The shrill screams of children and a busy road bring us to Luxor. From the doorways of mud huts across a canal, children gather to shriek Hellos and How are you?s to us. Some of the closer ones stand with stalks of sugarcane, ready to insert through our spokes; however, most just wave and hope we return the gesture.
Behind the children are fields of sugarcane, and further behind, a red streaked plateau. A line of palm trees buffer the fields from one another with the odd palm lost amid the crops. The branches of the lone palm seem to burst from the trunk like a firework frozen during its most spectacular moment. The palms make the landscape look primordial.
During a peaceful part of the ride, a caravan of tour buses shattered the silence and tore past us in speeds in excess of 150kph. This is in response to terrorist attacks on tourists in 1998 and again in 2002. The coach’s drawn curtains meant that eyes were likely closed or focused on television screens. What a way to experience Egypt, I thought to myself. Dodge manure, slip past donkey cart, pedal harder, avoid smiling child, smile and wave back, sip some water, switch gear, hop speed bump, stand to stretch legs; my mind and body are fully engaged. I smile knowing that my seat is the best in the house.
Pictures are posted:
http://cofc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2106450&l=a302c&id=21304754
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