I've been going to bed pretty early as when the sun sets at around 6:30 at the latest, there isn't much to do if I've already eaten! I laid there listening to music when I saw the shadows of 3 men with torches, just as I turned to get my torch and say hello, they turned and left. Security must've been doing their checks of the rumble, and me.
I had to nip outside for a wee half way through the night and the last few days there have been no mozzies so I left the door open. Very bad move! I returned to the humming in my tent that sounded like I was sleeping next to a nuclear power plant. Head torch on, let the killing spree begin. I soon got into a rhythm of laying down, increasing the peripheral and then Bam! The white inner lining of the tent would get a streak of black mozzie guts if I was successful. When I finished, my tent was a graveyard for them and this will only continue because if I have to put up with flies sitting on my face during the day, I will not sit back and let the critters bite my ankles, wrists and other hard to scratch boney parts of my body.
I had a relaxing morning as I was shaded from the sun by a straw umbrella. No sign of the security guard waking up early to move me along which was a relief. If he had been walking around my tent from 7-7:10am he would've witnessed quite a horrific sight. Nature called for the first time since Cairo and again it worked perfectly in keeping the flies away from me when I put the tent away. If only I could do that after lunch when I'm trying to get my head down for a kip!
I stopped in Hurghada for some breakfast and a quick update on the Internet. I spoke to Ahmed from Cairo and he has sorted out two of his friends to put me up in Luxor and Aswan. This is great news and will really help me get my visa sorted for Sudan in Aswan and do a few touristy things before that in Luxor which I've heard only good things about. Massive thanks to Ahmed for that.
I had a nice relaxing ride through the very americanised resorts of Hurghada. It must've been the Obama section as I've heard he's put a lot of money towards the resorts In these areas. Relaxing turned into reverberating as the speed bumps every 20m did their best to destroy Nigel so I peeled away early to get back on the main road and head for the Port of Safaga.
I have a very short attention span believe it or not and with good roads and a good tail wind I felt a challenge was in order to make the remaining 32km to Safaga more interesting. I had 49minutes to go until I had cycled a full 3 hours for the day so there you have it, challenge created, challenge accepted. It seemed the cars could sense the extra effort I was putting in as beeps and shouts of encouragement came thick and fast. I was cycling my own race against time with the support from the locals that had no idea what I was doing! They have no idea what I'm doing anyway but today I was cycling a challenge within a challenge!
I did it, with a fortunate last km of downhill I made it with just minutes to spare. My intentions were the same as yesterday, get food and get on the beach. Unfortunately, they don't really do public beaches and the port of Safaga was more of a dock so I ended up just sitting at a roadside hang out where the thing to do is stare at people going by. If you see someone that doesn't fit in (exhibit a. Me) you stare at them and don't even speak to them.
I'm sure "ahlan" is Arabic for "hello." I've been cycling through some very touristic areas but even in the local areas I've been calling everyone "ahlan" and they've been replying with "hello." In my efforts to try and confirm that "ahlan" is the correct greeting, all of a sudden they've turned back to Arabic on you and have no clue what you're on about even after just saying "hello!" I'm going back to the smile and nod.
I knew I had a monster of a desert ride to do over the next two days from Safaga to Luxor via Qena so at the roadside cafe I decided to top up on water and buy some sesame seed bread sticks. They love a sesame seed snack out here which is good because so do I. Got myself a bargain of about 20 big sticks for 40p. Still not too keen on giving out free tap water though, I was allowed one bottle but I had to get the other filled up at the tap further down the road. They must've got wind of Ahmed's generosity further north and the fact i got the taxis in Cairo cheap and so they're trying to even up the playing field further south. Both bottles of water had a good earthy taste, the same taste as the smell of your fingers when you've had them in compost. If you've never had your hands in compost then imagine licking a fresh unwashed potato, better than the chlorine stuff though.
I left Safaga due west towards the hills and without a tailwind. I was back to pushing hard on the pedals, It felt strange not having a tailwind and it wasn't anywhere near as fun. It became more and more apparent that I had a lot of miles to cover but I was eagerly anticipating the desert camp. If I had to, I would just take another day to get to Luxor and split the distance up evenly. After 80 miles in total for the day I decided to find a place to camp. I have about 110 miles to Luxor or 90 to Qena. There are a couple of rest stops on this road so I hope I don't have to do the 90 in one go. One thing is for sure, I'm in the middle of nowhere again and that means a night sky like no other.
My one huge love is natural beauty. I love camping, I love adventure and I love extreme locations. When you combine all three you normally end up with a starry night sky to remember like I mentioned in Croatia. Tonight's though, blew me away. I've had little dreams about what could happen on this ride and what countries or places would be like to ride and camp in. They normally end up to be completely different to how you imagined but tonight wasn't, tonight hit the nail right on the head. I don't get emotional easily in normal circumstances, there are a few people that have witnessed me shed a tear at my weakness of Secret millionaire and so far on my trip my emotions have only got carried away once with the help of the foo fighters. Tonight can add to that with the help of Mumford and sons but it was mainly looking up and witnessing a sight better than what I had dreamt it to be.
I strive to look for those moments in time that take away your breathe and the blissful silence, the extreme location, the overall effort it took to get there combined with the reward of a nights sky that looked like an explosion of glitter on a deep blue background, was just unforgettable.
I have a very good friend Paul that lives by the saying, Live the dream. Today I can proudly and emotionally say, i lived the dream.
Let's have some more please!
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