Day Six - Desert Camp to Luxor

Kilometres riden: 867.7

Today was by far the best day of riding so far. Straight off the bat we dropped straight down, 30km clean to Qena on the Nile. I had had a cold all night and eating hurt my chest, so I was a bit worried, but as soon as I got on the bike, I felt really strong, so I could pull pretty hard to the river.

A day like this really makes road cycling make sense. With just two or three people in the group, it is quiet, and the perfect conditions mean that we can steam along. So satisfying. I'm not sure that is is quite as satisfying as getting a technical section right on the mountain bike.

Other people weren't feeling as strong after yesterday. People had jumped on the dinner truck straight away. This was by far the fullest that I've seen the bike rack in the morning.

I thought that these guys missed out on an awesome ride. Apparently though, the guys at the back caught a bit of grief. One rider got hit by a tomato and rock. Another one got mobbed by kids.

Once we got onto the Nile, the scenery really changed. It was so green and cultivated it kind of reminded me of Queensland. That they were harvesting sugar cane probably added to that a bit. We had a couple of sketchy, out-of-the-saddle pushes to overtake tractors pulling huge loads of cane.

Even the people seemed heaps happier to see us. All the little kids and people shout out "Heeeellloooo, how are you?" and look pretty stoked when we wave back. I kind of wonder if the protracted way it is said is because they only ever hear cyclists yelling it out as they go by, and they think the Doppler effect is part of how it is said.

Now that we have advanced a level, the police have changed uniforms. There are now guys in traditional looking robes (which could be the latest Spring fashion for all I know of Egyptology) with shotguns. These guys are on every bridge heading to the West side of the Nile. I have no idea what is on the West side that is so valuable, or on the East side that is so dangerous. I am a stranger in a strange land. In the way of video games, there are still the normal police at their checkpoints and in their utes as well.

These little critters at lunch we also pretty happy to see us. Two of them ran behind our lunch truck, but as soon as they saw my vagrant beard, they turned and booked it for the hills. Lunch was right by this building. It is a topic of contention whether buildings here are left unfinished because uncompleted structures are taxed differently or what.

Lunch has been something to look forward to every day so far. We basically eat pita bread with some vegetables, a meat like tuna or baloney or leftover dinner from the night before. Even on a fast day where "lunch" is at 0830, I normally cram down a couple. I kind of feel like I could eat a pita sandwich full of just margarine and be pretty happy. Yesterday, I even ate some meatless sandwich meat and found it pretty tasty.

My hobo beard has reached a new level. It stops looking like a beard and is now a fringe of sorts, jutting away from my chin like the edge of a crab.

All good things must come to an end though. So, while we have two days rest here in Luxor, I headed into town to find a barber. The biggest difference between an Egyptian barber and the barber in Yass is that there isn't cricket on the TV here. Apart from that it is pretty similar. My do was so good, another guy went to the same place. I told the guy that I wanted bak-sheesh for my finder's fee. He found that funny enough to give me 25 piastres.

The end result.

Oh yeah. The other difference is that in Egypt, they roll cotton over your face to get all the small hairs off. So now I have Egyptian style plucked eyebrows. I am a stylish looking guy.