A scouting trip

Mary and the girls have been training the horses all week for a big trip: a ride from the stables to the Dahshur pyramids through the desert, and back through the fields, the agricultural strip along the Nile, with a total length of 50 km. The return is through a maze of paths and tracks along fields with vegetables, small villages and many canals. Sayed, the stable owner, has claimed that he knows the way, but experiences in the past have put lot's of doubt on his sense of direction. Therefore we decided to scout this ourselves. The route was planned on Google Earth by Mary, edited by Piet and transferred to his GPS-based bike computer. We loaded our 4 bikes in the car, and set out to Dahshur, where we re-assembled them, and started off. The only glitch on the way was a flat tyre by Dorien, but luckily

it happened in front of a village bike repair shop (did he throw the nails on the path?), and we were off again in 5 minutes. After two hours of cycling we reached Sayed's stable, finding the trails exactly as planned. We had some lunch and Piet was released from his leash, and he sped back to Dahshur to pick up the car. Tomorrow is the big day, at least the route is set!

Paula cycling between the fields

Crossing the railway between Dahshur and Saqqara