Day Five - Safagha to Desert Camp

Kilometres riden: 776.1

Link for the ride: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/22852957

Today was the first day with any real hills. We set off from Safagha straight up in the the Red Sea Mountains, heading towards our desert camp. The first 65km to lunch was a constant 1% or 2% grade. Nothing too punishing, but having unrelenting nonetheless. Of course, there was a headwind. It is pretty hard to describe what is like to ascend for 65km to the top of a plateau, then the stark, exposed moonscape at the top. Probably best to think of it as the moon, by brown and super windy.

The scenery was pretty awesome to start with. At first, it kind of felt a little like little Moab to me. Then I couldn't decide if it was more like Fallout 3 or Red Faction: Guerilla. Obviously, I have had a broad education.

I stuck with Rod and Julianna's group for the first 30km, but my lower back is giving me some problems. The best way to relieve that for me is to stand on my pedals for a couple of strokes. Problem with that in a group is that it disrupts the rhythm of the riders behind me and I can't pass on hand signals from the front. So, the only time that I can indulge myself is after I have taken a pull and am rolling along in the back.

Their group ended up stopping on the road ahead just after I did, so I rode in front of those guys for a while.

People here need to pray a fair few times a day, so on highways, they have these handy things.

A few kms up the road, I found the Egyptian riders with a snapped chain. These guys are not really into carrying a lot of tools, spares or knick knacks, so the guy was fixing it by hammering on his chain with a rock. While he was using my chain breaker, R + J's group cruised on by.

I ended up spending most of the day riding solo, fighting the constant headwind. The wind was bad enough to make the descent from lunch to camp seem like a constant climb. I thought that my GPS was broken when it was telling me I was really going downhill.

I think that everyone found today a bit hard - definitely the most riders I have seen turn up on the truck at the end of the day. Some riders have been really unlucky with early injuries and poorly fitting bikes. I was pretty lucky that Shane and the other guys at Bike Culture did such a good job of getting me sorted, even with the last minute bike change. Today, one of the other riders saw the contents of my repairs bag and was gobsmacked. Some other riders seem a bit underprepared - one rider didn't bring a bike computer.

This is my trusty steed. So far, it has been an awesome ride.

I don't think that I have lost any weight yet. Hopefully, that will happen before I get to the real hills in Ethiopia. I haven't had to really use my tiny granny ring just yet though, so I still have that in the bag.

A switched on Egyptian turned up at camp with a cooler full of beer to sell and made a killing. I can't drink knowing that I have another day to Luxor, then another two the Aswan crossing.