The Red Sea (Safaga)

We got a half day off today, that is if you could ride the 90km quickly before the town and then take advantage of the day. I rode fast, I wasn’t feeling great this morning but quickly got into a good pace, reached the lunch truck by 9:30 am and was starving. I ate three sandwiches and as I rode away from the lunch stop I ate a powerbar. I feel hungry all the time and the more riding we do, I think it will get worse. I think all said and done I ate five meals today…. And I think I am still dropping weight. My bum was glad for a half day off, and it seems to already be on the mend. Hopefully it is getting good and calloused at this point. This is half the battle on bike trips especially 96 days of riding through intense conditions. We heard that the rainstorm we had the other night (read Eygpt update) was the first rain that that part of the desert had had in four years!!! Go figure, we were there for it, and let me tell you, I have never been in rain coming down that hard before. Pretty amazing! Some of the roads were washed out as a result… which made for some negotiating and we got stopped at a police stop. Today we arrived in Safaga, a beautiful little town on the Red Sea, wish I had more time here to do some diving. The two hotels filled up fast with riders eager to stop “Roughing it” after our four nights in tents. It made me chuckle to see everyone so excited to shower, and have rooms. I of course am “roughing it” in my tent on the beach along side the red sea, amazing camping, no way would I be in a room! Tomorrow we have another long day, 138 km up and over the Red Sea Mountains, towards the Nile. We will then begin to follow the Nile south, to Luxor.
Be sure to follow the Tour D’Afrique blog (link on this page) the communications directors are doing an amazing job keeping it updated on our journey and it will probably get updated more than I am able to keep updating my blog. Feel free to send comments and emails, it is nice to hear from everyone! I am truly loving this trip so far. What an amazing opportunity. There are some amazing riders here, most much much faster than me, but I push myself to my limit everyday and try my best. Today, the internet proved more important than my bike time, so we stopped at an internet café for an hour and that got logged into my race results for the day.J