Day Something - Luxor to Edfu to Aswan

Kilometres riden: 1090

Just finished the two day ride from Luxor to Aswan. Two pretty easy days.

On day one, the fast guys were taking it easy and riding with Rod and Julianna's group. We didn't seem to be pushing too hard though. When it got to be my turn to pull, I decided to conduct a highly scientific experiment to answer two questions:

1. has my changed bike set up let me ride any more consistently?
2. what happens when I take the group speed from <35km/h >40km/h?

Does the changed bike setup let me ride constantly with no need to stand?

I feel pretty confident about my answer to this: kind of. I can definitely ride longer, but I do still get a fair bit of lower back pain when I am in the middle of the group. When I am pulling, I have no pain at all. When I am in the back, I can stand up and weave around to let the pressure off. In the middle, I can't stand and I get pain. I think that maybe this is because I don't change my gears as the group speed changes.

This is a pretty easy thing to fix if I remember to think about it.

Having my seat 2.5cm lower and further forward definitely lets me cruise at a higher speed without having to strain much. It is like a free 2 or 3 km/h.

What happens when someone takes the group speed up?

Very easy to answer. What happens is that all the fast guys also speed up. They will also start to ride past someone at the front that is going too slow and take another turn. This is kind of cool, but means that if you come off the front expecting the pace to ease up, you will be pretty surprised.

Yesterday, I was in the back position with Stuart immediately in front of me. He slowed for a few seconds to roll his shoulders and when he looked up, a 10m gap had opened up between him and the next person. We both tried to bridge back to the main group, but neither of us had enough beans to make it.

We caught the bunch again at lunch and tried to hang on again. I only lasted two more pulls before I blew up and evicted myself from the group. After a few kilometres of solo riding, I found Stuart again and we rode it out.

All in all, one very informative day.

Day two was much of the same. Riding alongside the Nile, going through little villages. Kind of thing that is par for the course. When you are riding next to the Nile. Nice as it is, I think it is good that we went East to the Red Sea then over the mountains to get to Luxor. It would have been pretty monotonous following the Nile the whole way.

In Aswan today. Our bunch got an awesome escort in. Two motorcycle police keeping a lane on the Corniche clear for us and stopping traffic at intersections. We might have almost looked like we knew what we were doing to an untrained eye.

We ride over the dams tomorrow to catch our ferry to Wadi Halfa. A group of us have stocked up on our ferry food. Our prize possession is the massive jar of Nutella we found. All that we know about the ferry is rumour. Bed bugs? Power points? Decks full of goats and chickens? We have no real idea. The TDA guys like to keep things a bit interesting.

I am sure that there will be at least one goat. In my mind, it will be like getting on a domestic flight in the USA where people are stuffing all their junk into the overhead lockers then complaining that their lampshade / hat box / baby carrier won't fit.

Oh yeah. I have found the best McDonalds anywhere. The McDonalds here is on the Corniche el Nile. It overlooks the river, so you can watch the Feluccas go by as you eat your two meals. And an Oreo McFlurry. And a chocolate sundae. And another coke. Plus, it has the best toilet in all of Egypt.

This is the packaging left after six people finished eating. We were like some sort of primal embodiment of gluttony.