Unrecoverable Exhaustion Meets the Last Offroad Dirt Section: Welcome to the Namib Desert

The rest day seemed to come and go this time and left me wondering, “When do we get to rest?”… We have to deal with the final offroad dirt section. For the road riders this is daunting at this stage in the game, the mountain bikers may be looking forward to it, however they are also tired. Day one of the offroad proved to not be that difficult, but long and very very hilly. I arrived to camp after 8 hours very tired and my legs were very sore. Day two ended in tears I hate to say, as headwinds and downpours just finally broke my spirit. How I was going to get up and ride another day before the rest day was unknown to me. I am lucky that I have made some very very good friends on this trip. People helped me with setting up my tent, cleaning my bike and trying to rejuvenate my spirit all at once. Thank god for that, because it help bring my day today, “from tears to beers” as my friend Jenn rode all day with me despite her excellent placement in the race and the fact that she lost hours. We had a bit of a tailwind today and I actually got to Sousseveli before noon which gave me a day and a half of rest day instead of only the one day which is what usually happens.

We now are on the Home Stretch. It is unbelievable when I think that in a little under two weeks I will have biked myself from Cairo to Capetown. We have 5 days on dirt (with really long days) and 6 days on pavement into Capetown where my mom and sister will be waiting at the finish line. My body is ready to be done, but I am not sure how the rest of me feels. I am really going to miss these new friends and this amazing adventure that I have been so privileged to get to come on.

Sousseveli is in the Namib desert, literally in the middle of nowhere. It has unbelievable scenery and the kind of sanddunes that you imagine when you think “sanddunes…” It will be great to see