Riders Down

Today was hot hot hot. I think this afternoon the thermometer was close to 40 C. HOT. Luckily we only had 109 km to do, which I have now gotten down to under 4 hours which is nice. We are in Dongola Sudan (look at a map) it is right in the Nubian Desert of Northern Sudan. As we started our ride we had a bunch of people riding together. Riding in the front we got a little worried about the number of riders that had attached to our paceline. During a rider shift, one riders tires bumped another, taking five riders down hard at close to 30km an hour. YIKES. The sound of bikes crashing together and bikes and riders hitting the pavement sounded aweful. After some quick road rash triage, it was discovered the bikes and riders were bloody but okay. Thank goodness. A lesson learned for all in being way more careful riding together. The last few days of 150km followed by 150km followed by 109km are taking there toll, everyone is stoked for the day off in Dongola. It will be errands for most of us, for me changing out my second Schwalbe tire with a warranty defect so it doesn't send me to a day of riding in the truck, laundry dries fast when it is 40C out, and our shower, long saught after is a hose in the middle of the Dongola Zoo where we have set up camp. We felt a little like we were in a zoo as a group of about 10 men peered over the walls of the zoo as the "white women" shed their clothes down to their swimsuits and undies to shower under the hose. For most it was really roughing it, I loved it! Best shower in awhile. Lovely. Sudan and the Nubian desert have a special little place in my heart. Only 14 days in, two weeks. Cairo seems a million miles away at this point. We are all into a good schedule, Waking before 6am and Race start at 8am. Lunch by 10am and when we are lucky, into camp by 1pm or 2 at the latest. Keep posting comments and sending emails and comments...it really helps with motivation...and remember http://www.suncatchersproject.com/ . Please make a donation in honor of my ride. Thank you! Time for bed.

To Sudan by Ferry

If I could give anyone advice on a place to travel and feel the culture and step out of your comfort zone a little bit, the Sudanese Ferry (24 hours) from Aswan to Wadi Halfa would be it. This has been one of my most favorite parts of the trip so far. We had a convoy to the ferry terminal when we arrived at the ferry we had to walk our bikes through the xray and carry our bags. Obviously, I would get a flat tire at this point of confusion. I had a lot of helpers and this made it better than my flat on the road, at 98 km but the tire is still a struggle to change. I found the problem though, there was a tiny nail in the tire which I think has caused both of the flats I had. I went all year with no flats, only to have two within a week of the trip starting. Everything got sorted, we got our bikes on the ferry and then loaded up. All the riders and bikes had to be loaded on the ferry at 11am for a 6:30pm departure time. A funny concept to have a bunch of type a personalities who enjoy riding hundreds of kilometers a day, sit on a ferry that isn’t moving for 7 and a half hours!! The tour had reserved all the “first class” cabins on the ferry (22 cabins = 44 people) but we are a group of 74 with staff so they divided the rooms by age. I opted to avoid the “possible” bed bugs and cockroaches that are inevitable on ferries and I slept on the deck. Some people checked under their mattresses in their cabins on the boat and there were a lot of cockroaches so they slept in their tents (unset up) ontop of their mattresses. I was glad with my choice, although some people had some issues with locals trying to cuddle up with them on the deck. I enjoyed being mashed into a few square feet amongst the locals and refrigerators and the tonnes and tonnes of boxes that everyone carries aboard. It was amazing to see the sunrise from the deck and to hear the locals drumming into the wee hours of the night. Everyone slept together with tiny bits of room to jostle around when needed. It is kinda like the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry that you can set your tent up on the Solarium, however, you are mashed in with 200 other people and boxes and other things. Crazy fun adventure. The last few days have been pretty relaxed since Luxor with our distances very manageable Luxor-Idfu (116km) Idfu-Aswan (118km) then the convoy to the ferry 17km and today when we get off the ferry we only have to bike 5km to our camp in Wadi Halfa, Sudan. Then we only have three more riding days until our day off in Dongola, 150km followed by a second 150km and 119km. So far the 3km that I had to get picked up for because it was too dark is the only bit I haven’t rode. Frustrating I am doing so well and that happened on the second day, but I just keep moving on hopeing that I can achieve EFI- 3km. I would be happy with that. I am still trying to get a handle on getting enough calories. I am eating an average of four chocolate bars a day in addition to two power bars and four meals and still feel hungry all the time and feel my body wasting away. I think it will continue to be a problem so I just eat as much as I can get into me which is more than I have probably ever eaten in my lifetime.

It is 9:30am now and we are still on the ferry. Probably will not be into camp until much, much later. They will probably unload the ferry in the opposite order than loaded, which means that the bikes and riders will be the last off. We also know the Sudanese immigration is a bit of a gong show. We had to line up late last night as the immigration doctor walked up and down the row of passengers and pushed a thermometer in each of our ears to make sure we were not sick and then moved onto the next guy, same thermometer, not cleaned in between. It gave me the heeby jeebies a bit but I guess in the long run stuff like that will only make my immune system stronger.

10 days in (feels like a lot more). One country done. Challenging my body everyday. Many new friends. I love this trip.

Reflections on Eygpt

I have decided to write some of my reflections of each country that we travel through so I can remember later on. Eygpt is very advanced and thrives on tourism. This is both good for the average tourist and annoying as everyone tries to rip you off all the time. It was worse here than other places I have travelled, but I tried to not let it really affect my experience. Things I will remember about my time in Eygpt are the long paved roads through the sandy desert, seemingly few people except trucks and buses passing by, every single one of them honking and beeping every time they pass. The Red Sea Mountains were incredible, despite the 60km climb, Safaga and the Red Sea coast was worth the long bike ride there. The pyramids, The Valley of the Kings and Abu Simble were breathtaking, hard to really contemplate the amount of work that went into them. The friendly Eygptian people that often only know the word “Welcome” which I think is a pretty good word to know. I loved the horse carriages in Luxor and Aswan and the Turkish coffee that I would often drink along the way.

My confidence has been exponentially increased after riding Eygpt, putting my fears at bay. Most importantly realizing that in fact everything I have done in my life up until this point has prepared me for this trip. The years of camping, discomfort, travel, the ability to be flexible and challenge myself everyday have proven already in the last ten days to be pivotal points to help me through this. My body has been exceptional, injury free and SADDLE SORE free! The unknown ahead excites me and I can hardly believe than only ten days have gone by. The group has bonded over long days in the saddle, early mornings, and learning the ins and outs of packing day in and day out and finding a groove that will last 120 days.

For me, arriving in camp to a hot drink and soup made for me, and no one but myself to set up and get sorted out has been a refreshing change after years of guiding. The day to day is like clockwork for me, and I sit in wonder of how some are coping having only set up a tent for their first time on this trip! Our ability to stay connected in some of the most remote parts of the world still amazes me and makes me feel like the world only continues to get smaller and smaller.

Egypt is now a memory with Sudan next on the list.

Aswan Egypt

Aswan is in the book of “1000 places to see before you die” and it clearly is a place to see. It was even more impressive after days and days of biking through the dry, sandy (not much to see) desert. Arriving in Aswan is a small piece of heaven in a very arid landscape. The Nile is beautiful here and the Feluccas boats are in excess. It was a very good end to our time in Egypt.



We had some time to buy groceries and get our final bags packed for our trip on the 24 hour ferry down Lake Nasser into Sudan. A couple of us decided to go to the world famous “Movenpick” hotel on Elephantine Island for dinner. For $30 us we had probably the most amazing meal I have ever eaten in my life. The only comparison being the Banff Springs Hotel brunch. We had a little boat ride back to the other side and went back to our tents at the Football stadium. Not really a day off as we biked 118km in the morning and had a police escort through the town. But it is interesting how the days that are under 130km feel like short riding days now. We are all getting stronger. Getting to know each other better and generally falling into a routine, that I feel like I could keep doing long after the trip is over. I feel stronger than ever and everyday just so lucky to know where I am and what I am doing.



We had to cross the Aswan Dam to get to the Sudanese Ferry. This is somewhat similar to the Hoover dam except access is extremely limited and generally bikes are NEVER allowed to cross this landmark. Since there are so many of us, they got special permission for us to be able to cross on our bikes. Such a cool experience. Pictures are not allowed so everyone will only remember that crossing in our minds, 70 riders filled up the road across almost the entire dam.

Luxor

Today we arrived in Luxor. Yesterday was another very difficult day. We had a 60km climb up the Red Sea Mountain pass with strong headwinds… the hill just seemed to keep going and going. I rode with a couple of the Eygptian racers for awhile which was really great and we discovered one of them and myself do the same work with youth at risk. At 98km got my first flat tire, and if you know my tires, this was epic. Luckily I had linked up with another rider and he stayed and helped out. I sliced my finger, was bleeding all over the tire and my bike blew down into the sand. It did not make for a good experience. I rode the last 40km with my tire not seated properly tenderly riding as to not have another flat. 138km felt terrible, was the 5^th last rider into camp, with 13 riders on the truck. So it felt good to still be riding with so many people having quit but it also made for a lonely road. Paul the tour director said this year has been a very difficult tour so far due to the fact that the winds have been atrocious. This last six days has been very telling of how difficult this trip is really going to be. I am great so far, have challenged myself as much as I possibly could everyday however there are a lot of people with injuries already. I have a bit of GI stuff going on already and a lot of mosquito bites, but other than that I feel very good. I am happy with how my body is treating me.

On the way into Luxor along in the Nile valley, the green trees and flowers were refreshing after miles and miles of desert sand. The children gave me my first taste of some of the challenges that we will come across along the way .  I was the last rider today, riding alone because I had issues with my bike. The kids along the way had already seen a tonne of bikers come by, they pelted me with rocks, at one point a group of young teenage boys rode up and were veering into me and trying to steal stuff off of my bike. One kid whipped me with a stick as I came by and so many kids were running at me. I started to veer into traffic more as I approached groups of kids, because I was more fearful of the kids than the vehicles. Oh Ethiopia will be very very interesting.

Take care, more adventures to come, amazing to think we have almost finished one country of 10… I will miss Eygpt. Sudan will have its own challenges, I am sure.

The Red Sea (Safaga)

We got a half day off today, that is if you could ride the 90km quickly before the town and then take advantage of the day. I rode fast, I wasn’t feeling great this morning but quickly got into a good pace, reached the lunch truck by 9:30 am and was starving. I ate three sandwiches and as I rode away from the lunch stop I ate a powerbar. I feel hungry all the time and the more riding we do, I think it will get worse. I think all said and done I ate five meals today…. And I think I am still dropping weight. My bum was glad for a half day off, and it seems to already be on the mend. Hopefully it is getting good and calloused at this point. This is half the battle on bike trips especially 96 days of riding through intense conditions. We heard that the rainstorm we had the other night (read Eygpt update) was the first rain that that part of the desert had had in four years!!! Go figure, we were there for it, and let me tell you, I have never been in rain coming down that hard before. Pretty amazing! Some of the roads were washed out as a result… which made for some negotiating and we got stopped at a police stop. Today we arrived in Safaga, a beautiful little town on the Red Sea, wish I had more time here to do some diving. The two hotels filled up fast with riders eager to stop “Roughing it” after our four nights in tents. It made me chuckle to see everyone so excited to shower, and have rooms. I of course am “roughing it” in my tent on the beach along side the red sea, amazing camping, no way would I be in a room! Tomorrow we have another long day, 138 km up and over the Red Sea Mountains, towards the Nile. We will then begin to follow the Nile south, to Luxor.
Be sure to follow the Tour D’Afrique blog (link on this page) the communications directors are doing an amazing job keeping it updated on our journey and it will probably get updated more than I am able to keep updating my blog. Feel free to send comments and emails, it is nice to hear from everyone! I am truly loving this trip so far. What an amazing opportunity. There are some amazing riders here, most much much faster than me, but I push myself to my limit everyday and try my best. Today, the internet proved more important than my bike time, so we stopped at an internet café for an hour and that got logged into my race results for the day.J

Eygpt Update

Day Three of riding, finally getting a chance to sit down in the windy windy desert to type an update. The last few days have been a whirlwind. Still hard to believe at times I am riding my bike across Africa. The magnitude of the trip and difficulty of this lifestyle are starting to wear on people, but people are trying to stay in high spirits. The rides to start with have been really long, considering most of us are from cold climates and the general consensus is that a lot of people haven’t been on their bikes a whole lot in the last little bit.

Our ride distances for this first section are : Day 1- 134km Day 2- 168km Day 3- 140km Day 4- 90 km Day 5- 139km Day 6- 95km… Then our first rest day in Luxor.

Yesterday really tested everyone, and I unfortunatly lost my EFI status on Day 2…. The distance was very easily accomplished had the weather worked with us a bit. From early on in the day we got terrible, terrible headwinds coming off the Red Sea. They continued up until our lunch stop at 71km, where people were pretty tired. The afternoon proved to be the most difficult riding in my life up until this point, with winds upwards of 40km/hr at points. I wasn’t quite fast enough to join some of the pelotons so I found myself biking alone a long ways until finally met up with Steve (South African) and Sam (American) and we started to help each other out. It was a long long way to the “Refresh stop” where we were all out of water. That rest stop (a jug and Mohammed sitting on the side of the highway was like an oasis in the stark Eygptian desert)… The next 25 km (for me) and 28 km for Sam and Steve turned out to be very very long. At about 155km I started to get really tired, as this happened, my bike control got worse and worse, until I veered a little in the sand and took an epic wipe out, going down hard and fast almost taking Sam out with me. I hit my head and elbow really hard, but had a lot of adrenaline no time to examine the injuries, we knew we had to pick up the pace or we would miss the 5:30 (dark) cut off for the day. At this point my body hurt bad and I could think of nothing more than getting off my bike. At 5:45 we saw the van coming down the highway on the other side, we decided if we booked it, we might make it, it was everyone for themselves at this point. At 5:55 with 3km left to camp the van caught up to me and I was told to get in. You can imagine this was not a pleasant ride for the riders that had been picked up a ways back as I was very upset, knowing that I could have easily made it the last 3km to camp. We reached Sam with 1 km left and he was told if he went fast he could ride, by this point Steve had already made it. A storm blew in quickly afterwards and camp was overwhelmed with wind and torrential downpouring rain.  About 20 minutes later I heard Paul (tour director) say that the final riders were just riding in!!! I was so upset, people that were 20 minutes behind me were able to ride in, and I lost EFI for 3km. It was a bad day.

Today was much much better with mainly tailwinds and only a portion of the ways headwinds. People’s knees and bums are suffering at this point. Saddle sores are really not fun. Mine are definitely not as bad as some but I feel like the next few days will be very painful until I get used to this.

Egypt has been amazing so far with miles and miles of desert and long open (paved!) roads… Our 38km convoy out of Cairo was crazy, organized chaos, which I never would have attempted without a police escort. It is crazy to think of how much time and riding are left on this trip. There are so many riders on this trip I don’t even know everyone’s names yet. As in all groups, little cliques have formed and people kinda stay with the people they know. Fair enough. I am just so happy that someone else makes me a hot drink and it is ready when I get into camp!

Arrived Safely in Cairo

No luggage, but I am safely in Cairo with my bike...Thought about the hours and hours of weighing my luggage and trying to get the most important things, only to arrive with nothing... I can only laugh at this point and try to think about the things I can trade for space in my empty locker...:( I guess it would make for a very very interesting journey to Capetown, me and my bike, with no bike shorts.. Ha Ha Ha... And so the adventure begins... :(

A couple of the other guys had their bikes fall off the top of the taxi roof rack on the highway so I guess everything is relative...

CBC Radio Interview

If you missed the CBC Radio Interview the other day, here is the link.

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%253A%252F%252Fpodcast.cbc.ca%252Fmp3%252Fbcontheisland_20100107_25425.mp3&h=5e80b54b9d3fe55e60257a42f9e6b152&ref=mf