Ready, Set. Ride, Eat, Sleep, Repeat.

Riding the Tour D’Afrique, days 1 to 6, Cairo to Luxor

Distance Cycled: 735km

Metres Climbed: 2258m

Time on Bike: 23:10:17

Finally, after a year of planning, panicking and waiting, the first day of the tour was upon me. With the previous night only yielding only a couple of hours sleep, and a 5am wake-up, it was already off to a tough start. But what a start. We were bussed out from our hotel and arrived at the great pyramids of Giza as the sun rose over the modern Cairo skyline for our grand départ. The first day took us out of the city and making a bee-line for the red sea coast, and it was just glorious to be back on the bike. The next couple of stages saw us flying south along the pan flat coast with the most incredible tailwind, spinning out at 40kph+, which led to some super easy days to ease us into things. The first cycling challenge came on day 5 as we headed inland over the red sea mountain range, a long gradual 820m climb over 70km. And with the effort came the reward, as the majestic, yet ultimately monotonous desert landscape gave way to the jagged gorges and outcrops of the mountains. The end of the day saw our first desert camp (the police insisted that we stayed in hotels for the first few nights), but what greeted us was something completely unexpected entirely. Having cycled the best part of the day on my own, over the mountain and then through the last 30km into a tailwind, at the finish line I was ambushed by a media scrum, and the state governor and his entourage. Apparently the local media had got somewhat excited about our arrival in Egypt. A couple of local TV interviews, a bizarre gift of a rose saying “I love you” and about hundred selfies later, I was finally allowed off my bike for some much needed rest. I have an increased respect for the pro cyclists having to deal with dumb media questions after a gruelling day in the saddle! Finally day 6 took us down into the lush Nile valley and into Luxor for our first, and very much welcome, rest day.

I have to confess that I was utterly unprepared for Egypt, my ‘cultural’ preparations, if you like, had been entirely focussed on sub-saharan Africa, and latterly on the Sudan. Egypt had just been a necessary prelude to the greater adventure. But the wonder of the ancient sites, and the warmth of (most of) the people, I have thankfully, I have been pleasantly surprised and intrigued. The sheer amount of ancient ruins excavated, restored and opened to the public is something to behold.

The country as whole has a feeling of being in state of flux, perennially teetering on the balance between a modern, secular outlook and conservative religion. This was highlighted in the stark contrast between our second night in Ras Ghareb, a rural petroleum refinery town, and El Gouna, a European package travellers haven, which wouldn’t be out of place on the Spanish coast. I was expecting to be seen as an oddity on this trip, white skin on a bicycle in Africa, and cycling for fun at that. But I wasn’t expecting that until much later in the trip. But in Ras Ghareb, we really were a novelty, with kids running out from seemingly every corner of the street to greet us (usually with a hello, but once with a rock..) and locals crowding around as we ate dinner in the street outside the hotel, cooked from the huge white TDA ‘dinner truck’. It was a realisation of how alien we must have seemed. To paraphrase a favourite Archer quote, “White people doing white people things”.

Even 6 days in, the change in pace and routine of life has been quite something to adjust to. To give you an idea of a day in the life so far: Alarm goes off at roughly 5:15am to pack up the tent and bags, including a good few minutes of jumping, crushing and swearing at the bag until the zips closed. Then it’s breakfast of coffee, porridge and bananas at 6:00, bottle filling and then on the road just after sunrise between 6:30 and 7. Roughly 70km, or 3 hours later comes lunch - or whatever you call a large meal at 10am! Then 30-70km later arrive at the next campsite to erect tents, stretch and relax. Then dinner around 5:30pm and in bed, usually, by 7:30-8. Essentially it seems you have to shift your body clock backwards by 3 hours.