We’ve had lots of kids again today. Every few kilometers, a bunch of boys would run into the middle of the road as soon as they see me coming. I make every effort to wave, smile and greet them in Egyptian Arabic. That seems to work without fail, almost.
I was crossing through our last villages, just five kilometers from camp. Once again, a bunch of boys threateningly moved into the middle of the road as if to create a blockade, armed with sugar canes.
“Hello!” I shouted from afar. They didn’t move. “Izzayyak,” Egyptian Arabic for how are you, I added, and they smiled, yet kept pointing their sugar canes at me. “La, min faDlak,”—no, please—I smiled at them, and they moved aside.
“Well done,” I thought to myself, and was about to speed up again when three hard canes hit me with full force—two on my back, one on my calf. Now I know how it feels to be caned—it bloody hurts!
Then I recalled the accounts from prior riders that I’d read, and reminded myself that this was to happen sooner or later. At least they didn’t point the canes between my spokes, which would have ended a lot worse. Just like the stone throwing yesterday, this was yet another reminder to always watch out and never get too confident.
Stage 8: Idfu – Aswan (Egypt), 103km
Road & traffic condition:
Hectic traffic through Idfu, then a few villages here and there. Potholes and speed bumps as usual, also patches of sand in between that are scarily slippery if one doesn’t slow down.
Weather:
Sunny, perfect for riding—to me. Some of the guys feel that it’s getting too hot towards noon. As we women need to cover up, I had invested in lots of cooling materials. They work like a charm. I don’t feel hot at all while riding.
Culinary highlights:
Chicken for lunch, and Errol’s minced meet for dinner—I’m loving it!
Group highlights:
Our camp tonight is pretty cool, and—like yesterday—people are enjoying ice cold beer. We even have (cold) showers and proper toilets (without flush)—enough to keep us happy 🙂
Personal highlights:
The caning was quite an experience. On the positive side, my body & mind couldn’t be in any better state. I’ve zero pain and seem to be getting stronger by the day. Spirits still going high.
Winning our first stage (women’s race) was kind of fun—am competing against myself 🙂
Chilling with Wynand and Muli (our lunch truck driver and camp support) over a shisha gave a nice finish to an almost perfect day.
Are the male riders experiencing any of this? Certainly being female in a muslim country is attracting attention for you but I wonder if just the fact that you guys are foreigners, dressed weird, and riding bikes through their towns attracts excessive attention and responses.
It’s not just me cycling alone, not just women, not just foreigners, and not our dress code—our Egyptian riders, riders in groups, men, and riders dressed in baggy clothes get similar treatment. I might have been the only one caned today (tough luck), but others also got thrown at with stones and/or sugar canes. It’s simply naughty boys who have nothing better to do and have a bit of fun (in a weird way) with us. But from tomorrow it should be better again, we’ve been told. I don’t think any of us did anything to cause this response, we’ve all always been super friendly to all the locals on the way. And again, it’s only 0.001% of kids behaving that way. Most are super friendly and welcoming.