Brown Girl in the Ring..tra la la la la!

Hey,
Happy days from Luxor, Egypt!
It's a rest day today after six days riding from Cairo and so the body is clean, the bike is clean, clothes have been washed and cleaned and I've even had a cruise around the city looking at Luxor Temple and haggling over oranges and falafels with stall owners in the bazaar. Most of the group went on a tour this morning to see the East and West bank tourist sites such as the tombs in the Valley of the Kings and Queens and so it was a good opportunity to get things done at camp while it was quiet and little to distract me. It was also great to walk along the Nile instead of riding a bike (even though half the horse and cart owners parked up against the kerb hassling passers by for business were trying to assure me that I looked extremely tired and therefore should part with anywhere from 20 to 30 Egyptian pounds...(divide by 5 to get US dollars) and allow them to take me to where ever I was going. I just laughed and carried on walking.

The weather has been beautiful. Sunny and warm with just enough breeze to make for a good sail although last night a group of our riders went out for a sunset sail but the wind had died down so much that they had to be rescued by a motorised boat and towed to shore. Funny thing was that I was sitting at a restaurant on the Nile having an early dinner watching this boat full of people being towed ashore thinking that they must be pissed! Got back to camp to find out it was our group. Too funny!

There are lots of boats docked on the Nile and Luxor seems to be teeming with tourists from all over the world and so it makes for a 'big hassle' shopping time. You have to haggle for the price and the basic rule of thumb is that what ever price you are quoted, cut it in half and then half again and the price will be somewhere in the middle. I bought a hessian bag to cart stuff from my red box which stays in the truck to my tent site and was first told 110 Egyptian punds. I just laughed and went to leave the shop. It came down to 60, I cut that to 20 and was told that I was breaking his heart. I laughed and came out of there with it for 20. I'm sure I was still ripped off and could have got it for 10 further down the line of stall owners but it was fun haggling.

You're probably wondering what's with the name of the post? Brown girl in the ring? huh? Isn't that a song you may ask? Yes it is. I was singing that in my head in the last 2 kms into Luxor as I knew that I was going to win not only the womens race but also the overall stage and beat the boys.....Yeehaa!!!!I was pumped! Anyway yesterday (Thursday) I started the day from a desert camp 140km out of Safaga, 25km just shy of a town called Qena. Wednesday we left Safaga and our ride started with a 40km hill climb and it wasn't too bad compared to 2007 as we had a favourable wind..tail for the first 100km and then a nasty head wind for the last 40km. I also rode with the young mountain biker from Austria Berndt who spun all the way up and so that made me not grind in my usual manner. Our camp site that night wasn't the best. We had quite the police presence, lights on all night, a water pump to keep us all awake, on the side of a busy highway and a cold evening.So,Thursday morning it was cold and all I wanted to do was get to Luxor and have a warm shower! Small things to make a girl happy. As I was about to start the race a couple of the expedition girls made the comment that they thought it was a pity that I had no female riders to race but I replied with 'Hey I'm racing the boys!' So, with that I was off on a mission to get to Luxor and to get warm. Our ride was a quick 90km and the lunch truck was at 50km but I wasn't hungry as we had just eaten breakfast not too long ago. I stopped for an orange and then told the boys that I would start out by myself and that they would catch me anyway. They didn't appear to care either way and so I started riding and got down on my aerobars and got into a groove... AND what a groove....it took Bent 25km to catch me and when he got on my wheel he said that if I kept up my pace that I could easily win the stage.With that thought in my head I just pushed harder. I got to the finish flag before Bent and finished 2 mins ahead of Jos the dutch rider. I don't think he could believe it! Very sweet. I know that kind of stage win won't happen again but it sure was sweet. I couldn't wait to call Chris from the camp site and tell him my news. He was chuffed!! All that extra training was worth it after all.

Tomorrow is a non race day and we are off to Idfu. The actual route is the same as 2007 but this time it will be a little bit different from 2007 as to when we get to camp. This year we have the African Route boys with their support trucks and so to cross over into Sudan they have to go on a different ferry. It's more of a barge and so takes longer and therefore they have to leave Saturday evening to make sure that they get to Sudan before we do on next Tuesday. So 120km ride Luxor to Idfu, get to camp re pack bags so that our red box has all the stuff that we don't need for the next three days and we put stuff in our permanent bags for what we need on the ferry. Saturday evening we camp, the trucks leave and then in the morning we ride another 120km from Idfu to Aswan, overnight stay in an old sports ground,pack up, find breakfast ourselves and then a quick 18km ride from Aswan to the ferry terminal and then it's farewell from the Egyptian exit immigration boys, an 18-22hour ferry ride, then hello Sudanese boys. The ferry trip is going to be interesting to say the least as we have twice as many people on tour this year and so heaven knows where we are all going to fit.More adventures guaranteed coming up plus the Sudanese immigration is also going to be interesting!!!!

OK enough posting ..things to do..places to go...I'm off to find more food.
I hope this post finds you all well. My bike is going well, my body is holding up and I'm having fun racing and riding with the boys. Fingers crossed that Sudan fares as well as Egypt.
Be well.
Love ya
Janet in Luxor, Egypt.