Day 1

Day 1 was a mix of good, bad, curious, challenging, fun, and certainly new experiences.  We started the day cycling out of Cairo.  We had a police escort through the city.  I have a picture of a couple of the police who did the escorting.  They were dressed in black with bullet proof vests, hooded ski masks and automatic weapons.  We went through a very poor, depressed section of town.  Trashed was piled everywhere, even along the highway.  I don't imagine it will be too long before there is another revolution given the scenario.

Once we were out of Cairo we cycled out into the Sahara along a newly built road.  It was smooth as a babies.... well you get the idea.  When you think of Sahara you think of hot desert baking in the sun.  Well at least I did.  But that was not the case.  It was overcast and cold.  The wind whipped through and the temp was mid 40's.  We did the first 60 miles with a quartering 20 to 22 mph headwind.  Yes, once again a cursed headwind. It followed me here from west Texas.  You just had to get as low as possible and slug it out.  Tough cycling.  But then the last 20 miles the wind swung around and gave us a side tailwind.  It was great!

Once into camp I got my first taste of camping setup.  The wind was blowing so hard that it was very difficult to try and lay the tent out.  The ground was as hard as a rock so the tent stakes just bent up as I hammered them in.  Eventually got the tent up using boulders.  It is supposed to go down to freezing tonight.  Brrrrrrrrr!

So as I said Day 1 was a mix of a everything but it is still great to be cycling Africa!!!