Hello to family and friends.
Apologies for not getting to this blog sooner but Chris and I have been busy riding our bikes from Cairo to Safaga - a coastal town on the shores of the Red Sea (South of Cairo). We have been riding the past four days. Day one was 110km ride - Cairo to a desert camp, day two was a bigger day-170km from a desert camp to a desert camp on the shores on the Red Sea, day three 140km along the shores of the Red Sea and another desert camp and today we rode with a raging tail wind...fantastic ...110km to Safaga, a coastal town on the Red Sea which is famous for deep sea diving. It is a beautiful place and we are right on the sandy shores of the Red Sea which incidently is a gorgeous shade of green and blue..not red as the name suggests. Tonight is a luxury for us as we get to stay in a hotel and have just had a hot shower. Small pleasures when you are on the road. Got off my bike this morning after a fast 110km due to the tail wind (2hrs.53mins for me, 2hrs.45mins for Chris) and booked straight in to the hotel for showers then next door for fresh calamari and fish straight out of the Red Sea. Perfect!!! I was pleased with my racing today as I managed to stay with the peleton for 2hrs 5 minutes before being dropped (hence the 8 minute difference from my time and the boys).
If you check out the official Tour d'Afrique site you will see the race results. I am proud to say that I am currently the Womens Tour Leader having won the last four stages of racing and have about a 4hour 15min lead over the next female. Chris suggested that I start racing the boys in the morning but I think I will just steadily build a bigger lead over the next week so that by the time we hit the Sudan (which apparently is diabolical as it is all sand dunes and not much else) I will have more time up my sleeve for any mishaps. Chris has also won a stage and so Team Alexander/Maund is staying healthy and doing well. He is currently sitting in second place (1 or 2 minutes behind the leader) so he is happy. Hills start in the moring so he is rearing to go as the sick puppy loves hills!!! We will be in Luxor in two days time and I will fill you in on more of what we have seen and done besides riding our bikes when we get there e.g. we have had a police escort every evening since Cairo. Anyway, we have two more desert camps until we get to a hotel in Luxor and I will get back to you then. The rest of our tour need to get on the internet and so it has to be short for now plus shops are calling.
Trust you are all well.
Love ya
Janet and Chris
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Thursday, January 4, 2007
Here we go!
Hi family and friends,
Well our adventure has started. On New Year's Eve while the rest of the world was celebrating Chris and I were sorting out our gear to make sure that it could fit into one cardboard bike box and one large North Face bag. Our friend Michelle came around and we celebrated New Years Eve - New York time at 9.00pm Pacific Coast time with a glass of champagne as we both knew that a) come 12 o'clock we would be either asleep or b) still frantically figuring out what was to go to Africa and what was to stay on the living room floor! No prizes for guessing who was sleeping and who was still up at midnight! Anyway, after getting the scales from our Studio, the decision was easy - weight dictated what went and what stayed! New Year's Day we headed up to LAX with the mandatory bike box and bag AND got it all past the TSA without losing anything. Miracle!!! The flight to Heathrow, London was uneventful and we arrived Tuesday 2nd to grey skies with the sun trying hard to show an appearance. It lasted all of an hour before the rain and wind set in. Ahhh!!!!! back in blighty!
After leaving our bike boxes at Terminal 4, in anticipation of our flight out of there on January 10th, we drove to Stansted Airport. Chris did well to fight the urge to close eyes and sleep as jetlag was showing it's ugly head all too quickly. Me? I was the princess in the passenger seat who got to sleep however it bit me in the ass at about 3.00am the next morning when I couldn't sleep. Not a pretty sight at breakfast, I can tell ya that! We rocked up to the AirBerlin counter Wednesday 3rd to find out the Trans Atlantic weight restrictions changed and were reduced once you started flying around Europe. It was going to cost us £80.00 to take all our gear which was crazy as we didn't need half of it, it being our Africa warm weather gear and we certainly were not going to be wearing it in wintery Paderborn, Germany. So, in typical Chris and Janet style we did the re pack right there in the middle of the airport floor..(this time Richard we were respectful and managed to not offend any other passengers)...left the bag at Stansted Airport for £12.00 and headed for Germany to see Chris's brother George and family.
We expected snow in Paderborn but got rain! George lives in a place called Bad Lippspringe a small town which is 30 minutes out of Paderborn. Bad is German for spa, Lipp is the name of the river that runs through the town and Springe is the type of water source which is a thermal spring. Wouldn't you know it...I fly to Germany and land in a spa town...don't you love that!!Chris met a guy on the plane who told him about a place in Bad Lippspringe that had a variety of traditional hot saunas and cold plunge pools which had to be sampled. As luck would have it, it's a five minute walk from George's house. No towels allowed, butt naked only!! So after dinner I stayed and sampled the wine while Chris went and did sauna research! The ratio of hotties to non-hotties was not good, Chris held his tongue regarding the evils of eating gluten and declined to offer strength and conditioning advice to all and sundry. All I can say is thank goodness his conversational German is nil BUT the saunas were superb. Tonight we are all going!!
This morning we ran through a forrest which borders George's house. It is rectangular in shape and approximately 10km long by 6km wide. It was amazing to run off road and to have a variety of trails to choose from, all with a definite 'Hansel and Gretel' feel to them. In the middle of the forrest I would not have been surprised to see an old house and the corresponding old lady outside it from the fairy tale. Instead the forrest was full of nordic walkers, people walking their dogs and others cycling to work. Today we went sight seeing and then had a two hour lunch. No alcohol just lots of food..ahh replete! Big bellies ready for tonights sauna!
I have to go as Grace the five year old needs to get on the computer plus Euro sport is showing Biathlon racing.
Hope you are all well. Love ya
Janet (and Chrisxxxxx)
Well our adventure has started. On New Year's Eve while the rest of the world was celebrating Chris and I were sorting out our gear to make sure that it could fit into one cardboard bike box and one large North Face bag. Our friend Michelle came around and we celebrated New Years Eve - New York time at 9.00pm Pacific Coast time with a glass of champagne as we both knew that a) come 12 o'clock we would be either asleep or b) still frantically figuring out what was to go to Africa and what was to stay on the living room floor! No prizes for guessing who was sleeping and who was still up at midnight! Anyway, after getting the scales from our Studio, the decision was easy - weight dictated what went and what stayed! New Year's Day we headed up to LAX with the mandatory bike box and bag AND got it all past the TSA without losing anything. Miracle!!! The flight to Heathrow, London was uneventful and we arrived Tuesday 2nd to grey skies with the sun trying hard to show an appearance. It lasted all of an hour before the rain and wind set in. Ahhh!!!!! back in blighty!
After leaving our bike boxes at Terminal 4, in anticipation of our flight out of there on January 10th, we drove to Stansted Airport. Chris did well to fight the urge to close eyes and sleep as jetlag was showing it's ugly head all too quickly. Me? I was the princess in the passenger seat who got to sleep however it bit me in the ass at about 3.00am the next morning when I couldn't sleep. Not a pretty sight at breakfast, I can tell ya that! We rocked up to the AirBerlin counter Wednesday 3rd to find out the Trans Atlantic weight restrictions changed and were reduced once you started flying around Europe. It was going to cost us £80.00 to take all our gear which was crazy as we didn't need half of it, it being our Africa warm weather gear and we certainly were not going to be wearing it in wintery Paderborn, Germany. So, in typical Chris and Janet style we did the re pack right there in the middle of the airport floor..(this time Richard we were respectful and managed to not offend any other passengers)...left the bag at Stansted Airport for £12.00 and headed for Germany to see Chris's brother George and family.
We expected snow in Paderborn but got rain! George lives in a place called Bad Lippspringe a small town which is 30 minutes out of Paderborn. Bad is German for spa, Lipp is the name of the river that runs through the town and Springe is the type of water source which is a thermal spring. Wouldn't you know it...I fly to Germany and land in a spa town...don't you love that!!Chris met a guy on the plane who told him about a place in Bad Lippspringe that had a variety of traditional hot saunas and cold plunge pools which had to be sampled. As luck would have it, it's a five minute walk from George's house. No towels allowed, butt naked only!! So after dinner I stayed and sampled the wine while Chris went and did sauna research! The ratio of hotties to non-hotties was not good, Chris held his tongue regarding the evils of eating gluten and declined to offer strength and conditioning advice to all and sundry. All I can say is thank goodness his conversational German is nil BUT the saunas were superb. Tonight we are all going!!
This morning we ran through a forrest which borders George's house. It is rectangular in shape and approximately 10km long by 6km wide. It was amazing to run off road and to have a variety of trails to choose from, all with a definite 'Hansel and Gretel' feel to them. In the middle of the forrest I would not have been surprised to see an old house and the corresponding old lady outside it from the fairy tale. Instead the forrest was full of nordic walkers, people walking their dogs and others cycling to work. Today we went sight seeing and then had a two hour lunch. No alcohol just lots of food..ahh replete! Big bellies ready for tonights sauna!
I have to go as Grace the five year old needs to get on the computer plus Euro sport is showing Biathlon racing.
Hope you are all well. Love ya
Janet (and Chrisxxxxx)
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