This has been a very strange birthday - for the last 17 years or so I've been confined to celebrating it whilst attending primary school, secondary school or university. This time however, I'm in a campsite on the edge of the city of Luxor in Egypt.

The final day of cycling before our rest day here was a brisk 90 or so kilometres along a fairly major highway which ran alongside the Nile. Before lunch I joined a train of pretty fast riders as they averaged about 30kmph or so towards lunch. The peloton oscillated from short to long, much like a longitudinal wave, as riders sped up and slowed down in turn. Soon enough though, we reached lunch, at the almost ridiculous time of 8:30am!

I hung about for a bit, wanting to eat more than just the two half pitta breads that the speedier guys were restricting themselves to. Instead, I helped myself to four halves, two with vegetables and two with peanut butter and jelly. Soon enough, my usual riding buddies, Jason and Jen, and Australian Dan rolled up and I just hung about until they were ready to go.

The 50km after lunch was just as rapid as the morning ride and we rolled into camp at about 10:25am yesterday. Most of the afternoon was spent tending to laundry and picking up various essentials (toilet paper, suncream, chocolate). The campsite is basically the lawn outside a hotel, which luckily comes under the remit of the hotel's wi-fi coverage. Essentially, I'm sitting in my tent writing this.

Today we journeyed (by horse and carriage) to the Karnak Temple Complex, a huge site of ancient temples which tower into the sky. It's impressive how large these were built given the comparably less advanced technology the ancient Egyptians would have had! After exploring the temple complex for some time, we walked to and then around the Luxor temple and then walked into the market. It's quite amusing here that many of the local sellers put on Scottish accents. The usual exchange goes something like the following:
Seller - 'Australian?'
Me - 'No'
Seller - 'American?'
Me - 'No'
Seller - 'Scottish?'
Me - 'No, Venezualan'
I've also developed a habit of greeting all the kids we pass when cycling in Swahili. I think once I reach Kenya I'll switch to greeting people in Arabic.

This afternoon I was using my degree in Computer Science to help fix people's computing woes. One of other rider's brand new Asus Eee isn't recognising it's hard disk anymore. Having tried several electrical screwdrivers over the last few days to try and open it, it appears that it was tightened by a robot with superhuman strength! So that she had a useful computer again, I downloaded Ubuntu Netbook Remix, sideloaded it onto a bootable SD card and the little netbook was good to go!

Other than that, this afternoon was more of routine chores, cleaning my bike and collecting laundry. To my relief, all my socks matched up (several other riders lost items of clothing on the chaotic washing lines outside). One point of confusion is that my cycling chamois (the padded cycling shorts) are exactly the same type, size and brand as another rider's shorts. Something to look out for!

Tomorrow we head south towards Sudan, and in a couple of days we'll be on a pretty epic ferry (30 hours!) which is the only official route for tourists to take into the country. Connectivity is likely to be difficult, so until next time, kwaheri! (Or, to be correct- ma'as salaama!)

The last update was written in a bit of a rush from an internet cafe in Safaga. I was running out of Egyptian currency and so my internet time was limited! I spent the afternoon cleaning my bike (not terribly effective but it's less sandy now) and looking for a money exchange. Walking into town, I passed several convenience stores. Since the trip has started, we've been eating a lot (and burning a lot) - whenever I see food now I think it must be eaten! As I walked towards the Bank of Alexandria, I bought and ate some biscuits, something similar to a slice of sponge cake and Fanta in some strange purple colour.

The town itself was quite a sleepy tourist town - there are a few resorts and hotels scattered about and most of the shops seem to be around on the back of those visitors. At 3pm on Monday though, there were few customers and many of the shops were in fact actually shut. The bank was shut but I managed to withdraw some money from the ATM which I promptly used to purchase biscuits (something similar to custard creams but round in shape). On the way back I passed a hairdresser's shop and with my electric razor being a poor excuse for a grooming device, decided to get my face shaved. The hairdresser's English wasn't that great, when I asked him how much, he replied 'It's okay, it's okay!' quite enthusiastically. I just nodded and pointed to my growing beard. After what seemed like an age of spreading shaving foam on my face, he put a new blade in his razor and started work. This was the first shave I've ever had with a loose blade and it was surprisingly decent. After he finished, I was a bit alarmed to see him attempt to cut my hair. I shook my head (while the scissors were held away, or it could have been painful!) and he got the idea, although he still insisted on using hairspray and combing my hair. Hairspray combined with a bicycle helmet results in an interesting hairstyle!

That night on the beach seemed like it might just be the quiet night we were all hoping for. In actual fact, the three dogs that seemed to live in that enclosure were at war with each other (seemingly) and several times during the night they were barking and making various noises of aggression towards each other! The morning came soon enough and we began the 138km fifth stage to yet another desert camp.

The Egyptian riders had forewarned us that the first 40 kilometres were all climbing, and it was with this in mind that we tried to form a group of riders. Trying to maintain a speed of 20kmph with a side/headwind on the ascent was just about manageable and we soon reached the lunch truck at about 10:30am! The remainder, a solid 75 km, was much less hilly but just as strong wind. Our group of riders absorbed several smaller groups and at its largest consisted of sixteen riders! At first we were a disorganised mass of bicycles and people, but Jen, a fairly loud (she admits this herself) Canadian lady, soon organised the group into a more orderly two column peloton*. It was a tough day all-in-all but we pedalled on and reached the desert camp at 2:30pm, giving us plenty of time to unpack, drink soup (a mixture of broccoli, potatos and other vegetables - great) and chill out.

Riders are starting to feel the pain of five hard days of cycling now (myself included) and knees are one of the most common disturbances so far. This happens because people aren't used to spinning (using a low gear and pedalling fast) and prefer to mash (using a high gear and pedalling less often). This is a cycling trait of mine as well, coming from a mountain biking background where there is less constant pedalling and more high intensity bursts, so I've been trying actively to spin more.

Camp life is starting to get quite fun - an enterprising local turned up today with a cooler full of beer which he sold to us at quite a hefty price. Since I don't drink beer, I tried my luck and asked if he had any soft drinks. The answer - 'no!'. We usually have a rider meeting just before dinner where they explain our route for the next day and discuss the next few days of the tour. Today the truck crew had an auction (the currency: cans of beer) of all the items that had been left lying around the truck. Luckily none of my items showed up - trying to fit my bags in the locker may have pushed the door off its hinges...

It's sometime after dinner now, which really just means bedtime. There are flies buzzing around my tent - I figure these are relatively tame compared to the nasty insects that will invade later in the trip. For some reason the Tour D'Afrique trucks were playing Celine Dion's 'My Heart Will Go On' (or whatever that song from Titanic was called). This probably makes sense given that Canadians represent the largest proportion of riders here.

*I realise that I keep using the word peloton and non-cyclists are probably wondering what on Earth they are. It's literally a group of cyclists, taking various formations, where each cyclist is fairly close to those in front and behind. This is more efficient than cycling solo since there are aerodynamic gains to be made - whilst the cyclist at the front works harder, all those who are drafting (i.e. riding behind) tend to save energy because of lower air resistance. The cyclist at the front usually rotates so that riders save energy most of the time.

Just empty.
(View in high res)

The fourth stage was pretty straightforward (I wouldn't go so far as calling it easy, but relative to the horror of the second stage, then sure - easy). A brisk before lunch run to the lunch truck followed by a brisk after lunch run to the campsite saw us reaching Safaga, a town near the coast of the Red Sea.

This campsite is luxurious compared to our previous three nights - Tour D'Afrique has booked out three hotel rooms for us to shower in and there are GENUINE toilets! We're camping on the beach pretty much, adjacent to a hotel. There's a bar just next to the 'campsite', most of the other riders are busy getting beers.

There's really not much to say about the day's riding so far, so I'll leave off now until we arrive in Luxor in three days time - an 'official' rest day (also my birthday).

Yesterday's entry was cut short by a lack of energy. The ride today was much easier - shorter (all in all, 147km) and much less effort (a tailwind instead of a headwind!). I cycled the first 20 kilometres solo, having been dropped by the faster Australian riders within a kilometre. As we reached a police checkpoint however, the ride came to a halt. The heavy rain of last night had apparently caused the roads to become flooded and the police didn't want us riding down the road. After nearly half an hour of waiting around, we were given the all clear to proceed, ahead of about a hundred waiting trucks. As we spun along the road, the wind helping us along, there was no surface water to be seen. Supposedly the Egyptian police were being overcautious - either that or the sun is incredibly efficient at evaporation in these parts, especially at 8am!

I rode with Alison up until lunch, one of the staff who was on her day off and had chosen to ride for the day. After lunch (more pitta bread) I managed to join a group of riders - a mixture of North Americans mainly. It's amazing how much easier it is to keep up a certain pace when you're riding with other people. On my own, I'd struggle to motivate myself.

You can usually tell something is amiss when you roll into any place and all the riders who were in front of you are just sitting, waiting (as happened in the morning at the police checkpoint). As we reached the finish flag, we were greeted by this sight of riders just sitting, waiting. Supposedly the campsite was actually a further 8km (but actually 10km) down the road due to, wait for it, flooding at the original choice! This alternative campsite is very windy and right next to a police checkpoint. While we can hear the rush of trucks going past, the tent is also flapping all over the place. Luckily there is substantial debris on the ground around the campsite, so it's possible to ground the tent. Putting it up was an interesting experience, if I was any lighter, I'd have been literally blown away. As each pole went into the tent, it became more and more like a sail.

Camp life is interesting, since we wake up quite early daily (most people are awake sometime after 5am) and because we have been riding quite hard, bedtime is usually soon after it gets dark (and/or dinner has been eaten). We've been at 'desert' camps for the last few days now, which don't really have any facilities. Going to the toilet is a substantial effort involving a shovel and a lighter. Tomorrow evening we're passing through a town called Safaga, and we'll be at a genuine campsite with showers (and hopefully, toilets). Dinner at the campsite is usually a generous serving of carbs with some kind of vegetables. It's not the tastiest food in the world though, and I think I'll soon have to burst open the various packets of chilli powder that my mother has equipped me with. Tour D'Afrique has also given us enough energy bars for 2 per day - one of the riders today noticed that these bars all expired in June 2009. I'm not quite sure what to make of that.