Idfu Temple
So although we slept in our tents again last night it was nice as we were by the hotel and had use of showers and toilets! Todays ride was 118 km. I thought I was running late but saw the other racer’s tents still up so knew I was OK. Had actually been up for quite a while as we had been woken by the call to prayer at about 5am as usual! It was still very cold in the morning and I really hadn’t wanted to get out of bed!!
We headed back out of Luxor – over the bridge and along the river – almost immediately the speed picked up and I knew it was going to be another fast day. Just what I didn’t want with my ankle and Achilles still hurting and swollen. I try to keep it still while racing an dthat does seem to be helping!
There was plenty to look at – good views as we travelled through lots of villages with loads of kids everywhere shouting greetings – so we are waving a lot!! Also loads of donkeys and carts carrying their various loads of hay etc. There were also lots of police checkpoints which are a bit of a pain as you have to zig zag through and sometimes get held up in the traffic!
Made it to lunch fine – great!! Falafels and fresh bread finally – often its been so hard it difficult to eat. But today’s lunch was really great!! We had stopped in a little village to eat with nowhere for the bathroom so I set off on my own hoping to find somewhere private up the road a bit! Everyone else quickly came steaming past and I had a bit of trouble trying to catch them up again. I eventually did but I was tired! Of course the group just got faster and faster as usual! We were going between 35 and 45 kph – in fact the average for the day was 32kph which included the stop for lunch – crazy fast!!
Suddenly we were at 103 km and I seemed to remember there were instructions to turn at this distance – we asked around but no one seemed too sure so we slowed down to check. Turns out we needed to turn at 110km but by now 4 of us had lost the group. So we rode in together which was rather nice – not having to worry about keeping up!! Anyway we finished not too badly and find ourselves in Aswan! It was still only about 10.30 am so we put our tents up – in what was a sand football pitch! It was really hot when we got here – the sun is strong – great for my solar panel (which I am so pleased with!!)
Then we went off to town for … yes you’ve guessed …. some food! We had a little walk around and I bought some sellotape (Scotch tape) - this is so I can tape the day’s directions to my handlebar so we don’t have to mess around like today!. Today was a bit odd with quite a few turns so this should help!
On the way back from town we bumped into Kendra and some of the others who said they were going to visit a temple – so we decided to join them – brilliant move!! Because this temple was incredible!! Very intact – with little missing! There was the outer pyramid and a massive inner courtyard – then the roofed section with lots of pillars holding it up – so an outer wall, inner wall, another inner wall and then the inner sanctuary. There were lots of rooms off to the sides and some steps leading to the top – I would have loved to have gone up there and looked out from the top of the temple but it was all gated off and entrance not allowed. Again the size of everything was so impressive! How did they get everything in? The carvings here were really deep but again with some empty spaces. Seems when they were building there was a succession of Kings over a short period of time and so they weren’t sure what to carve!
It was kind of difficult to fully understand without a guide (you have to pay for that of course) – all around the outside is a very high wall so we thought that one of the reasons it was so well preserved is that it was buried beneath the sands for so many years! It was so incredible! Once again a lot of the faces/part shad been chiseled out mainly because of changes in religious beliefs/rulers!
We took a horse and cart back to the campsite ready for our yoga session with Kendra. Its really good to do some organized stretching as I am pretty useless at doing it myself! She does it every day which is really nice of her! We had a good dinner and I was ready for bed – tomorrow we have a 116k ride to the next stop!. I am really going to try to be more organized tomorrow and be ready quicker in the morning!
I forgot to say – today when I put my tent up I couldn’t find my sleeping mat anywhere. Because we are still on a two bag system with access to our permanent bags only on rest days I was afraid it had been thrown in the truck with those bags after Luxor. So I moved every single permanent bag out of the truck – but with no luck! Still couldn’t find it – of course I eventually found it elsewhere underneath another bag! It was a bit of a pain but at least it gave my arms a workout!!
Hope I can get to sleep OK – it’s quite bright still and there is the background noise from the mosque – but not too bad at the moment!! I am sure that will be my wake up call in the morning!!
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