First of all, two things I forgot to mention last night:
1. I hit 1000km! 1004 to be exact. After 8 days of riding and one rest day in there. That’s half my outside mileage last year.
2. Here’s the Strava links for the past 4 days too: 1, 2, 3, 4. And the coolest thing yet: A strava map of the whole route so far. MAP. I’ll try and keep this updated!
Now on to the pyramids! Very cool! The Pyramids of Meroe are the ancient burial grounds of the Meroe Royals, the Royal city itself was across the highway and much less impressive. All the Pyramids are pretty much destroyed at the top thanks to conquering Turks back in the day thinking the burial chamber would be at the top like it is in Egyptian Pyramids. Anyways, it’s in the bottom, in a layer underground.. So! They destroyed them for nothing. Apparently another Italian dude destroyed a whole Pyramid to eventually find the treasures in the bottom parts.
Pictures speak louder than words, and you can read more than I know probably on the Wikipedia page about the Pyramids of Meroe, but it was a nice trip, either way. Enjoy the pics. Bonus Jennilea-camera pics at the end! 😀
Welcome to the Pyramids! Antiquities, I like that word!Note that all the Pyramids are running around topless.Christian, Young David (yeah, that’s 3 for you guys counting at home), Jennilea, Birgit, Catharine, Sandy, Anne, and Phil. Someone hiding in the background too.Young David is raising money for Conservation International.Piers and our local rider, Sediq.Ancient Graffiti! Well, ok, not so ancient. But possibly old if it’s legit.It’s pretty cool how close you can get to things here! This would apparently never happen in Egypt. We’re inside the Pyramids checking out the carvings.Large pictorial, perhaps of the person buried here!Look at all these little cross stitch things… Intricate! And amazing to survive til now.Kam waves hello!Some heroes on camels racing in! No, wait, they just want to charge us money to ride camels. Almost did it anyways, but no thanks for a bumpy ride on my rest day!The newer NorthPyramids, but the SouthPyramids were pretty much the same.OK, across the street to the Royal City of Meroe!Michael being his hilarious self.Almost all of us that came on the tour! A few stayed at camp for various reasons and illnesses.
Phil put on his sunscreen at precisely the wrong moment, the wind and sand picked up immediately. Nice look!The city is a bit more impressive from up top. But it’s still very ruiny.The baths of Meroe! My kind of place. A bit dry at the moment, though.The control center of our tour bus. Very complex, but since he wasn’t around and it was 39 degrees in the bus, I sat there for a minute and figured out the AC switch. Success!
Jennilea Camera bonus from the other day:
Jennilea jump! Nile in the background! Weee!Me jumping! 😀Running down the sand slope!She got a nicer Pyramid pic from the top too!
One thought on “Another update from Atbara, and Rest Day at Pyramids of Meroe”
Thanks Scott for the blog posts. I bet you have some followers here in Australia – as David (… haha … the one with the small tyres) is too fast for updates … enjoy the trip …
Thanks Scott for the blog posts. I bet you have some followers here in Australia – as David (… haha … the one with the small tyres) is too fast for updates … enjoy the trip …