Nile Valley to Assuan - Ma'asalame Egypt

After 1'400 km in the desert we join the Nile again to cycle the remaining 200 km to Assuan. Encounters are switching between excellent and stressful within days.
Coming out of the desert we ask a family if we can set up our tent on their land for one night. The answer is yes, but not only that: everyone comes out and we are invited for tea, then hot milk with sugar and an excellent bread and then to eat. This means that Chantal and I do eat alone in the house while all the family is waiting outside and the kids spy on us to see how we eat. ;-)
There is no way of having them eat with us!!!
We spend the evening talking around the fire sitting on benches. These description don't show how welcoming and warm the ambiance is. We spend one of our best evenings with some strangers who have taken us into their family and leave friends in the morning! There is a tear or two left on their ground...

The day we leave this lovely family then turns out to be a pretty stressful day with alot of kids and teenagers yelling "hello, how are you? what is your name? money!" all along the next 70 km to Edfu. The increasingly aggressive traffic and our empty stomacs don't help to relax.
We are tired and spend the night in a hotel. The mosque is within reaching distance! The night accordingly of rather light sleep! "Allah al akbar!"

Traffic eases the next day as the main road takes another way than ours. We relax and enjoy the scenery just to end up with another very welcoming family living just beside the Nile. It's lovely to sleep and be woken up by singing birds!

We reach Assuan the next day.
It's Sunday evening: we have a visa for Sudan, we have a ferry ticket. We have money. We are setup for new encounters in a new country. Ma'asalame Egypt, Salaam Aleikum Sudan!

the mosque - our sleeping place

the family

morning scenery in the Nile Valley

coffee break

just missed it!

crossing Isna on a dirt road

the mosque - within touching distance

Edfu

butcher in the main street

there is drinking water everywhere

these 3 crazy kids raced with Yann

Sand and wind - when the fun fades

Ever wondered what it is like to cycle with wind and sand?

sorry for the shaking of the camera...;-)

Western Desert - part two

Remember our retreat from the desert storm? Finally it wasn't a real loss!

desert storm retreat

 Heading out of Farafra, we have a lovely wind and no sandstorm

Without desert storm

pushing to/from the camping place

tailwinds, flat landscape: chantal breaks the 100 km/day limit! 

kitsch at 6.30 in the morning

green green green

laundry

Al Kasr Resthouse is a MUST! lovely Muhammad runs this place.

shisha in the morning

bread cooling

shisha blaze

Yann turns 38 (becoming a real Man, some said!) ;-)

women talk, a NO-GO for Yann

truck driving down a hill in rear gear or what? (think about the left-to-right or right-to-left writing)

thats's our gear

wandering dunes - no way through

El Kharga sunset

bicycles are fascinating

chicken carrying device

remember the bread-buying-experience on the lazy day in el kharga?

upps... it wasn't me

a huge caterpillar showing up for morning coffee

the road ahead

less clean patient room in an ambulance station

proud camel owner

sandy roads

Western Desert - part one

We leave Cairo on a mild, cool morning, following the outgoing traffic until it fades and becomes little on our road to Bahariya.

30 km with some traffic to quit one of the biggest cities on the continent

water: a scarce ressource in Egypt - would be nice to treat it like a flower and not a garbage bin...

Western desert road - the train accompanies us to Bahariya 

After 90 km with tailwind, we stop at an ambulance station and are welcome by Ahmad and Fathi to spend the night in the emergency room. What a relief from the wind!

The next day we are blessed with another day of tailwind. It's going to be the last until Bahariya.

First night in an ambulance station -we sleep in the emergency room - we're fine!

our welcoming hosts and Tom of tomandmattcycle.com

fog can be treacherous - a bus stops in the mist, men go peeing, we watch sipping our morning coffee while the sun clears away the fog!

tailwind - keep smiling!

ambulance station watch dogs

stones - there are A LOT  in the desert!!

we had 3 drops of RAIN in the desert

kitsch

The tailwind gone, we need 3 days to make the same distance we did the 2 previous days...

a combination of snickers and mars to encounter headwinds

einmal Sandstrahlen - one blast cleaning, please! lovely for the chain. Better than ANY bodyshop cream, and free!

water transport in Bahariya

Bahariya - street talks

if tourists don't speak arabic, let's take english lessons! Mabruuk!

"yes, give me THAT pack of dates!"

rooftop terrasse

laundry - ours - drying

lovely numbers

We leave Bahariya for Farafra. We're going to spend some days in the white desert.

Road restaurant: arabic men buying underwear for their women?

this lady runs a lovely restaurant - alone! it's the only working women (in public area) we met

kitsch

kitsch

kitsch

local corn flakes - eaten with milk they are just ok

entering the white desert

camping in the white desert

someone lost his bike in the white desert

night scenery in the white desert

exiting the white desert

cycling with Tom and Matt

feast in Farafra

Farafra exit - desert storm approaching

desert storm approaching more!

we turn around to the hotel

Farafra without desert storm

First 540 km done.

Part 2 will follow soon....