Oasis

Cycling Through Time!!

100 Km, 3 1/2 hours, and back hundreds of years. That's what this Friday's ride felt like. I belong to the Cairo Cycling Club and we meet every Friday morning for rides ranging between 80 and 120 Km's and sometimes more. Between 6 and 10 times per year the club tries to do a feature 'ride'. This past weekend we did the Nile Delta ride and I must tell you it was a fantastic ride. I can't think of many places where you actually feel like you are riding back in time. Sounds like a cliche, but 10 km's in to the ride we were riding through agricultural areas where seeding and harvesting is done by hand. Dishes and clothes are washed by walking down to the canal and wading knee deep in the water to get everything washed. Cooking is done often over open cook fires. Produce and meat are bought fresh because there is no refrigaration.

The ride started with a 40 minute drive to the North end of Cairo. We left our vehicles at a busy outdoor market where, fortunately, things were still pretty quiet this time of day. Needless to say a large group of people in bright colors and spandex attracted more than a little attention.

We moved North out of Cairo in to the Delta. The first half of the ride took us through many small agricultural villages and travelled along some of the small canals used for irragation. Traffic was light and allowed for some great sightseeing. It is always nice when living in Cairo to get an opportunity to ride through the green areas. A highlight on this stretch was 'Charcoal Canyon'. A stretch of highway with wood piled up along the side. This wood is used to make charcoal. It doesn't seem like that big a deal, but we didn't even know firewood existed in Cairo.

At the Northernmost part of our trip we crossed a bridge over one of the branches of the Nile. From here we began winding our way back to the start point on an elevated road along the Nile. The road was narrow and wound it's way through many small villages. The highlight of the trip was definately the crowds we would draw at all of our regroup points. Many people coming out and wanting to be in our pictures or talk to us, or just check out what we were up to.

The people here are amazing. They live a very simple life, but don't seem to want for anything and are very friendly. You truly get a feel that they would give you all they owned if you asked for it.

I am attaching a few more pictures of the trip. If you are interested in learning more about the Cairo Cycling Club and our activies, check out our website at: http://www.cairocyclists.com/