Day 103
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 at the road ahead. If only we’d known how easy it was to ignore them a month ago...
After this was a whole lotta desert. Very hot, quite flat and very empty. Whilst not the golden sands of the Sahara stereotype, it was still nothing but sand and rock as far as the eye could see in every direction. Shade and water was infrequent so we just cycled on and on, trying to knock off a good chunk of distance towards Abu Simbel and the boat to Sudan. Thankfully the famous southerly desert wind arrived for the first time in ages, which sped us up a bit, although it wasn't that strong compared to some of the ones we fought against in the Sinai. Must do better.
The police were with us on and off, but mostly off, and mostly kept their distance when I asked them to. We had covered a healthy 155km by sunset and were looking for somewhere to wild camp when a police car appeared ahead. Of course they wouldn’t allow us to camp so we had to ride through the dark for another 20km to reach a cafe (the first for 100km). The place was deserted but the owner told us they got loads of tourists in the daytime, on their way from Aswan to the temples at Abu Simbel. He then tried to charge us a tenner to pitch our tent next to his cafe, so we said we would go and camp in the limitless desert around us, at which point he relented and let us stay for free. We’d already bought his overpriced drinks and planned to do the same in the morning, so this interaction made me further depressed about the way people down here view tourists. Oh well, we’re almost out of Egypt now.
Some milestones today: Rebecca’s longest day and my second longest. And around the 8000km mark we crossed into the tropics for the first time, and will stay in them for most of the rest of the journey.
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 at the road ahead. If only we’d known how easy it was to ignore them a month ago...
After this was a whole lotta desert. Very hot, quite flat and very empty. Whilst not the golden sands of the Sahara stereotype, it was still nothing but sand and rock as far as the eye could see in every direction. Shade and water was infrequent so we just cycled on and on, trying to knock off a good chunk of distance towards Abu Simbel and the boat to Sudan. Thankfully the famous southerly desert wind arrived for the first time in ages, which sped us up a bit, although it wasn't that strong compared to some of the ones we fought against in the Sinai. Must do better.
The police were with us on and off, but mostly off, and mostly kept their distance when I asked them to. We had covered a healthy 155km by sunset and were looking for somewhere to wild camp when a police car appeared ahead. Of course they wouldn’t allow us to camp so we had to ride through the dark for another 20km to reach a cafe (the first for 100km). The place was deserted but the owner told us they got loads of tourists in the daytime, on their way from Aswan to the temples at Abu Simbel. He then tried to charge us a tenner to pitch our tent next to his cafe, so we said we would go and camp in the limitless desert around us, at which point he relented and let us stay for free. We’d already bought his overpriced drinks and planned to do the same in the morning, so this interaction made me further depressed about the way people down here view tourists. Oh well, we’re almost out of Egypt now.
Some milestones today: Rebecca’s longest day and my second longest. And around the 8000km mark we crossed into the tropics for the first time, and will stay in them for most of the rest of the journey.
Comments
Post a Comment