Last week I went on my first outing of 2008 with Beejo. Beejo is in great shape, but is suffering from a lack of expeditions due to his rider experiencing strange knee problems.

We set off with Mr S and within three minutes the argument-inducing complaints had begun: my knee hurts, the sun’s too hot, you go on ahead. Mr S was determined to ride the beginning with me. Ironically, it was the hardest part (due to knee not liking hills). Eventually, after the hills had finished, Mr S (read: Superfitcyclist) sped off in search of steeper gradients, while I looked for a bit of hill-circumnavigation.

The light was wonderful, the air was clean (well, clean-sih, kind of like central London in rush-hour, rather than Cairo’s norm) and I found a small valley that looked interesting. This had been the scene of a spectacular problem before, but I decided to be brave and venture in.

It’s a little difficult to fully imagine what the hills are like unless you’ve been on them, but basically they are compacted soft stones and sand. This means they are rather crumbly and with steep sides, one wrong foot placement can prove hazardous.

I spotted a path on the hillside and Beejo and I rode in. The narrow, rocky path proved too challenging (not for Beejo, he was doing rather well in fact) so I moved from mountain biking to mountain bike pushing to mountain bike carrying to pushing and back to carrying. All interspersed with a moderation of huffing and puffing.

Pushing and carrying continued with a bit of slipping and sliding for good measure. In the end, the steepness and crumbly sides won and Beejo had to be left waiting while I sprinted (well, it was at the beginning of January - resolutions and all that) to the summit.

This is the view from the summit of my dusty hill. The valley does flood when it rains - apparently, as there are clear traces of water in the sand - but I’ve never seen it. If you click on the picture you can just make out Moqattam (district of Cairo) in the background.

Click on the image to see details - it is large.