Sleeping location: Semi desert 16.12N 31.92E, Sudan Distance (km today/total): 116 / 9150 Estimated climb (m today/total): 200 / 61100 Melons available: 1,000 (est) Day in three words: Oh my gourd During the night the wind picked up and it got so cold that I had to erect a little shield of panniers. As a result of this disturbance we didn’t wake up until 6.30 and got away slowly. We noticed some mystery tracks all around our stuff, clearly not from a mammal or lizard, but quite wide apart. Perhaps a snake? A scorpion? We were sure to check our shoes and panniers thoroughly. As we were about to leave Rebecca spotted a quite big beetle with wide apart legs, and after watching it we saw that it was the mystery track marker. Bit of an anticlimax. The morning’s terrain was sandy desert with sparse vegetation, but it was livened up by one of the most surreal experiences of the trip (or my life?) so far. In the middle of nowhere a rickety old biplane suddenly zoomed across the road ma...

Sleeping location: Semi desert 16.59N 31.37E, Sudan Distance (km today/total): 122 / 9034 Estimated climb (m today/total): 300 / 60900 Things that aren’t sand: limited Day in three words: The halfway point? The day started with a success as I finally plucked up the courage to use my stove with liquid fuel, rather than gas canisters. It took a good half an hour of reconfiguring, then figuring out, plus some alarming (but apparently normal) fireballs, but in the end coffee was produced for the first time in a week or so. Whatever the man in Dongola gave us, it’s close enough to petrol to work as fuel. We set off into the desert, which was the theme for most of the day now that we’ve left the river. Lots of golden sand and dark rock but little else. After about 15km something did appear on the horizon: what appeared to be a forest. This wasn’t a mirage, but in fact turned out to be a wall of trees around a huge lush garden. I have no idea how and why this exists.  The morning’s...

Sleeping location: Desert 17.56N 31.14E, Sudan Distance (km today/total): 97 / 8912 Estimated climb (m today/total): 200 / 60600 First cloud since day: 106 Day in three words: The M40 corridor The morning was surprisingly cold and I had to put a jumper on for first time in ages. There was a cafe a short hop away so we went there for breakfast, making sure to actually order this time, again by walking into the kitchen area and pointing at things. I was accidentally a little overzealous with my pointing and a lot of food came, but there was a resident family of cats to give some of the spare meat to. A man warned us of the dangerous roads to Khartoum but I assured him that it was a doddle compared to south London. As usual most people were lovely; we are slowly falling for Sudan, there are no epic sights but the vibe is really friendly and relaxed. The cycling was frustrating for most of the day due to a combination of more road bumps and a nagging cross/headwind. Much of this stre...

Sleeping location: Semi desert 18.22N 30.40E, Sudan Distance (km today/total): 104 / 8815 Estimated climb (m today/total): 200 / 60400 Coffees: 7 Day in three words: Some odd people The hotel bed was a strange mixture of concrete and pokey springs so I didn't sleep that well. After a lie in (until 8am, which is usually when my alarm goes off in the UK) we headed into town to stock up on food before another five days of mostly desert. Dongola in the daytime was hectic but friendly, and we visited a few shops to get everything we wanted. At one I waited outside with the bikes and attracted the attention of a strange fat kid, who stood way too close to them and asked what everything was by pointing at it and making the “huh” gesture. Each time I replied by demonstrating, although I had to draw the line at doing this for the poo trowel*. He then asked if he could have my ray bans, the cheeky bastard. A few excellent things seen in Dongola: “Shown the Sheep” crisps featuring the Aa...

Sleeping location: Mystery hotel, Dongola, Sudan Distance (km today/total): 119 / 8711 Estimated climb (m today/total): 200 / 60200 Bat skyscrapers: 1 Day in three words: Getting more African After the usual sunrise alarm clock we cycled about 10km to a cafe for breakfast. Due to the usual language issues (ours of course) we accidentally didn't order food for an hour. We just thought the service was really slow. Once we did order it promptly arrived and was pretty tasty. Sudanese food so far consists of various things like eggs, beans, lentils or meat stews, all brought to the table in small bowls and eaten with bread (no cutlery).* Very simple but always pretty well done. The shop had “nice crimty” biscuits, which sounds like nonsense until you realise it means cream tea. The picture on the packet also shows biscuits with “bisciut” written on them. Due to our mixup we didn’t really get going until 10am, but thankfully there was a powerful tailwind and we sped along. Mid morn...

Sleeping location: Desert 20.03N 30.35E, Sudan Distance (km today/total): 83 / 8592 Estimated climb (m today/total): 200 / 60000 Years: 1 Day in three words: A pleasant diversion In the night I had a bizarre dream in which my family owned a barge and gave me a lift on it, then we found a family of duck billed platypus and adopted them. I was awoken from this by our alarm clock of a bright orange sunrise, so I never got to find out what crazy adventures we got up to. Today was the 1st anniversary of the day Rebecca and I met; on our date she probably didn’t envisage waking up with me in the Sudanese desert a year later. We stayed snuggled up for some extra time to celebrate.  The cafe we’d earmarked for breakfast wasn't doing food (or politeness) but the coffee was excellent so we stayed for a couple along with the now customary crossword. I was reading about a local guesthouse which offered boat rides to a nearby temple on the other side of the Nile, when the owner of said ...

Sleeping location: Desert 20.31N 30.20E, Sudan Distance (km today/total): 121 / 8509 Estimated climb (m today/total): 300 / 59800 Collapsed road: three times Day in three words: Where’s the fuel The quiet of the desert meant a good night’s sleep, but we were initially reluctant to get up as it was still pretty cold at sunrise. But the promise of pineapple oats with yoghurt was enough, despite the lack of coffee. The gas canister from Jordan ran out at the end of Egypt and we are without a stove until I can figure out how to a) get liquid fuel in Sudan, and b) work my stove with said fuel. None of the petrol stations we passed yesterday were open, and it was the same case today. I think there’s a fuel shortage across the whole country. This did allow me to keep singing At The Drive In*, but sadly I couldn’t actually listen to them as Spotify doesn’t work in Sudan. We passed increasingly beautiful jagged hills and after an hour of lovely cycling I realised I was happy in a way th...

Sleeping location: Desert 21.12N 30.52E, Sudan Distance (km today/total): 103 / 8388 Estimated climb (m today/total): 300 / 59500 Dead cows: approx 40 Day in three words: Unidentified cycling objects We were up early to visit the Alien Registration Office, although not as early as Alberto and Javi, who were about 15 minutes into the process when we arrived. As a result of this, and of their organisational skills such as “owning a pen” they were done a while before us and we said our goodbyes. They are on a tighter timeframe than us and have faster bike setups, so it’s likely that they will be ahead of us for the rest of the journey, although we might cross over in Khartoum. After a some relatively painless faff we were successfully registered as aliens, although my official document has my name as “Kevey Baul” which is not ideal. After a brief rendition of the Sting song Englishman in Sudan we hit the town to stock up on food before heading into the desert. The selection wasn’t e...

Sleeping location: The Nubian, Wadi Halfa, Sudan Distance (km today/total): 79 / 8285 Estimated climb (m today/total): 100 / 59200 Banknotes received: approx 500 Day in three words: Hey there Sudan We were up very early for the boat, which allowed us to see a beautiful sunset over the water and the temples. There were already tourists there at 6am and I dread to think what it’s like once all the tour groups arrive from Aswan. At the boat there was of course loads of waiting, but this was good as it allowed us to meet Alberto and Javi from Madrid. They are cycling Cairo to Cape, but Alberto had been hit by a moped (whilst walking, not cycling) just south of Cairo so they had taken the bus south whilst he healed. They went ahead to the border on the bus but we kept bumping into them throughout the day. The boat ride was chaotic but beautiful. Lake Nasser is huge and because it’s unnatural it has loads of strange lumps sticking out of the water. One was white instead of the usual br...

[A section that I meant to add to the end of day 105, but forgot and then there was no internet for ages and you all read it in that time] Egypt has been a real mixed bag. There are some excellent things (Red Sea diving, the history, the incredibly well preserved architecture, the humour of the people) and some awful things (the police, the hassle, the greed). Since Luxor it’s been difficult and at times actively unpleasant. The culture has been poisoned by the assumption that tourists are walking ATMs, and it seemed to be a part of almost every interaction we had. This kind of thing makes me put up my guard and shut out people who may well just be being nice. Ironically the police often helped with all this, as they would deter people from trying to hassle us or rip us off. But having a police car follow you all day, and tell you where you can sleep, takes all the freedom and spontaneity (ie the best bits) out of bike touring. In summary: I’m glad I saw Egypt, but now I’m glad to be...

Sleeping location: Temple car park, Abu Simbel, Egypt Distance (km today/total): 11 / 8206 Estimated climb (m today/total): 0 / 59100 Weight of temple moved: 31,000 tons Day in three words: Bye bye Egypt We spent the morning chilling around the hotel, with me doing some catching up on this here blog. The midday call to prayer was quite something, it went on for AGES and contained a lot of very angry sounding praying; we were right next to the mosque so we got the full intensity of the holiness. This is maybe because it was Friday (the holiest day) and near the the Prophet’s Birthday. After coffees and a crossword (app) we headed over to the temples. Egypt had one last* kick in the teeth for us, with the price being a mighty 240, which was how much last night’s meal cost for the two of us. Rebecca balked at this and stayed outside whilst I went in. The temples were pretty impressive, but the more impressive aspect was that they were moved, in full, in the 1960s. The creation of ...

Sleeping location: Nobaleeh Hotel, Abu Simbel, Egypt Distance (km today/total): 119 / 8195 Estimated climb (m today/total): 200 / 59100 Insect troubles: numerous Day in three words: The mighty Sahara Upon awaking we found that 8 moths had taken shelter inside the tent, and had to be carefully shooed away. Soon after another concerning pest arrived in the form of hundreds of tourists on their coaches to Abu Simbel. They wandered around like sheep and gawped at us whilst we ate breakfast. One guy took a picture of me whilst I was brushing my teeth. If this is how they act towards the locals, no wonder they seem to hate tourists. We set off with a nice tailwind again, although this meant that there was no cooling breeze since we were travelling with the movement of the air, so we got very hot very quickly. There were also little green flies everywhere, which landed on any patch of exposed skin and gave you a little nibble for some unknown fly reason. By now we were in the “proper”...

Sleeping location: Next to “Coffee Egypt” cafe, middle of the desert, Egypt Distance (km today/total): 174 / 8076 Estimated climb (m today/total): 300 / 58900 Distractions: 0 Day in three words: The tailwind arrives We rose early in an attempt to make big distance, but were partially foiled by the late delivery of our (rubbish) hotel breakfast and the faff of the ferry back to the mainland. The route out of Aswan involved crossing the Low Dam, the older and smaller of the two. There are checkpoints at both ends and we were stopped at the near side. Fearing a long wait, or not being allowed to cross at all, I decided to go rogue and set off anyway, saying repeatedly to the soldier “tamam” (roughly “it’s OK”) and taking his lack of disagreement as agreement that it was indeed OK. We were not followed or stopped at the other end. We took the same approach at the police checkpoint onto the desert highway, setting off after a brief stop saying “you know where to find us” and pointing ...

Sleeping location: Taharka Nubian House, Aswan, Egypt Distance (km today/total): 0 / 7902 Estimated climb (m today/total): 0 / 58600 Islands in the Nile: lots Day in three words: Wait, Aswan’s nice We enjoyed a lie in then went for separate wanders around the island. It was actually a really nice place, with two quiet Nubian villages of narrow dirt streets and apparently more goats than people. I accidentally went in the back gate of the archaeological complex and didn’t have to pay or get hassled, which was great. I figured Egypt owed me one by this point, and had a pleasant time wandering round the ruined temple and village in peace and quiet. The island also had two Nilometers, which are pits/passages open to the river with markings up the side to show the water depth. By using this it was possible to predict whether it would be a good, bad or dangerous flood*. One of the Nilometers had lots of steps down to the water,  which made it an excellent place for a dip in the riv...

Sleeping location: Taharka Nubian House, Aswan, Egypt Distance (km today/total): 119 / 7902 Estimated climb (m today/total): 200 / 58600 Local interaction: low Day in three words: Done with Egypt We got up pretty early to go and see the famed Temple of Horus, which was geographically close to our hotel but actually inaccessible as we were nowhere near the only entrance. We tried for a bit to get in, but it was confusing and we could see from our high vantage point that it was already rammed with tourists, and looked the same as all the other temples, so we decided not to bother. On the way back to the hotel we tried to buy some fruit but everyone in the market tried to pull tourist prices on us, so we didn’t bother. Being constantly treated like some kind of cash machine is getting tiring. On the upside, our knowledge of Arabic numbers helped when we left with our bikes: a pile of figs that we had been quoted 20 a kilo for now had a sign saying 10. We bought a kilo with great sat...

Sleeping location: Massa Hotel, Edfu, Egypt Distance (km today/total): 116 / 7783 Estimated climb (m today/total): 100 / 58400 Local aggro: high Day in three words: Fugitives at large The milestone of day 100 was sadly tempered by a fairly rubbish day, although it did have some good parts. We awoke early but feeling weak from alcohol and colds, so it took a while to pack up and get moving. Initially we followed a nice quiet route along small roads, which was shady and peaceful apart from kids shouting hello in villages. This route also allowed us to evade three checkpoints, which we could see but weren’t picked up at. Even when we got back onto the main road it was nice and quiet, with a big water channel on the left and big bright flower bushes on the right. We avoided another checkpoint by replying to their shouts with cheerful hellos and carrying on cycling, then took the old bridge across the Nile into Esna. Unfortunately the old bridge was not for vehicles and ended with a v...

Sleeping location: “555 Studio and Flats”, Luxor, Egypt Distance (km today/total): 54 / 7667 Estimated climb (m today/total): 100 / 58300 History levels: HIGH Days in three words: Lap of Luxory Three days spent enjoying the many wonders of Luxor and its surrounds, plus some R&R after six days of hard cycling. Luxor was the site of the Ancient Egyptian capital when the empire was at its peak. Modern day Luxor (east bank) was the city and the west bank was home to all of the tombs and some other bits and bobs. Day 1 - My BIRTHDAY. A very long lie-in was enjoyed, although this was slightly ruined by windows facing east and the curtains being thinner than tissue paper (subsequently we rigged a tarp up for additional darkness). After this we headed across the river to Luxor town proper and had a little explore. It’s a nice enough place, although there’s loads of hassle on the main tourist stretches, mainly offering carriage rides and/or taxis. After a while we just started ignor...

Sleeping location: “555 Studio and Flats”, Luxor, Egypt Distance (km today/total): 94 / 7613 Estimated climb (m today/total): 200 / 58200 Days off ahead: 3 Day in three words: Rebecca’s the celebrity Throughout Egypt Rebecca and I have been cycling at similar paces because it means less hassle from the police, even though we wouldn’t necessarily do this if they weren’t around. On the few occasions we’ve become significantly separated it’s been because I zoomed off in a huff, and each time the police have stayed at the back with Rebecca. This morning Rebecca was in a huff of her own and zoomed off ahead of me, and the police...wait for it...zoomed off too, leaving me open to attacks from all the dangerous things that allegedly lurk in Egypt. Now it becomes clear who the escort is really for. We were reunited just before Qena, where the police again tried to meddle with our route. This time the guy tried to grab onto my saddle and I pushed him away, which in hindsight is absolutely...

Sleeping location: Dishna Sugar Factory, Egypt Distance (km today/total): 118 / 7519 Estimated climb (m today/total): 100 / 58000 Donkeys vanquished: 2 Day in three words: Crossing the river On our way out of town we gave our police escort the slip twice by going down routes they couldn’t, semi for fun and semi because the route was shorter that way. They were actually totally cool with it and got a friendly wave when they left. We did the usual 30km before coffee, but I was on the lookout for a hose so we could clean sand off the drivetrains, dry them off during coffee then re-lube. Eventually we found a kid who was more than happy to help, and it was fun squirting it around with an appreciative crowd around us. Rebecca foolishly asked me to spray her afterwards, and of course got a blast in the face. We had our coffee at a rural cafe where a large friendly man bought it for us, which was very nice of him. Here I realised that I still had the hotel room key, and not fancying a 6...

Sleeping location: Dahab Hotel, Sohag, Egypt Distance (km today/total): 135 / 7401 Estimated climb (m today/total): 100 / 57900 Escapes: 2 Day in three words: Nile Five Oh The day started with a bizarre coincidence. We have been buying a brand of processed cheese which we call “boy cheese” as the name is in Arabic and the box has a picture of a cartoon boy on it. When I went on a website there was an advert for that very same cheese; whilst I firmly believe that you get targeted advertising based on what your phone hears you talking about, we weren’t even calling it by its proper name. Very puzzling. The monastery provided us with a tasty breakfast, with pocket eggs and everything, to round off their amazing hospitality. We tried to give them some money when we left but the lady wasn't having it. Go Jesus! The day went pretty much the same as the Nile Routine mentioned yesterday. Coffee was taken in a pretty big town called Asyut, where a big water channel we have been foll...

Sleeping location: Monastery of Saint Theodore, Manfalut, Egypt Distance (km today/total): 130 / 7266 Estimated climb (m today/total): 100 / 57800 Lies told in the presence of Jesus: 2 Day in three words: The Nile Routine As we left the nice accommodation we were unexpectedly asked to pay, but it was only a fiver so we went along with it. Thereafter the day conformed to a schedule that’s becoming routine as we journey down the Nile: coffee after 30km, lunch after another 40-50km, get to the last town we can reach before sunset and ask the police if there is anywhere they will allow us to sleep for free, be taken to a religious institution, dinner, bed. All of this along water channels past fields, dead flat, the Nile mostly hidden off to the left with a big desert escarpment behind it, no wind, dusty busy towns every 20km or so, a mixture of mosques and Coptic churches, and lots of people waving and saying hello. One of the towns (Dayrut) we went through today was a bit different...

Sleeping location: Blessed Virgin Mary church school, Samalut, Egypt Distance (km today/total): 111 / 7136 Estimated climb (m today/total): 100 / 57700 Captain of the week: Ahmed Day in three words: Mistakes and egrets Rebecca woke me up at about 4am to tell me that the floor was covered in two inches of water and the power had gone off. I thought about how this affected me, concluded that it didn’t, told her as much and went back to sleep. The situation was the same when we woke up and packed up, so we just waded around in the water and pretended it wasn't there. Our police escort then didn’t arrive until well after 8, when we had said we wanted to go at 7. The monastery guard wouldn’t let us leave, and I was feeling grumpy after a bad night’s sleep, so I kicked off massively and had quite the rant at him.  Bless him, he was very conciliatory and calmly explained that he understood our annoyance, but this is the system here, and would we like some coffee while we waited. Aft...

Sleeping location: Virgin Mary Monastery, Beni Suef, Egypt Distance (km today/total): 103 / 7025 Estimated climb (m today/total): 100 / 57600 Glorious police-free days: 5 Day in three words: Crops and cops Our sleep, and Rebecca’s in particular, wasn’t great due to stressing about the nearby kids, so we had a bit of a lie in. A new method of making overnight oats, involving coconut milk and a very ripe semi-exploded mango, was an unqualified success and will be employed again. Along with some coffee this restored us to a cycling mindset by about 8.30am, and we set off back along the rural roads of the day before. We were always following an irrigation channel of some kind, and there were endless fields of crops and palm trees. It felt a bit like SE Asia. After weeks of desert it’s nice to see some fertile land again, although this area (and probably a lot of the land we’ll cover in the next week) is intensively farmed and there is very little unused space. The road was lovely and...

Sleeping location: Desert near the Red Pyramid, Egypt Distance (km today/total): 35 / 6922 Estimated climb (m today/total): 0 / 57500 Tombs seen: Tomb any Day in three words: Big old triangles We were up at a decent time and into the Giza pyramid complex before 9am. They were very impressive but somehow slightly less impressive than I had expected. Still, it was great seeing these incredibly iconic structures in person, touching the 4,500 year old stones and whatnot. There were a lot of other tourists about, but as usual they clustered in a few places and there was lots of peace and quiet available when people weren’t trying to sell you stuff. Mostly it was guys offering camel/horse rides, walking alongside you and having to be repelled multiple times. A few were more sneaky, pulling the old “I am security, you can’t go this way, actually give me money for a camel/guide and you can go this way”. I had some fun with a lot of them, but particularly the sneaky ones as I thought th...