Still on the West Bank after leaving The Valley of the Kings we visited the Hatshepsut Temple. The magnificently restored temple is rivaled only my the equally magnificent original geology.
After passing from the west side of the Nile, the side of the setting sun and the dead, we we returned to the east side, the side of the rising sun and the living. Here the ancient Thebeians worshiped in the Temples of Luxor and Karnak connected by a mile long avenue lined with 5,000 sphinxes.
The next morning with the early morning sunlight shining over our shoulders we departed for the two day, 135 mile ride to Aswan. We will be following the Nile for the entire route with green on our left and desert on our right.
The prevailing winds in Egypt blow primarily from north to south. The river’s current flows from south to north. This allows easy travel up and down the Nile and is one of the major reasons that unified and sustained this long narrow strip of land into one of the planets great civilizations.
The tailwinds are also one factor aiding us in our daily rides although the roads are now becoming more narrow and with less reliable surfaces. We are also riding through more populated areas now with roadside villages and increased traffic. Young boys run out to greet us, extending their hands for high-fives and shouting “ha-LOoow”. We soon learn that it’s best to purposefully miss the high fives as some of the boys want to show how strong they are and a solid slap can nearly dislocate your elbow.
Girls are rarely seen and hardly ever engage. Older women in groups will however, at times engage with the female riders in our group. Especially when stopped for a coke break.
The further we proceed the more chaotic things seem to become. Roads become more challenging, people are for the most part, almost overwhelmingly welcoming. But there are exceptions. Sometimes the “ha-LOoow’s” are followed by outstretched palms and the cry “Money, Money,Money”. Of course it would be impossible to stop and fulfill their demands so when we don’t sometimes we get rocks hurled after us.
Sometimes the rocks come just because your there. When this happens simultaneously with the bawling calls to prayer from the local minarets and three wheeled tuk-tuk drivers are trying to run you off the road, the chaos becomes surreal. And you ask yourself, “What the hell did I get myself into?” It is not all bad, it’s not bad at all, it’s an adventure.
I wish I could accurately portray to you all the sights, sounds, smells and sensations of our ride as the suns first rays color the country side.
I see old men in a rickety boat fishing for their breakfast in a splash of sunlight on the quiet waters of a large canal. I hear five laughing teenage boys on a single motorcycle. I can smell a clover laden donkey cart carrying a family (?) of six. I feel for farmers on hands and knees working in their fields.
Roadside vegetable stands. Roadside water stops with water dripping out of the pointed, moss covered bottoms of earthen jars. A centuries old technique of using evaporation to keep the water cool.
An old man sitting roadside with the history of Egypt etched in the deep creases of his dark skin by a searing sun. He waves and smiles through a white beard. He is holding the future of Egypt on his lap. A dark haired curly headed toddler barely old enough to walk. He helps her wave, she laughs and I miss the picture.
Further down the road an old man and a young boy sit outside a hut with walls of corn and wave at the strange sight of a grown main dodging donkey carts bound for market. Their home sits between the road and the Nile and atop centuries of rocks, sand and soil left by the Nile’s seasonal flooding.
As the donkeys plod on, my progress is stopped by my first flat tire of the ride but I think to myself how fortunate I am, how blessed to experience all this.
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