Stage 10: Desert Camp to Abu Simbel
At the risk of being way too repetitive, another chilly night and morning. A gorgeous sunrise as we pushed out of camp, turned southwest and immediately felt that joyous tailwind. We just sailed along and made lunch in record time (for me, at least).
Photo courtesy Grace Zhang.
Highway was a good tarmac surface, long desert vistas, a bit monotonous in some respects, but actually lots of variations as the subtleties creep in to one’s head. Traffic low volume and respectful. Really a great run, at least for first portion of the day.
A little more than an hour out from the lunch break at about 2/3 of the ride completed, we turned a corner to the southeast and those tailwinds became stiff crosswinds; that and some rolling (though small) hills changed the nature of the day.
The topography changed too; what had been very flat country now broken by medium to large hills, steep sided and flat-topped corresponding to the layered geology; erosional remnants of some sort (will have to search that out at some point). The mid-day warmed up noticeably, and we made it into Abu Simbel about 1:30 ... plenty of time to relax with a beer before rest-day chores.
I should sleep very well tonight.
Rick... so much what I was thinking! And the cycling tan is going to be epic
Last booze until Ethiopia! Also, the socks, that is all.