Luxor

Today we arrived in Luxor. Yesterday was another very difficult day. We had a 60km climb up the Red Sea Mountain pass with strong headwinds… the hill just seemed to keep going and going. I rode with a couple of the Eygptian racers for awhile which was really great and we discovered one of them and myself do the same work with youth at risk. At 98km got my first flat tire, and if you know my tires, this was epic. Luckily I had linked up with another rider and he stayed and helped out. I sliced my finger, was bleeding all over the tire and my bike blew down into the sand. It did not make for a good experience. I rode the last 40km with my tire not seated properly tenderly riding as to not have another flat. 138km felt terrible, was the 5^th last rider into camp, with 13 riders on the truck. So it felt good to still be riding with so many people having quit but it also made for a lonely road. Paul the tour director said this year has been a very difficult tour so far due to the fact that the winds have been atrocious. This last six days has been very telling of how difficult this trip is really going to be. I am great so far, have challenged myself as much as I possibly could everyday however there are a lot of people with injuries already. I have a bit of GI stuff going on already and a lot of mosquito bites, but other than that I feel very good. I am happy with how my body is treating me.

On the way into Luxor along in the Nile valley, the green trees and flowers were refreshing after miles and miles of desert sand. The children gave me my first taste of some of the challenges that we will come across along the way .  I was the last rider today, riding alone because I had issues with my bike. The kids along the way had already seen a tonne of bikers come by, they pelted me with rocks, at one point a group of young teenage boys rode up and were veering into me and trying to steal stuff off of my bike. One kid whipped me with a stick as I came by and so many kids were running at me. I started to veer into traffic more as I approached groups of kids, because I was more fearful of the kids than the vehicles. Oh Ethiopia will be very very interesting.

Take care, more adventures to come, amazing to think we have almost finished one country of 10… I will miss Eygpt. Sudan will have its own challenges, I am sure.