Cycling Tour d'Afrique 2019: 19/01/20, stage 4, El Gouna to Safaga

So last night we camped for the first time and now I actually seriously consider to take a hotel at each opportunity I get. It’s been a few weeks since I camped and the thin air mattress and especially the sleeping bag are just horrible. Someone, after all these years, should really explain to me how I can properly turn around in my sleep without getting entangled in my sleeping bag... I got all this supposedly great gear but I just don’t know how to use it. And my morning routine is just horrible. I kept on crawling in and out the tent to get stuff or to put stuff away and it took me about 15 minutes to get my 89 liter duffle bag closed again. One would say that 89 liters is quite an amount of volume, but not for me, it isn’t. When we arrive in Luxor I get access to my permanent bag (which is only half full) and I will but the majority of my clothes from the daily bag into the permanent bag. I thought I was organised :-)

So I started riding relatively late today (0700?) and we started with a cross wind / head wind, which was quite annoying. Next to this the road went gradually up, which was even more annoying (I had a hard time waking up this morning). After that followed a long descend, followed by another gradual ascent, followed by another descend into lunch. By the time we started the last descend the wind had turned into our backs again. The wind in combination with the gradual descending roads led to some fast riding. I climbed into my aerobars and hit 60km/h on a nice straight road!

After lunch it was only another 10k into camp which today is in a town called Safaga, where we camp on the beach of a hotel. I didn’t get a room, but didn’t set up my tent either. I will sleep on one of beach beds instead.

After washing up I had some food and then had a look around town together with Baldr. The town has a bit of a sad appearance, with a number of abbandoned hotels and resorts. We waved at some kids, bought some drinks at a local shop and had a look inside one of the small mosques. After that we returned and spend the rest of the afternoon sleeping and lazing around. Not much else to do, which is kind of nice! Better enjoy the facilities here... tomorrow we camp at a police checkpoint in the middle of the desert :-/