The 88.5 miles that was our second leg from the Red Sea to Luxor nearly proved disastrous. It could have ended my trip and possibly my life on our sixth day out.
I was feeling strong and taking advantage of a long down hill route and nice tailwind. But I was cursing at the guy that put so many speed bumps and rumble strips on Egyptian roads. In addition to the ones announcing curves in the road there were many others, many seemingly randomly placed, some rare ones with an element of validity. They were not particularly tall but they were effective. Usually they consisted of five sets of five strips and they stretched across both lanes plus the shoulders. There was no escaping them.
I was beginning to hear a rattle while going over them and noticed what I thought was a loose front fender. The fender was beginning to rub slightly on the tire. Reaching down I was unable to move the fender so for the next several/many km’s I watched it slowly inch further askew. Again, I could not push it back into position and then for unknown reasons, after a series of speed bumps, it stopped rubbing on the tire. Other wise the ride was smooth and uneventful until lunch.
At lunch I leaned the bike against a sign post and after lunch noticed the fender seemed to be back in a ‘normal position’. However, when I tried to mount the bike again I felt a strange shifting of the bike under me.
Dismounting I was horrified to find that the front axel bolt was nearly completely unscrewed and the front wheel about to fall off. Kenny, our young ginger Scotsman bike mechanic, found nothing but a loose bolt. Needless to say this now has become a part of my pre-ride check list.
About 50 km out from Luxor,we began to see some green fields of barley, wheat and some type of clover with yellow flowers. Then sand again. At about 30 km out was the Airport and some green again. Slowly the green belt of the Nile became visible and the lushness of the landscape became quite striking after exiting the desert. It also became the theme of our ride through Egypt. Water meant green on one side of road and no water meant desert on the other side. Water certainly is the life blood of Egypt and the Nile is the artery that carries it.
But before everything turned green I spotted another kind of farm. An Egyptian Pyramid Farm growing baby pyramids.
I don’t know how long it takes to grow a pyramid . . .
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