Stage 11: Abu Simbel to Wahdi Halfa
KM: 79.4
HM: 297 m
Time: 2:49 minutes
Flat tires: 0
Liter of water: 2.5
Strava link
Stage 12: Wadi Halfa to Fahrka
KM: 150.3
HM: 546 m
Time: 5:06 minutes
Flat tires: 0
Liter of water: 4
Strava link
As you can see, arriving on the other side of the Lake Nasser was just Magic
After enjoying our rest day in Abu Simbel, we started early in the morning with rushing to take the ferry then waiting as it was delayed then rushing again and so on (the beauty of planning in Africa)..,We finally took the ferry and crossed the Lake Nasser to discover a breathtaking landscape on the other side of the lake, sand, stones in all their majesty, a magical place to ride our last 35 km in Egypt. After this short stretch, we reached the Egyptian border, enjoyed our lunch and then started with the fun of exiting Egypt. In that regard I’m still trying to understand why it is way more complicated to get out than to get into Egypt? Guess that this will have to be stored within the Egyptian mystery box with the well known fire truck (see my previous post).
As the Egyptians finally let us go, we passed the Sudanese border surprisingly quickly and enjoyed our first 35 km in our 2nd country of the tour till Wahdi Halfa.
On our second Sudanese day we went for a nice 150 km ride through mostly desert and rocky landscape till our desert camp in Fahrka where some of us enjoyed a “Nile shower” played Frisbee with the local kids and been observed by the locals, wondering what is this funny Caravan of people in Lycra.
Stage 13: from Fahrka to Nile Ferry camp
KM: 144.14
HM: 347 m
Time: 5:10 minutes
Flat tires: 0
Liter of water: 5 + 1 Sprite + an amazing Sundanese Coffee
Strava link
Stage 14: from Nile Ferry camp to Dongola
KM: 114.72
HM: 168 m
Time: 3:29 minutes
Flat tires: 0
Liter of water: 2
Strava link
Having done 150 km the day before, my legs were a bit heavy and I was slightly concerned by the upcoming 144 km. But as often in the desert, the day started with a magical light which helped me to get back on the saddle and the first 78 km till lunch went extremely fast as Nick and myself chatted more or less the whole time, trying to fix the world (still working on it be patient). The second part of the ride started with a very strong cross/headwind and I was therefore highly awaiting the Coke stop planned at km 107.
And what a Coke stop! We ended up in a small village of gold miners. Where we felt like being in California during the gold rush, the atmosphere was really special and we pretty much felt like aliens with our bikes and Lycra in the middle of the miners. By chance we got to know the local “gold dealer” who gave us a quick visit of the place, offered us an amazingly good coffee and showed us some small pieces of gold. After this fascinating stop we headed again toward our next camp and as the wind changed to a nice tailwing, I finished these 144 km in a bit more than 5 hours.
The next day we had a “short” 114 km which went extremely fast as we were pushed by a very strong tailwind. I had lunch at 8:40 (I’m gonna give a few more details in regard to food in a future post) and arrived in Dongola around 11:00.
Now, we do have two rest days as our itinerary has been changed due to some political uncertainties in Khartoum. We will use the first one to visit the site of Gebel Barkal and the second one to rest, clean our bikes, do our laundry and most probably eat some chicken (the Dongola chickens are amazing!!)
Biking
Before I started this tour I received many questions in regard to how the rides are organized, are we all biking together, is there some defined groups and so on.. I tried to answer these questions but as at that time my answers were only educated guess I will now give you some more accurate information.
Basically, on top of washing our hands and wearing a helmet, there is only one rule linked to biking and it is the following: No riding in the night!
This means that we do have the full day, from sunrise till sunset, to reach our target. In case of one or a few riders would not reach the camp by dusk, we have to stop and call the staff to be picked up. To be honest, looking at how people drive during the day, this rule is just a matter of survival as you don’t want to be on the road with your bike at night believe me!
For the rest everyone can organize his day as he wants and decide if he wants to bike fast, slow, alone or in groups. Nevertheless after 14 stages one can already see a few categories of riders emerging:
– The Tour de France crew –> half man half machine, amazingly trained, do not bother too much about coke stop and usually arrived at camp before the last riders left the previous camp.
– The Wanna be Tour de France crew –> Well trained can ride hard and fast but not fast enough to keep up with the “Tour de France crew” but they are working on it.
– The I’m fit but i wanna enjoy the ride –> They might be able to join the two first group but prefer to take it easier and enjoy communicating with other bikers, stopping at Coke stop to enjoy the local life and taking some pictures.
– The Cyclotourist group –> They enjoy the ride, take their times to reach the camp, usually try each and every coke stop and have quite some laugh along the road.
– The lonely bikers –> Super fit or less fit does not matter, they just like to be on their own, they don’t specially want to mingle with others during the ride.
As you can see it is a quite diverse group but all in all we all have a great fun biking and enjoying this adventure together. Oh and I let you guess in which group I clustered myself.
EFI or the TDA holly grail
I could not finish this short biking explanation without mentioning the holly grail of many TDA riders, the EFI! Nope this is not an acronym for ELECTRONIC FUEL INJECTION as you can see on many cars but an acronym for Every F..ing Inch.
And what is that ?
And EFI rider is a rider who will not use even once the support bus, meaning that he/she will ride 100% of the total distance of the tour. Is that important? Nope ! would that be nice to reach? Yep
Nevertheless being an EFI is a big part of luck as you need to 1: Stay fit during 4 months while going through a huge physical and mental stress 2: not having any technical/mechanical breakdown.
Therefore yes I would be happy to reach the EFI status but it is not an obsession, let us see what comes to me.
P.S: And the ones reaching the EFI status will get a small trophy at the end of the tour, is that not amazing 😉
And here we are, after 1698 km, 5262 hm and 58 hours and 35 minutes on the bike, the third section is over! And my body is still doing well, of course a few painful points are appearing but nothing critical so far, therefore I do feel quite lucky!
And last but not least there is a new gallery here
Fred
Pantea
5 Feb 2019very much impressed! Good luck Fred and Keep posting, its really fascinating to read your posts!
Fred
6 Feb 2019TX Pantea and I will definitely do my best to keep on the posts coming in! Greetings from Sudan
Britton Morrell
6 Feb 2019Have been vicariously enjoying your trip. Plan on doing this some year soon….
Fred
7 Feb 2019Hi Britton, thanks for your message and I can only recommend it. It is tough but really amazing…
Marc Schreiber
7 Feb 2019Hi Fred! Just to let you know I am reading all of your posts and I am amazed by your trip. I hope you can enjoy it to the verly last Inch. And keep those nice pictures coming! 🙂
Fred
7 Feb 2019Thanks for the message Marc, keeps me motivated to know that people read my posts and no worries as long as I get a connection, pictures will be coming on a regular basis😉