Longer Way Down: Cairo to Cape Town

We travelled through Egypt following the Red Sea South and then crossed to the Nile following an old trade route used at the time of the pharaohs to Luxor. Onwards to Aswan and then crossed Lake Nasser arriving in Sudan at Wadi Halfa. Khartoum is the end of stage one of our tour where we have a rest day and time to reflect on our first 2000km.
I started by saying to people that I didn't mind the heat as, being a bit older than some of the other competitors, it helped with the general body flexibility which is true. I then joined in whingeing with everyone else when the temperature in the Sudanese desert hit 45 degrees in the afternoon.
After a day's cycling the camp was full of still, staring eyes. The wind would be great if it wasn't so hot and sandy. The sand gets everywhere which hasn't helped the saddle sores. Our traveling nurse holds a nightly clinic where the chaffed bottoms line up to be inspected and are graded into: mild, sore, broken skin, and next hospital! One poor lad had to cycle 150km standing on his pedals! It's not funny.

Everything on this trip is relative especially suffering. You think you are aching, hot, thirsty, tired etc but there is always someone who is worse off but is coping better. You have to remind yourself to, "Get on with it and enjoy the moment". Speaking of relative comforts, we recently arrived in a campsite in Dongola, Sudan after 4 days without a shower. We were told there were shower facilities which turned out to be 2 stand pipes with leaky hose pipes attached. It didn't matter as it was hot outside and after I had hosed down and shaved I felt like I'd spent a day at Champney's

There have been a few incidents involving over enthusiastic children throwing sticks and stones and a couple of people yanked have been yanked off their bikes. On the Wadi Halfa ferry the squat toilets over flowed into the walkways and everyone, especially those in flip flops, scaled the cabin walls like Spiderman, to avoid the ebb and flow of fecal matter.

Sudan is charming like the people ,generous and kind on the whole and very religious .One kind man allowed us to wash off at the end of one day in the foot washing area behind the mosque .Fortunately, they saw the humour in 4 naked cyclists trying to shower under taps that were 2 feet high.

All this pales into insignificance when you consider that the country is dry and not a single drop of beer has passed the lips of 50 thirsty riders for 2 weeks now. Ethiopia, watch out. We are going to have some party when we arrive.