jonnywhite

Egypt: check.

With a few 'directional difficulties' I pulled into Aswan where we are pitched in an old sort of run down garden after a nice easy 6 hour ride today. Tomorrow we board a boat to cross a river (visible on a larger map) and enter Sudan. Allegedly the roads are very bad and also there is limited net access - however the Sudanese are supposed to be the nicest people in Africa and I am pumped to see the country.

The riding has become a routine that we are very used to and if I can keep well I am confident at this point about pushing through. We hit 1,000km today and have 11,000 left to go. It really is a great way to see a continent - lots of time to think on the bike while passing slowly enough to see everything but quickly enough that most of the kids have trouble hitting you with rocks. When a kid does throw them, spit, or jump in the way, we sometimes try to discourage the behavior, as more riders will be behind us, by chasing the kid down and yelling at him (they don't understand english but they get the message), never touching him though. Two days ago our tour leader and another rider got a handful of gravel in the face and the tour leader chased the kid through the village and rode his bicycle though the front door the kids 'house' and yelled at the kid and told his mom what he did. The vast majority (99.9%) wave and yell and smile and you feel quite welcome, or yell 'moneymoneymoney', which has gotten irritating to the point of screaming, as everyone in Egypt (as mentioned in my last post) thinks white people carry money in their spandex and are going to through it as you go past.

Anyways it'll be a while before another one - hope all's well.