C 2 C- Cairo To Capetown 2010

Reflecting On Africa

2010-05-19T13:36:00.000-07:00

I remember back to December 2008 when I first saw the Tour D’Afrique website. I was sitting in front of my computer contemplating doing something big for myself…You know maybe an ironman, maybe a vacation to a long lost dive site, maybe a volunteer job somewhere. When I came across the website after several random google searches, I knew I had found it. I immediately pulled out my credit card and paid the 100 Euro fee to save a spot. I thought to myself that if I just paid the deposit it would be enough of an incentive to do the trip without further ado. Biking across Africa seems to be a “do-able” challenge when you are warm and sitting on your couch 16000km away…The problem is, Africa is big, really really big. When I told my friends and family of the plan, they fully knew I was going to undertake this, as I rarely say I am going to do something that I don’t follow up on. Everyone was supportive but thought this was a crazy undertaking. I am not so sure exactly when I decided also that it was indeed a crazy undertaking. Maybe it was in Cairo when I heard the distances for the first week. Maybe it was on day two at 165km when the truck picked me up in the dark and I couldn’t make the last 3 kilometers because of the headwinds… Maybe it was in Dinder with the corrugation or when the kids were throwing rocks at me for the hundredth time in Ethiopia… or during the 22km climb out of the Blue Nile Gorge…or on the lava rocks in Northern Kenya or the aweful dirt roads in Tanzania or during the hail storm in Botswana. I don’t know exactly when it was, but there was a point I realized biking across Africa was not as easy as I had thought it would be.

Reflecting on the trip is difficult. Four months is a long time to remember. Not only is it long, we have been through a lot, on a personal level, as a group and as an expedition. We crossed through 10 countries, each one being so incredibly different and unique that each country felt like a trip in itself. We changed money and languages and terrain so often that each day felt fresh and exotic and new despite the fact that our routine was so ingrained in us. We would wake up and pedal and pedal and eat and pedal and sleep and then wake up and do it all again. Each day a new distance, new coke stops and new vistas. The constants of this trip for me were the familiar faces that I saw each day on the road, at lunch and at camp and the amazing friends that helped me get through each day no matter how long it was or how hard it was. The days I will never forget are the ones that seemed the hardest at the time, biking out of the blue nile gorge with Mark and Georgie, riding through the headwinds with Sam and Steve on day 2, having Dave make me a cheese sandwich as I changed a flat tire at 90km into Dinder at 5pm, my 11 hour day through Tanzania with Captain Erin, The non race day that my racer friends Rod and Juliana rode with me and days and days that Dan and Jenn painfully rode my speed and supported me even though they could have been in camp with their feet up.

Africa has changed each and everyone of us on this trip whether we wanted the change or not. We have seen and felt things we may or may not have been prepared for, we have pushed ourselves harder than we may have wanted to but at the end of the day we are coming back to our lives a little bit more knowledgeable and a little bit stronger for what we have experienced. The simplicity of this life we have lived for four months is refreshing and helps us to see we can live with so little and still have happiness.

This has been the hardest blog that I have written because I am sad it is over. My body is certainly glad it is over but this trip has changed my life in so many ways. I think that Dave Arman wrapped up the trip the best in his blog for the TDA, entitled “Looking Back” so I will copy and paste that blog post here, because no one can articulate it better than him!

Thank you Africa, for all you have taught me about myself. Thank you to the communities and villages that opened us with welcome arms. Thank you to the many people who stood along side the rode to cheer on strangers as we biked through your home towns. Thank you to my countless friends and family that have supported me along the way with emails and letters and packing help and drives to the airport and picking up bikes and spares. Thanks to my mom and sister who flew to Capetown to see me cross the finish line of this epic journey. Thank you to the other TDA riders with special thanks to those that rode with me and supported me through the tough times, as I passed over the laugh/cry barrier, as I struggled over the lava rocks and dirt and up and down the hills of Ethiopia and biked more than I ever dreamt was possible. Thank you to those who rode in the rain and wind with me and thank you to all the adventurers who shared this journey with me. Thank you to the staff of TDA and Indaba for the food and support and hard work and laughs.

And the last thank you is to my body for holding up despite the constant abuse and struggle I put you through- we did it, body soul and mind, we biked across Africa!

Looking Back
How do you describe the best/worst/most intense 4 months of your life? I’ve been asked to write up a little thing about the Tour D’Afrique, a four month-long bike ride from the top of Africa to the bottom. Ever since I was a boy I’ve dreamed of going to Egypt. Pictures of pyramids and mummies and The Sphinx captured my imagination. Now not only was I going, I was going to begin a huge journey there. On a chilly January morning, myself and about 60 other riders were taking off on the adventure of a lifetime. Bicycling from Cairo to Cape Town seemed like a good idea at the time. How hard can it be to ride a bike down a continent? Why do I do things like this?

Earlier today another rider and I were discussing the fact that we only have 747 more kilometres to go. This used to seem like a pretty big number to me. Now I’m not even remotely fazed by it. It almost seems too easy; is there a catch somewhere? There always is. We’ve ridden over every type of terrain imaginable: sand, loosely packed gravel, corrugated dirt roads, lava rocks, and occasionally even paved roads in good repair. We’ve ridden on bright sunny days, horrendous thunderstorms, bitter cold mornings, and I even got hailed on once (hail? Aren’t I in friggin’ Africa?). We’ve ridden through the deserts of Sudan where there wasn’t another soul on the road (I was listening to my ipod one day and forgot about the folks on the lunch truck that drove by; they had a good laugh at my expense when they caught me dancing whilst riding). We’ve ridden through Ethiopia where each and every child in every single village expects you to smile and wave at them (they’ll pelt you with rocks whether you wave or not). We’ve ridden past the pyramids of Egypt, the waterfalls in Malawi (life doesn’t get much better than getting off the bike and soaking yourself under a waterfall on a blisteringly hot day), and the barren wasteland that seems to compose most of Botswana. We’ve seen elephants, zebra, giraffe, springbok, and an entire barrel full of monkeys. We’ve met starving children in Zambia (I tried to give them my broccoli... Mom, they didn’t want it either). We’ve gotten rides in tuk tuks, cabs, backs of pickup trucks, matatus, the odd dump truck, and a few guys even rode camels for a bit. We bungee jumped from Victoria Falls (well I didn’t, I’m far too much of a coward to do something like that), climbed Kilimanjaro, visited monasteries in Ethiopia, went swimming in the Nile (never try to skip a stone when you’re wearing your keys around your wrist; swimming isn’t always just for fun) . We went on safari at the Ngorogoro Crater, and stayed in tiny villages where everyone who lived there was at least distantly related. We went from huge cities where no one noticed us, to small towns where all the people would come out and watch us stop and drink Fanta, and rode through the suburbs of Nairobi which look identical to suburbs everywhere. We’ve suffered from diarrhea, saddle sores, broken bones, back pain, leg cramps, and daily exhaustion. We’ve complained about poor service in restaurants, long days, each other, people watching your every move, each other, overly inquisitive children, mobs of unruly boys, and each other. Yet each day we’re up and ready to start again. Every day on this trip has brought some new adventure, which is kind of amazing since every day is fairly similar: wake up far too early, eat breakfast, ride your bike a ridiculously long distance, eat lunch, ride even further, eat dinner, then go to bed.

The one thing that has made this trip truly unforgettable is the people, individuals from 20 or so countries with nothing in common other than being idiotic enough to sign up for a trip like this. It sounds like the tag line to a bad reality show. People that you normally wouldn’t acknowledge if you passed them on the street suddenly become you’re best friend. I now know more about many people on this trip than their own relatives do. When you have a 6 hour day ahead of you, with nothing to occupy your time other than pedal and repeat, you start talking to folks quite a bit. You discover their dreams and aspirations. You discuss what really matters, because there is no TV. You also discuss your favourite episode of MASH and why Dick Sergent was better than Dick York. These are people and conversations that will stick with you for life. However, these same people wouldn’t recognize you if you were to get a different shirt, because they only know you in the three you wear every day.

I’ve been asked if I’d do this trip again, the answer never varies, “Not in a million years!” However would I recommend this trip to others, without a moment’s hesitation. This trip will make you appreciate what you have at home. It’ll also make you realize what your life has been lacking. It will make you weep with both joy and sorrow (occasionally at the same time). You will feel more alive than you’ve ever felt, often when wishing you were dead. You will be ecstatic to crawl into your tent every night and eating oatmeal in the morning will be the best thing you’ve ever tasted. You will never want to go home, but miss it with all your heart. I could never do this again, but in my head, and for the rest of my life I will be doing it daily.

-- Dave Arman

South Africa Gives us the Final Test

2010-05-16T15:38:00.000-07:00

I’m not sure what I expected as I crossed the border from Namibia into South Africa but whatever I was thinking I was very wrong. Maybe I thought there would be a 3% downhill grade with tailwinds to Capetown, or maybe a conveyor belt that you get on and put your bike on too and it would magically transport you to Capetown. What South Africa really is to a tired biker is a lot (A LOT) of uphill climbing. We have been averaging 1000 meters up per day, with some descents too, but a whole lot of uphills. My legs are tired, my mind is tired and I feel over the whole biking 100+++kilometers per day thing. I think four months of this lifestyle could quite possibly be my breaking point, but finally Capetown appears like a long lost friend on the road signs. The first time we saw it “Capetown 611km”, it required a double take, as if the place we have been biking towards for the last four months actually exists? Amazing. Definitely picture worthy. Hilarious though that even at this point, so close to the final destination the 611km, is truly just a joke to us, as we have a few more kilometers to go as we have to detour off of the main highway onto more (yes you guessed it-DIRT roads) because bikers are not allowed on this next busy stretch of highway. In two riding days we will be ready to begin the final convoy into the finish line in Capetown.

There is a mix of anxiety and excitement and exhaustion amongst the riders and a lot of nervousness about returning to regular, real life after this, whatever “real” life is anyways. I am looking forward to seeing my mom and sister at the finish line.

Newest CBC Radio Interview

2010-05-09T06:41:00.000-07:00

Link to second radio interview podcast.

Read the Globe and Mail article about the trip and my glowing description by the reporter:

2010-05-09T06:37:00.000-07:00

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/travel/across-africa-by-bike/article1552488/

Entering the Home Stretch

2010-05-09T06:34:00.000-07:00

It has been a tough week. Actually a tough country, Namibia has challenged me mentally and physically in the final days of the tour. Maybe you could say that Namibia was my “lowest low” (thank goodness I still had some “travelling beans” (Thanks Chris Hatton) to get me through. Not that the dirt was “THAT” hard, but with the combination of the weather, rain, wind, sun and long long days. There were definitely some tears shed. The landscapes were mind-blowing and the country was awe-inspiring however some days the fatigue in my legs and the exhaustion of knowing that camp was still another 9 hours of riding away made the views less impressive. We rode near to the Fish River Canyon (the second largest dry canyon in the world next to the Grand Canyon) and then some riders rode their bikes, I opted for a ride in the jeep to the edge. It was amazing.

The good news about reaching the "lowest low" already is that everything can only get better from there. Therefore I am assured the "highest high" is just around the corner in Capetown on May 15...Yesterday I tried to change my mindset, which was easy to do with the morning vista of riders riding over the crest of a hill with the sunset coming up behind them. The day was our last “mando day” and for good reason with 128km of dirt followed by 46km of pavement against a horrendous headwind. My legs felt tired from the beginning of the day, which is a common thing these days. However I thought that once we got off our final off road stretch things would get easier…Nope. The headwind started and it was late in the afternoon and I could feel the hot Namibian desert sun burning the back of my calf and my lips. I arrived at the junction with the gas station and fast food place (8km from camp…) and a friend had rode back here to wait for me. We had a quick burger and fries and lots of coke and rode the final stretch. Even though it was a very tough day and I rolled into camp as “the slowest rider that rides” as the sun went down minutes later I felt very privileged… Privileged that I was riding my bike from sunrise to sunset, privileged that I had just got the opportunity to see Africa in a way that not many people do and privileged that I could take enough time off of work to get to do these things.

I am anxious and nervous for the end but at the same time ready for the next life adventure and whatever that holds. We still have six riding days into Capetown with some difficult days due to the prevailing headwinds from the coast. Energy levels around camp are low although spirits are high with the end approaching. Winter has definitely made an appearance this last week as long pants, and fingered gloves have again come out of riders bags for the first time since Egypt and Sudan. It no longer feels so hot and humid like Africa and I am looking forward to going back to the summer in Canada. Unlucky for the people from the Southern Hemisphere who have to go back to winter… We are hoping for nice weather in Capetown as then there will be a lot of spectators there to see the finish line.

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

2010-05-03T09:13:00.001-07:00

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

Last day of Riding into “the Windhoek Rest Day”

2010-05-03T09:07:00.000-07:00

Today was one final test of the “century week” and what we were actually mentally and physically capable of. It was one of my hardest days on tour thus far. I was up most of the night with a headache, not a migraine, but a headache brought on by a massive knot in my neck of stiff muscles. This didn’t make getting up any easier, especially since I have reached the part of the tour that I have entered a zone of unrecoverable exhaustion. The team time trial was this morning, which I had to skip out on, I just decided to get on my bike and ride and *hopefully* make it through the day. Some of the fast racers, my friends decided to take it easy today and ride with me which was really nice because I generally never see them unless it is at camp. We goofed around in the morning and had a good time riding together. At lunch the headwind had become much stronger. We carried on , as the day was 160 again. At 110km we rolled into the Windhoek International Airport for a “coke stop” and then as we pulled out we were facing very difficult hills and headwinds. My body was still very tired from the last four days of intense, difficult riding so every minute felt like it hurt me. At one point I got off my bike and sat on the side of the road feeling sorry for myself. We had started to pass large estate homes and it has been the first time in a while that it was evident that there is some money in this area and the “culture shock” of the trip is coming to an end. The difficult riding began to take a toll on my psyche and I started to feel like I wish the end was more in sight that it is. I got on my bike again and finished off the day, ending in the beautiful, but modern and “developed” city of Windhoek. This city is beautiful but could have been in North America or Europe or anywhere for that matter. It didn’t feel like Africa anymore…

When we arrived at camp to see many other tired, spent riders it was evident that this day had not only challenged me, but others too and the last dirt section is just around the corner, where were we going to muster up the energy to pull that off? Well we had a whole day of mall trips etc. to figure that out, oh yeah, but only after we had changed our tires and done our laundry and multiple other “rest day chores..”

Four months is a long long time.

Reflections on Botswana and The Okavango Delta

2010-05-03T09:06:00.000-07:00

Wow. Botswana - Over 1000km of the most boring, straight LONG LONG biking days imaginable with mixed in rain and headwinds to boot. The Elephant highway tested all of the bikers ability to get through long 160+ days of riding with nothing to look at or do, but spin your legs over and over again. Almost every night we were treated to thunder and lightening storms and torrential downpours. Our poor tents were tested to their maximum as we lay vulnerable hoping and praying to get a good night’s sleep before the next riding day….

Our “Mando day” was 207km (our longest ride) following the previous days being 156 and then 140km. Waking up already tired and then getting on the bike for a day that long is daunting for the best riders and even more daunting for me, hoping there would be enough daylight to finish the day. We would be riding our way into Namibia so we had to reach the Namibian border before it closed. I made sure both Ipods were charged and I loaded my handlebar bag with lots of snacks for the day. My legs spun and spun and spun. My body was tired, and the day started off with pouring rain, so many people opted out from the minute they got out of their tent in the morning…(because if 207km isn’t hard enough, throw in some rain and headwinds and it quickly weeds people out). I rode the first 150km by myself, through the rain and wind. At the refresh stop (where the staff fills water bottles and gives extra snack bars I ran into Lani. Lani is a Canadian woman who just turned 59 years old. She started out the trip finishing half days most days. She had already rode her bike across Canada in 2008 and is one of the strongest, most inspirational women I have ever met. Since Tanzania she has rode every single inch. She gets on her bike no matter the weather or how tough the day is going to be… While some of the riders half her age are clambering onto the truck at any chance they get, Lani gets on her bike early and goes. She has become much faster at me at this point and she encourages me in my rides on the days that we ride together. We arrived at the gas station at 200km around 5pm. We loaded up on some drinks and candy and rode towards the border. On our way we were treated to a hail storm and a torrential downpour. This was miserable to end the already long day with. At that point the bucky came by, Paul (Race director) gave us a thumbs up to see how we were doing… not sure how to respond to that at that point… Hard to say. We did the thumbs up back and rode through to clear out of Botswana and into Namibia. At the Namibian border (205km) I began to fill out my customs sheet. Small drips of water came off my soaking wet sleeves and helmet and dripped onto the paper. Also my passport was soaking wet from being in my handlebar bag all day long…The woman informed me that I would have to fill out another form because she couldn’t accept wet forms AND I should put my passport in a ziplock bag next time. I informed her that I was not interested in her suggestions after the day I had just had. Lani and I finished up and rode the last three kilometers to camp. At camp, we arrived to “rider’s meeting” being called and a flooded campsite. Dinner was late for us and we finally got dried off into our tents where it poured rain all night long. Botswana was a test of patience, and the ability to spend countless hours with yourself. Looking forward to Namibia and the desert AGAIN.. Weird it feels like we are going full circle to where we began. Even though the weather is a little colder now.

Reflections on Zambia and Zimbabwe

2010-04-23T02:42:00.000-07:00

We are now biking through countries so fast I am having a hard time keeping up with doing my “reflections” blogs. All I can remember about Zambia is Victoria Falls, I guess if that is the only thing that I remember that is not so bad. The road surface in Zambia was seal coat which made for a long week or so, or however long we were there…

I really like the bugs in these tropical countries… This first one is a dung beetle. They spend there days crawling around in piles of poo. I just couldn’t wait to get my hands on him… The other one is just a really cool beetle, maybe they will give me a job at the Victoria Bug Zoo when I get home with all my experience…

Botswana and “The Elephant Highway”

2010-04-23T02:36:00.000-07:00

Arriving in Botswana involves taking a small ferry from Zambia into Botswana. The ferry is only about 500m and there is an island half way across which has a point which is on four borders, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana. This is also a bottleneck for all of the semi trucks that are transporting things across Africa, as only one truck will fit on each ferry and there was only two truck ferries and one people/car ferry. The trucks were lined up for miles on either side of the “border”. Botswana has a lot of kilometers waiting for us. Although this section is mainly flat and straight, we are making up for our shorter dirt days in this section through our “century week” where we do 160 + kilometers everyday… Next week we will do our 207km day (our longest day on tour). Yesterday we went into Chobe National Park on a River Safari. We were on the Chobe river which is a tributary to the Zambezi river which is the river that feeds Victoria Falls. We saw a tonne of hippos and large lizards and even a lion that was chasing a warthog and then the lion came down really close to the river. I thought that this safari was much better than the truck safari because I didn’t feel so crammed in.

The Elephant Highway is in an area which has thousands of wild elephants. They are extremely dangerous animals and we have been advised that if we see elephants on the side of the road we need to stop and wait for the elephant to pass by or move very carefully past the elephant. Most of the day today was just long and there were no animals but just a lot of elephant poo. Later this afternoon, just before camp there was an elephant. I was glad that I ran into a couple of other riders so that I wasn’t close to the elephant on my own. We waited for awhile until the elephant would pass, but he was pretty content to just be hanging out on the side. We finally decided to bike pass the elephant. It made me really nervous like when I used to be nervous around bears before I lived in Alaska for awhile. The elephant defiantly took a look at us as we passed by, but we made it by safely. You have to look closely in the photo to see the elephant in the distance... At camp tonight at our bush camp everyone was trying to set up their tents off of the elephant pathways just in case they tromp through our camp at night…

We have three more long days until our rest day in Maun. 154km, 182km, and 136km. We are now at less than a month count down… My legs are very tired and I feel like I am in overtraining mode… But with only a few weeks left I feel like I can persevere.

Victoria Falls Zimbabwe

2010-04-16T14:23:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Livingstone and a bunch of us went across the border (which cost Canadians $75US and everyone else $30) to Zimbabwe to stay at the world famous Victoria Falls Hotel. It is a colonial hotel and reminds me alot of Victoria BC. It is really nice. At check in they bring you a eucalyptus cool facecloth and a "welcome drink" in a champagne glass. The hotel is right overlooking the bridge and the gorge. Really worth it. I guess the Zambian side is much more expensive as the rooms here are around $250 and the rooms on the Zambian side go for $600!! Crazy to think of paying these prices in Africa. We walked the length of the falls today, which make Niagra Falls seem like a baby version of these falls... As you walk along you get soaked, like it is pouring rain. We opted for one found umbrella and no rain jackets. It was so awesome. You can get way closer to the falls then they would let you get in North America, some sections had no barriers against falling into the falls. Apparently, occasionally an elephant goes over the falls who accidently fell into the Zambezi river upstream and can't get out. Even though that would be sad it would be pretty cool to see...

The river is at its peak right now so there is no chance of rafting which is kinda sad, I guess it just means I will have to come back at some point. There are monkeys and baboons and warthogs in the yard outside the window of the hotel room which is a nice reminder that we are in Africa and very delicious food. This is probably the first time on the trip so far that I feel like I am on vacation and not at some sort of crazy biking everyday job. It will be hard to get back to the riding as we have our "century week" coming up in Botswana where we ride 160km + everyday.... Ugh. You would think I had an iron butt by now, but alas my butt seems to be taking alot of abuse lately, especially after getting a small piece of grass in my shorts after peeing the other day and getting a grass shaped saddle sore. Then the next day getting some small thorns in my chamois from peeing and having to pick them out of my shorts while riding, oh man the things that can happen out here, I tell you... Just when you think 150km days are hard, it can get harder.... Someone even got their bike stolen at a camp the other night... They found it, but it took some serious Sherlock Holmes techniques...

The Long Road to Victoria Falls

2010-04-16T13:53:00.000-07:00

We have arrived at Victoria Falls, which for most of us feels like Christmas. It is TWO whole days of rest and relaxation! The most we have had since Arusha (where we were lucky enough to get three!) This is the last stacked rest day until the end, almost exactly one month away. The week was long, the milege continues to increase and we have a whole lotta riding left to do. Exhaustion, a bad chest cold and seriously long days tried to stop me from riding this week, but alas I woke up every morning, got on the bike and spun my legs and cranked those pedals to camp everyday. Even as countless others got on the truck, went ahead to Vic Falls and often led me to being the last into camp each day. The milege this week was long, 152km, 185km and 152km. I was really sick so this didn't make the week easier. It did help me to move the congestion in my chest, as the riding caused me to cough a whole lot. We had a campsite last week that got invaded by ants and everyone woke up in the night covered in biting ants inside the tents...I was really sick so I remember waking up in a sort of feverish dream and having a tonne of ants embedded in my armpit and all over my arms and legs. A couple of riders even left their tents and went to sleep on the truck. It was a long night.

We found this cute little cameleon on the road to Vic Falls and played with him for a little while. It made my riding day, especially since we had some dirt riding to do due to the construction that was going on.

200km riding day

2010-04-12T04:18:00.001-07:00

There is nothing more daunting than waking up after a 152km day, knowing that you have a 200km riding day. For a lot of riders on the tour, this riding day will be the longest any of us have ever biked consecutively, however I am sure for many it won’t be the last. We woke up at “Mama Rules” campsite which was a nice overlander campsite with a pool (although I never saw it) and showers and and a bar and restaurant, pretty nice campsite for our first day in Zambia. Since passing over the border the landscape has changed (again) and the roads have become a little less maintained. They are bumpier and watching for large potholes in the road is essential to not have an accident. Plus the bike riders in this country seem to ride on the wrong side of the road. While it took some of us long enough to get used to riding on the left hand side of the road (since Kenya), now we need to get used to riding with other bikers coming directly at us.

The riding day began pretty good however at 40km I had my 21 flat tire in the form of a blow out. I quickly changed this out as I have become quite good at changing tires now and continued the ride. Lunch arrived at 84km and when I rode into lunch I realized I had a second flat tire (my 22 of the trip…)It was frustrating but Sam said that I could use his front wheel because he didn’t want to ride anymore. It worked out quite well because I didn’t want to change anymore tires for the day. The day went on and on kilometer after kilometer. I was lucky because I loaded a lot of podcasts and audio tapes onto my ipod shuffle. It is a long long way to ride on your own. I rode *almost* all day on my own which is a long ways and a lot of thinking time. At around 185 km one of my friends biked back to see if I was okay, he had already been to camp and then camp out to find me, it was really nice to have someone to ride with the last 15km. Camp actually ended up to be at 195, which was great for my legs but disappointing for the fact that I could have carried on to make the 200km. A very satisfying day, with a party waiting at camp for Tony’s 50th birthday and Juliana’s birthday… Drinks for all and a good rest before the rest of the week’s riding days of 124km, 152km and 108km respectively before reaching Lusaka (where there is apparently a Subway). Since our halfway mark for time and distance did not happen at the same time, we now have a lot of ground to cover to get to Capetown by May 15. The good news is that Botswana is very flat, the bad news is we have a lot of miles to cover within that time…

The last 5 days have taken a toll on riders. In five days we rode 720km and now we have another 500km to ride in the next three days to arrive in Victoria Falls for our double day off. A bunch of us are going to go into Zimbabwe to go to the world famous Vic Falls Hotel to rest. We have so many kilometers to cover still and people’s bodies.are getting tired.

Reflections on Malawi

2010-04-12T04:16:00.000-07:00

Wow, another country completed. They have started to fly by at this point now… Malawi was beautiful and welcoming. There were a lot of children but they were relatively tame compared to what we are used to… The things I will remember of this country is the humidity, Lake Malawi (which I unfortunately did not get to dive in due to logistics), climbing the escarpment out of the Lake, and the difficult hilly days (not as bad as Ethiopia for climbing but close).There were also stark reminders that we are in a very poor country in Africa, the dozens of coffin shops at any area where there are shops, the dozens of AIDS signs and reminders of that and the children in ripped clothing lining the sides of the roads. Malawi defiantly gave Ethiopia a run for its money with the beautiful vistas and lush vegetation, it would have been nice to stay a few more days in this country. There will be lots of places I will need to come back and visit later on in my life when I am not so focused on biking. I will also remember Malawi as the country that we had to change the clocks. We now wake up at 4:20ish and are riding by 6:15. This usually means that we are at lunch by 9:00am. This really messes with your mind when you are so hungry again by like 2:00pm.

Malawi Mando Day

2010-04-06T03:06:00.000-07:00

I am finally feeling better after a long day of riding yesterday feeling really sick climbing the escarpment (650m) out of the lake. I spent my rest day throwing up, not really sure why but it was unfortunate because there was a pig roast that night and I was not able to participate. That was April fools day. Someone thought that it was a good idea to put my bike in a tree, and take the wheels off and put them in a tree also. Luckily my friend Jenn is always around to help and told everyone that it wasn’t funny because I am so sick and she got it out of tree for me! Climbing the escarpment, I was sweating more than I usually sweat in a Bikram yoga class and it was 7:30 in the morning. It was even hard to keep my sunglasses on because the sweat was pouring of my face so quickly.. I think this worked to my advantage as it sweated out whatever was wrong with me. About half way up the climb there was a small waterfall pouring off of the rocks, so I took the opportunity to pull over and take a shower under the water. It felt so great and helped me make it up the rest of the day. After the 10km ride up the climb we had another 120km ride to camp, which is a long ride when you are feeling terrible. Malawi is proving to be just as hilly as Ethiopia. But maybe some of the most beautiful riding we have done. It is absolutely stunning and refreshing to see so much undeveloped land. Yesterday’s total climb was 1600m and today’s ride was almost 1900m. As if the climbing wasn’t enough to make the day brutal and difficult, mix in rain and the occasional headwind and that equals another difficult mando riding day. One of the woman in the group counted the number of the hills and came up with 41… and these were not small hills either. By lunch (at 70km) I decided if I saw one more hill, I might not be able to continue. The day went on and on and on, hill after hill after hill and finally we arrived at camp. So far on the trip we have climbed 46000m!!! My legs will defiantly agree with this number. I haven’t really been stretching and when I arrived at camp from the day, my hamstring was really tight, I moved quickly and tore a little bit of my hamstring. That should make riding easier… Tomorrow is supposed to be an easier day, and I am thankful for that…Two more days until the next day off… In Lilongwe (the capital of Malawi).

So far we have seen some crazy things in Malawi, A pig being carried on a bike, an eighteen month old baby holding (clinging) on to the back of his dad riding on a bicycle, not strapped on in any manner. We saw an older woman carrying an old fashion Singer sewing machine on her head up a hill, pretty impressive.

We have arrived in Lilongwe the capital and unfortunately unless I miss several days of riding I will not be able to dive in Lake Malawi which is a bit of a bummer. We are at altitude here and the lake is now a 4 hour drive away and we cannot drive back to altitude until 6 hours after the last dive. I guess I will just have to return to Lake Malawi another time. We only have one more riding day in Malawi and then onto our seventh country of Zambia. We have a really long (175km day) coming up the day after tomorrow so I am chilling out on this rest day and doing minimal amounts of things to prepare my body for the grind.

Into Malawi

2010-04-06T03:02:00.000-07:00

The roads that took us out of Tanzania and into Malawi were amazing. Malawi has brought back flashbacks and déjà views of Ethiopia as children line the streets shouting, the only bonus is the fact that the children do not throw things. The views have turned to more lush rainforest type landscapes, with banana trees and leafy greens. It is very very humid and hot which makes riding a bit more of a challenge. Sleeping is also difficult as it has been storming in the night so we have to have our tent flys on, which makes it like a sauna in the tents.

We saw this “End of the Dangerous Zone” sign along side the road as we left Tanzania however at no point was there a sign that told us we were “Entering the Dangerous Zone” so we were quite surprised to see this sign as we rolled by… Well thankfully we made it out of the Dangerous Zone, with no problems. We are on our day off beside Lake Malawi which is a massive freshwater lake. There is a chance of the parasite Bilharzia in the water (a small microscopic snail that swims up your ureter and causes you to excrete small amounts of blood in the urine until you are anemic and it can only be gotten rid of with a special antibiotic), also my toe is questionably infected right now from where the nail came off, but alas I could not resist the turquoise water and it was such an amazing swim that I decided I would be okay with getting the parasite for the cost of the amazing swim. I got another bout of sickness this morning and spent half of my rest day throwing up. We now have a lot of climbing (uphill) to do, to get out of the valley that Lake Malawi is in, up to Lilongwe in 4 days, just over 650km to our next rest day where I am hoping to do some scuba diving if all goes well. I just booked my next hotel break in Victoria Falls which we will stay in the Zimbabwe side, hopefully logistically it all works out, it is our last two day rest days in a row before the end of the trip,

Half Way To Capetown!! 5850km to GO!

2010-03-29T04:52:00.001-07:00

Reflections on Tanzania

2010-03-29T04:49:00.001-07:00

The countries seem to be flying by at this point, just as we get our money changed into one currency we are crossing another border, getting ready to change into a different currency. Tanzania gave us a run for our money with difficult dirt roads and long days, but is wrapping up with some nice paved roads with short days (110km and under)..We have had several days of rain but have been lucky because it is the rainy season in Tanzania and we haven’t had as much we could have. Tanzania has been so beautiful. It is lush and green and rainforesty. There are huge fields of sunflower crops which remind me of my friend Jess Kayser. It is definitely a welcome relief from the desert landscape that we have gotten used to. The rest day in Iringa was a chance for most people to overhaul the drive trains on their bikes if they hadn’t already done it at some point on the trip. New handlebar tape, cassettes, chains, cables will make the second half of the trip more enjoyable and ensure that the bikes actually make it to Capetown. In a couple of days we will be crossing the border into Malawi (our 6th country). We will be staying on a beach on Lake Malawi for our first rest day. I have been getting more and more tired as the trip has been going by. I have slowed on my blog updates to allow myself more time to actually “rest” on rest days as our “rest days” are already filled with mile long lists of errands to prepare for the next week of riding. By the time that hand laundry, bike maintenance, and snack shopping is done, the actual “rest time“ is minimal. So I apologize for the lack of communication at this point and thank everyone for the support that I have been getting.

Tanzanian Dirt Roads ALMOST broke my body and spirit, ALMOST (50 hour bike week)

2010-03-29T04:48:00.000-07:00

Where The Pavement Begins....Heaven

Iringa, Tanzania AT LAST!! The last seven days have been the most difficult days for me on the trip thus far… Having logged almost 50 hours on my bike this week, this is the most hard earned rest day that I have gotten to. The dirt in Tanzania is a mixture of thick sand, chunky rocks and dirt and clay making the rides very long. Mix in a lot of up hill climbing (a lot) and difficult tedious downhill sections on the dirt and I would have to say this might have been more difficult for me than Northern Kenya. Two days this week I arrived at camp after 6pm which is disheartening because you change out of your biking clothes, baby wipe and then go to rider’s meeting, wipe the bike down and prepare for the next day of riding. No real time to recoup. I have also been plagued lately with an incurable case of insomnia which on top of the hours and hours in the saddle is slowly killing me. I The nerves in my right hand have also decided they have had enough of the endless banging around on the dirt and they are not allowing my fingers to function properly anymore. My index finger and middle finger on my right hand are stuck together and will not separate independently of me pulling them apart. It is not painful, but it makes handwriting and typing next to impossible… Hopefully this will go away when I stop riding every day. Obviously that would have to happen in my right hand. There were defiantly a few days this week I wanted to pack the trip in, but it seems that when things get really low something cool happens to remind us where we are, like twenty monkeys walking out on the road in front of us or a chameleon crossing to the road.

My rest day turned out to be very eventful as I have been having problems with my big toe on my right foot ever since Dinder Park, My bike shoe is a little tight and it has given me a black toe and I took bets around camp for everyone to put in a date when they thought that the toe nail would fall off for good. It seemed like a fun game at the time…However today the fun game turned to be not so enjoyable when I snagged the toe nail on the ground when I bent down and it tore the nail off and now it is dangling by a thread. There was a lot of blood and a lot of pain and now I am trying to devise a plan to squeeze this painful mess into my bike shoe tomorrow. After I stopped crying, one of the riders asked me who one the bet…I guess I had that coming… Luckily one of the other girls on the trip had gotten an infected ingrown toenail on her same big toe and has been in the hospital twice on the trip, once to have it removed and once when it got infected so I have an expert to help me through the pain of this less than enjoyable injury….And thus I didn’t get on the internet to post this blog and all that will have to wait until the next rest day in Malawi…

A new one to add to the mix – Tar!!

2010-03-15T21:06:00.000-07:00

So our last day in Kenya had to be nothing less than epic to end off our journey through this country. It was a 160km day, which is the first century ride that we have done in quite a while, actually since February 17. Our legs and bodies have taken a break from the long distances and with my bruised hip I wasn’t really looking so forward to the day. Early on, a man on the road looked bewildered at me and said “Aren’t you going to church?”… This statement made me panic because I knew that nothing good could come from the fact that- No, in fact I wasn’t going to church- instead I am riding my bike through Africa… I said to the person I was riding with, “nothing good will come of that statement, in fact something bad is going to happen today…” Not 20km later, I had my 16th flat tire of the trip, the tube exploded going downhill and blew my rear tire off…. Luckily (again) I wasn’t going fast enough for this to cause me to crash. I got the tire changed and continued on this incredibly long day. At around 95km, the road construction started. There was a clear diversion road, which was dirt and then the road that they were working on… We started to ride onto the dirt road, when the road worker waved at us to go on the “closed road” It looked much smoother and better than the dirt road so we opted for this. Little did we know it had “just” been newly tared. YIKES. I thought dirt roads were bad. Within 3km, we were riding on freshly wet tared roads, with the tar flicking all over our drive trains, cables, bodies and faces… and it was slippery, very slippery. We had to get off. Just then we saw two riders on the side of the road, one had just crashed and was covered head to toe in tar, with cuts underneath. What a nightmare. We sorted this situation and cleaned our bike and bodies the best we could with diesel from the truck when it stopped to get the injured rider. We carried our bikes across the way back onto the dirt road. The road construction continued for kilometers and kilometers… we now rode on the dirt. It was a long long hot day covered head to toe in tar. When we finally did arrive at camp it was a hectic mess of petrol and rags and riders covered with tar. This is a lot harder of a clean up job than mud. This is the kind of clean up job I would have loved to pay someone $200 shillings to clean for me. Yet Another epic Kenyan day. We will cross the border tomorrow morning and have our first riding day into Tanzania. I cannot even begin to imagine what Tanzania has in store for us. We just need to pray to the rain gods not to give us rain, apparently it makes the dirt roads of Tanzania an absolute nightmare.

Into Nairobi- My Crash

2010-03-13T01:59:00.000-08:00

Ahhh. Kenya was supposed to get easier after the Northern Section but today didn’t feel easier. The convoy that needs to happen to “safely” get a group of 60 bike riders into a major city is pretty intense as we have now experienced it in Cairo, Khartoum and Addis Ababa, But Nairobi is a lot more difficult. To eliminate this, the TDA did a search for a new route to get us to the Indaba camp on the southern side of the city without having to go through the middle of the city and without having to do a 3-4 hour convoy. The plan was to ride 65km to lunch, then as riders arrived, to separate into three convoys based on riding speeds. We arrived to lunch only about 10mins after the middle convoy left. That meant an hour and a half wait until the next convoy left. This is a long rest when you still have another 75km to ride. The ride all day was very very hilly, it was really hot and people are starting to feel pretty tired. We had about 1500m of climbing, which was another reminder of Ethiopia. We got into the convoy with the remaining riders, which was only about 10 people because, again a bunch of riders had either gone ahead to Nairobi or had gotten on the truck to avoid the day. The convoy felt dangerous due to the crazy drivers and the fact there was a lot of road construction, etc. After a 30km convoy on the highway, we were again released on our own to complete the last 40ish kilometers to camp…Hills, hills, hills. Two of the Kenyan riders rode with us to ensure we wouldn’t miss the turns and a TDA staff was also positioned at all the turns (there were a few). I imagine finding lost riders in Nairobi would be a bit of a nightmare. We approached Karen (a small suburb of Nairobi) where most of the ex-pats live, and the embassies and consulates are all around here. After the Ex-pat mall the traffic became an absolute nightmare, especially because it was after 5pm at this point. I was riding with American Dan and Rick at this point. Sharita (tour director) stopped and told us the traffic was too dangerous, and there had already been an accident and that we should ride on the dirt shoulder. I rode in front for a bit and then told Dan he should go ahead. He did, and Rick and I continued to ride. Just outside the hospital, there was a section of the shoulder that ended and we had to get onto the sidewalk, I misjudged the curb and hit it on an edge going very fast, instead of head on. I went down hard, cleared the sidewalk (although my bike and derailleur hit the sidewalk very nicely and very hard) and I landed in the road- with the traffic!!! A minibus had to swerve to miss hitting me. When I opened my eyes, I saw Rick’s face and thought that it must have been bad because he looked really worried. I lucked out and had put my jacket on just before we left the mall, so I only got a small cut on my elbow and didn’t get the usual roadrash that people have been getting, but landed with my entire weight onto my hip. Tonight, my entire right side feels very stiff like I was in an accident (probably because I was). There is also a very large baseball sized contusion on the hip bone. Good thing I have a rest day to recover, fix my brakes and relax before our two riding days into Arusha, Tanzania and our half way mark. My body definitely did not need this, but it could have been MUCH MUCH worse. I guess it is only my second crash in almost 50 days of riding which is very good odds. I am counting my lucky stars that the minibus did not run over me… :)

Everything is Relative

2010-03-13T01:48:00.000-08:00

In each country that we ride through, we are lucky enough to have a small number of local riders and racers join the tour to ride with us. It has been really cool because not only have they been a nice change to the group, they also know where they are going and are able to speak the language. In Ethiopia our riders helped protect us from the rock-wielding children and now in Kenya our local riders were able to help lead our convoy into Nairobi. One of the local riders here in Kenya has only one leg, he is an amputee from the waist down. The crazy thing is, he is faster than almost all of the riders that are on this tour with two legs. It has been incredibly humbling and an honor to ride with him, he is also famous in Kenya and people that see him want to take his picture and meet him. While we complain and talk about our shortcomings, this man has taken his and become an elite athlete and makes due with what he has in nothing but an amazing way. It has opened my eyes to the power of the human spirit and what it is to have resolve.

Northern Kenya- In like a lion, Out like a Lamb

2010-03-09T06:24:00.000-08:00

Today was our last day on “dirt”. The first 7km were on the smoothest, flattest dirt known to man, and then suddenly at 7km, we hit the new pavement!! Freedom, for the first time in days, no matter what was to come on this pavement, we were all in heaven.

This afternoon rolling into Isiolo Kenya, we stopped at the shell station where the local “entrepreneurs” had taken advantage of our dirty dirty bikes and were charging 200 shillings to wash our bikes and bike shoes (about 2.50) Best $2.50 I have ever spent in my life! They rolled the bikes into a puddle and cleaned cleaned away. My shoes have never been so white! And my bike has never been so happy, it was like a little spa day for her since she has worked so so hard over the last two months.

Now we are on our way to Mount Kenya (where I will be thinking about my dear friend Chris Hatton- who has stood on this summit twice!) and to Nunyuki (the equator), where I will also get the privilege of meeting Chris’s dear friend Mathoni who has agreed to come meet me! I am looking forward to this so so much.

Northern Kenya- Day Five- WET WET WET

2010-03-09T06:07:00.000-08:00

We woke up this morning to a torrential thunder storm and crazy pouring rain. It was interesting to see a bunch of people not used to the rain packing up their tents and organizing themselves…Some “hardy souls” or better yet, ignorant people chose to sleep in the “dry” river bed, Not a great idea when the night before looks like rain, luckily the rain didn’t start until this morning. It was no real use trying to stay dry, as the rain was so heavy and we were all clad in our biking gear. I ate a very quick breakfast and rolled out to get the day underway. Many, many people opted to not ride right from the beginning (riding in the rain is uncomfortable and it has become a theme for several people that if it is “uncomfortable” it is better off to get in the truck. Interesting concept when riding across Africa as there are parts of everyday that are “uncomfortable”). As I got about 2km down the road, I realized that I had forgotten my water bottles (full) that I had neatly stacked beside my bike. So this is the kind of day it is going to be, I thought. I rode back and got them and started biking. I rode the first 30 km by myself, a very slow process, averaging about 11km an hour over sandy, sopping wet, extremely corrugated terrain. An 87km ride in soaking bike shorts over corrugation doesn’t help for chafing and saddle sores let me tell you.. It is a lesson in patience and distraction of the discomfort. After about the first 10km it was obvious it was going to be a day of riding through puddle after puddle after puddle. Soaking wet socks, shoes, shorts, and shirts… This is the day. Today is about the most abusive day that I could imagine for our bikes. The bikes were in water up to our knees every few kilometers as we had to ride through all this water. The bike shop (where the One bike mechanic can help with bikes) went well into the darkness. My bike sounded horrendous all day long and after lunch I lost both my front and rear disk brakes… I met up with Australian Dan who wasn’t feeling well (he is generally one of the fast riders) and we rode the rest of the day together. It poured on and off all day long. Dripping wet and extremely muddy we rolled into lunch, a quick stop as it was very cold to stop for very long due to the fact that we were all dripping wet. Northern Kenya again lived up to it’s legendary difficulty as 24 riders rode the truck to camp… Several other riders have opted after our rest day to go ahead to Isiolo, Kenya to bypass the “dirt section”. There are construction crews starting on paving the road so this afternoon we found a section of road under construction without corrugation, a welcome break for our battered bodies… With all this road paving the “Tour D’Afrique “ is drastically changing, maybe The Infamous Northern Kenya Dirt section will be completely paved over by next year. A sad thought, I think they might have to do some reconnaissance of a new route to maintain the difficulty of this race as it has already changed so drastically since it began in 2003. Tomorrow is our last day on the dirt until after Arusha, Tanzania where we start with dirt all over again. Apparently tomorrow the pavement will start after a mere 10km, we are all very excited to see the pavement again! I don’t know who will be more excited, me or my bike! I went to the mechanic tonight, and found out that both my disk brake pads (front and rear) are done. Unluckily I only ended up bringing one set, hard to decide whether I want front brakes or rear brakes… It is funny how we bring so much stuff to prepare for anything that could happen, but then when you really really need something, you don’t have it and it becomes an absolute logistical, stressful dilemma. I am trying to arrange with one of the sectional riders to get some disk brake pads brought in, hopefully in Nairobi but we will see. So many things that I wished I had more of, tire tubes, brake pads, chamois cream and of course wine gums… because I am in withdrawl everyday.

We are seeing on and off several groups driving from Cairo to Capetown. We have met two dudes from England, driving their souped up landcruiser down, a guy on a motorcycle from Germany. The craziest girls, two Spanish girls that are driving their Minivan from Spain to Capetown. We see them all the time on these roads as daily, something else breaks on their Minivan… It is absolutely the craziest thing I have ever seen as this is CLEARLY a road for 4 wheel drives only. Their minivan would probably not even get them across Canada, let alone Africa! Even our overland trucks barely make it some days…. We will see how far they get. They had problems with their drive shaft yesterday and blew a hole in their aluminum oil pan. Nuts.

Day Six tomorrow. I am almost EFI for the Northern Kenya section, which I am super stoked about because less than half the people so far have rode all these horribly wonderful days… One last day and then the day after tomorrow we will reach the equator!

Muddy Mayhem

2010-03-09T06:03:00.000-08:00

Day Four- Northern Kenya

Northern Kenya is working us with all its magic. After an overnight storm in Marsabit, we were faced with a morning of crazy strong swirly winds (mainly headwinds and crosswinds though, obviously- No tail winds in Northern Kenya!). The Indaba (truck crew) were very concerned about the state of the roads mainly for getting the trucks to camp without getting them stuck. Riders were also concerned knowing that the roads were bound to be thick clay mud and corrugated loose sand. We are giving these last few days of this our all because we only (sigh) have five and a half total days of the hellish Northern Kenya roads before we get our long deserved pavement for a little while until we reach the dirt roads again in Tanzania. Today was tough- mentally maybe tougher for me than our day four mando race day. It was 97km with at least 85% of it seriously corrugated. There were sections that the mud was so thick it became difficult to ride as the mud collected on the bike tires making it like biking through molasses. This morning we were told to make sure we ask the locals before we take photos. They are now decorated in beautiful jewelry and very colorful. It seems that some of the front riders were taking photos but potentially not asking, which led to major problems for us riders in the back, or maybe there was just a group of crazy knife wielding women who were just crazy. One group of riders got stopped with a chain of locals, when the riders slowed down, One rider got a Machete held to her chest in a threatening way. Another rider was in a stand off with (possibly?) the same crazy woman who wielded her machete then tried to throw a large rock. When myself and Analise reached this woman, she was shaking the machete at Analise in a crazy manner, I shouted at the woman , what was she doing, as I rode by she did the same to me, and then as I passed by she threw the machete at my back hard, it hit me just below my neck and luckily the handle, not the blade hit me. It is the first time I have actually feared my safety since being in Africa. I am not even sure this woman had any idea the implications this machete throwing incident could have caused. CRAZY.

We arrived at lunch to learn that our truck that had been rescued from Gondor, Ethiopia was stuck in a huge mud puddle and our trucks had to help him and then get through themselves. As we approached, the one truck was finally out after 2 solid hours of effort and then one of our trucks made it through. At this point, myself and Rick, Analise, Dana and myself started to make our way through “the puddle”, riding through was questionable so we opted to walk our bikes through. It meant wet socks and shoes, but at least no problems. At points the puddle came up to my mid thighs and almost to the top tube on the bike. It was super deep. The trucks drove through next and it was very exciting, they all made it through, thank goodness because without our trucks, we have not got our equipment.

The afternoon was another battle with this equatorial sun. We are two days away now from crossing the equator on our bikes (the equator is in a town called Nanyuki). The sun, the temperature, the doxycycline (for malaria) and the long long long days on the bike are messing with my body and I am suffering from extreme heat rash on the backs of my ankles, upper thighs and arms. It is very uncomfortable and making the days even more difficult than they already are….

Two more days till pavement- oh boy will my body and bike be happy to see that pavement… You cannot appreciate it as much as when you are riding on the most questionable “roads” you have ever seen. Kenya is definitely one of my favorite countries so far for the shear beauty of the landscape here. It is stunning.

The Infamous Northern Kenya

2010-03-05T12:27:00.001-08:00

Day One

I have been hearing about the infamous Northern Kenya since I signed up for this tour last year, so today I finally got my first taste of what this place has to offer. This is the most remote stretch of the bike ride that we will do. It feels very very remote, maybe due to the fact that the roads are not paved, or just the small numbers of people and vehicles on the road. Every once in a while you would see a soldier dressed in military fatigues come out of the bush next to the road. In 2008 this stretch was too dangerous so the riders had to fly over. We got lucky ( I guess depending on how you look at it) that we get to ride it! Today was supposed to be the easy day of the four unpaved, which it was, luckily. We got lucky because we have Dinder to compare everything to at this point and Dinder (I reckon) was much harder than today was. Tomorrow is supposed to be the beginning of the difficult roads. I have to prepare myself. It will be a double bike short day, this is my strategy to prevent saddle sores when there will clearly be some seriously bad roads and one pair of bike shorts will not even begin to protect my butt. Next, I have decided to tape my forearms to prevent the swollen painful arms I had the last time. I am well prepared now having been through Dinder, I have traded my 32mm tires for 2.1 inch mountain bike tires, my thudbuster seatpost for a little bit of suspension. The infamous washboard, unpaved, lava rock roads are very beautiful to look at however they were never designed to be used by bikes or vehicles for that matter, the trucks have just as hard of a time to maneuver over the roads as us. The trucks are able to drive approximately 10-12km/hr, so just about as fast as the bikes. Kenya is gorgeous so far, with mountains in the distance and savanna in the forefront.

We are entering the areas where animals are likely to be seen. Today we saw baboons, tomorrow there is the chance of seeing giraffes in the wild which would be very very cool. The weather is getting warm again, which is good and bad. It is sticky humid hot now though. It makes sleeping somewhat difficult. There are also starting to be a lot of bugs of all sorts and we get “snake warnings” at camp now so that we don’t go out to dig a hole at night and get a snake surprise.

Day Two

Started out “easy”, and then after lunch became a Northern Kenyan Road (see below). There were hundreds of large millipedes walking across the road today. I had to stop and pick one up and get a picture with it to show my nephews. They were the same kind of millipedes that they have at the bug zoo. Oh yeah, we didn’t see any giraffes either. 

Day Three

Close your eyes for a minute; now imagine the worst road you can think of off the top of your head (this is a hard activity for people that live in the city). Next, cover this road in loose lava rock (from the size of small gravel to grapefruit size) add some loose deep sand and deep tire ruts, the occasional thick clay and kilometers and kilometers of washboard corrugation and then imagine the temperature hovering around 40C with 45% humidity and now imagine that you are riding this on a touring bike with no shocks instead of a mountain bike- Welcome to Northern Kenya. It is some of the most difficult riding that I have ever done in my life. It requires an insane amount of patience and a crazy amount of concentration or you will come off your bike. Several people took spills today, mainly just scrapes and cuts but luckily, no real big accidents. Today was our mando riding day for Northern Kenya, 88km. When push comes to shove, today is the kind of day that shows you what you are made of. At last night’s rider meeting, Kelsey announced that today’s riding day would be one of the three hardest days on tour. This morning, 16 riders, got on the trucks without even getting on their bikes. I was excited to get the chance to try the infamous riding and just push as hard as I could and if worse came to worse I would get on the truck. The morning was slow and I was riding alone. Time seemed to go on forever and it was really really hot, My face was sweating from the time I left the camp. By the time I got to lunch, several more people were on the truck. The afternoon was spent riding with Rick and then we were joined by Dave (who I rode Dinder with) and Laura. It was so hot that I could feel my skin burning. I actually even got blisters, I kept putting sunscreen on but it didn’t help. The day just seemed to go on and on and on. After lunch we came on a bunch of riders sitting under trees along the route waiting for the lunch truck to pick them up. As the day heated up it was very tempting to get on the truck. That is the difficult part of this trip, it is entirely you vs. you. There is always a truck you can get on eventually if you want to, but it is hard for stubborn people like me, I would rather take my time and eventually get to camp then to quit and have to deal with my own anger about that. Also we are here to ride across Africa on our bikes, not the trucks. I can only really get on the truck when I am not feeling well. By the time we rolled into camp at 6:30pm we were four of the last riders to make it to camp. Out of the 61 riders, 31 riders finished the mando day today. I am sore and really tired but really glad that I did it. We are now at our rest day in Marsibit, Kenya. Then we have two more days of unpaved Northern Kenya roads before we reach Isiolo and are on our way to Nairobi. In 9 days we will arrive in Arusha, the half way point for distance and time of the trip. Crazy to think that I have almost ridden halfway across Africa already. Crazy.

“Welcome to Yabello”

2010-03-02T09:01:00.000-08:00

Yabello, Ethiopia- a small town (Very Small) on the way to the border town of Moyale, Ethiopia (our last day off in Ethiopia after a long three week stint). This is the smallest place that we have had a day off in thus far on the tour, with no internet, no restaurants and no real shops. The one shop in the town was sold out of virtually all the chocolate and biscuits that they had within a 100km radius after only a short time. After a few days of moderate rain, some (a lot) of spirits (not mine :) ) were dampened and people were struggling to see the positives of this more “typical” African village. It is really interesting what rain does to a group that is not used to rain and not used to camping in the rain. Luckily I think if anything is my expertise on this trip, camping in the rain is it. We were put up in the Yabello motel, essentially a gas station that they have adapted into a rustic motel (with some interesting fancy rooms with “rain shower head showers”…those of us that were still interested in “roughing it” fought over spots on the small sections of lawn and dirt out front of the hotel and those that were lucky enough to reach the hotel in time (some riders skipped out on the ride to ensure their hotel room…which is definitely a questionable act, but at this point in the game people are showing their true colors) were able to camp in “relatively” dry rooms. The rain came down hard, virtually all day and night. It was definitely a good test for people’s gear and patience. Gear and patience failed for several people as a result. Some riders tried to do laundry or gave it to the hotel to get cleaned. I opted for dry dirty laundry compared to the riders that at the end of the rest day were stuck with clean wet riding clothes… 100% humidity makes it hard to line dry things. On the road to Yabello the terrain started to drastically change, with red soil, termite mounds and camels everywhere. It was beautiful. The people also started to look differently. Darker skin, much more colorful clothing and way more subdued than the people in other areas along the way. Actually even the people started to thin out considerably as we approach the Kenyan border. The northern part of Kenya is probably the most remote and politically dangerous section along the whole route. Moyale (the bordertown is the biggest town to the north) and Isiolo to the south with Marsabit (the next day off) in between.It is also the most difficult riding we will face on the entire tour. We are nervous as this entire section is unpaved, with difficult lava rock and dirt and corrugation along the entire route. Even the trucks will have a difficult time to get through this section. Storms and rain are predicted throughout the week will make this section even more difficult if that is even possible. But once we overcome this section we will be almost half way done the tour and through the worst (hopefully) that we will face. We are at around 4300km with 24710meters of climbing completed thus far. Of that I have rode just over 4000km. We are all getting stronger despite the fact that the day to day kilometers are wearing us down. We arrived in Kenya today. We start the difficult riding tomorrow.

Reflections On Ethiopia

2010-03-02T08:59:00.000-08:00

As we enter our final three days of riding in Ethiopia I have definitely spent some time reflecting on the l time that we have spent here, which will be the longest time that we will spend in any one country on our tour across Africa (23 days total). Ethiopia was a test both physically and mentally and some days it was more a test of patience than anything else. Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world and one of the most populated. With 75 million people in this tiny country, there seems to be people everywhere. This was evident on a daily basis as it was a rare time to stop along the side of the road and within minutes be surrounded by locals of all ages. Riding in pairs became necessary for the ability to deal with a flat tire or to take a pee stop without having your bike taken or stuff stolen from it. Lunch stops and campsites became a well monitored event as hundreds of villagers from nearby would stand around the thin string line put up watching our every detailed move. I imagine this is as close as I will ever feel to being a star in Hollywood being followed by the paparazzi. It is an overwhelming and claustrophobic feeling when you are always being watched. I think if I could describe Ethiopia in one word “claustrophobic” would be that word. It was amazing how the thin string line actually tended to keep the locals out, and the bizarre feeling of both being “inside” the line and the local people (in there own country) observing us from “outside” the line. Occasionally one of the locals would break through the line, only to be whipped or hit by whom ever was being paid to be security at the time. Only a few things were ever stolen from camp as people are on the top of their game at this point for monitoring our stuff. I think we can all say pretty surely that we are glad Ethiopia is coming to a close. I am ashamed to say that some days my empathy and compassion were tested by anger and frustration with the actions of locals. Stone throwing, shouting of “you you you” “give me money” “give me water” “ Ferengi (foreigner)” throwing dirt, whipping riders with sticks, and spitting on riders were a constant battle. Everything I have learned in my life has come in handy and been important to help me get through this country, even my military training was put to the test, observing the level of threat at all times from the hundreds of children and adults along side the road, checking for weapons and deciding how to respond… My patience was put to the ultimate test and I tried on a daily basis to find something I was thankful for and something that made me appreciate the people of this country. Ethiopia was also the ultimate test on people’s GI tracts as nearly every rider was stricken down at some point in the last three weeks with some form of stomach flu. Mine was particularly bad and took me out of riding for two days.

Ethiopia is definitely one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, rolling hills (mountains) and lush vegetation. Even on the worst day of biking all that was necessary was to look off to either side of the road, past the children and locals and an amazing viewpoint was always there to change the mood of the day. Today an Ethiopian runner ran along side my bike for around 20km, at one point I clocked him on my odometer as running 26km/hr. Amazing and humbling. The last few days have given us some serious climbing, with some hills looking like they were impossible to even fathom the possibility of getting your bike up, but it somehow seemed that every hill was eventually climbed and legs were tired later on. Over the 23 days we have had thousands of meters of climbing on our bikes. Some days felt like we were spinning our legs over and over again, going nowhere, but after enough effort and time we would eventually arrive at our destination, set up our tents, eat some food and go back to bed awaiting another day of the same.

My favorite things about Ethiopia have been the amazing triple, and quadruple layered juices. The copious amounts of livestock everywhere, in the road, in the fields, in the yards. Also the fact that I can now very accurately judge the speed of both cattle and goats so I don't hit them while biking by.

Ignorance isn’t Bliss, it is just embarrassing

2010-03-02T08:56:00.001-08:00

Understandably some days here in Ethiopia are tough, people have been pushed to their max, with hills, altitude, rain, children, rocks, and more people around than anyone is used to in their lives back home. However within this frustration I feel like it is important to remember how fortunate we are to have been born in a developed country and just by that fortune to have the things we do and to not take these things for granted, especially health care and education. These are two of the things that if you look close enough, past the rock throwing and shouting; that is evident that this country is lacking. It has been frustrating for me at time to see how some of the riders have retaliated from the rock throwing and their ability to show compassion and empathy towards a country that we are guests in. I am not claiming to have not been frustrated at times, especially on days that I have been punched, had dirt thrown point blank in my eye, been whipped with sticks, been spit on in my face and laughed and mocked. However despite all of these things I can honestly say I do not feel ashamed of anything I have done in return, as I rarely do anything, except slow down and try and help them to understand why this is not okay.

Some riders I have heard have stolen children’s school books or shoes and rode ahead and dumped them. Some riders have thrown rocks back, or threatened them. Today one of the more educated riders, came into lunch very frustrated and said that we should “firebomb this whole country” because clearly it is a “sess pool”. I was shocked at this unbelievable and very offensive comment. To say such a thing about a country that we all chose to ride through, knowing the risks ahead of time of what we might face is a clear example of ignorance and the cause of so many of the injustices in the world. At times things like this make me embarrassed that I am a part of a group that has members that believe this type of behavior is acceptable.

When things have gotten me down or stressed me out I remember how lucky I am for the opportunity to see this part of the world. I remember that a lot of people in the world do not have the freedom to cross the borders and see other parts of the world. I feel incredibly blessed that I have had the opportunity to quality health care and that my life expectancy is more than 43 years old, and that I did not have to do manual labor at the age of five. I remember that I got the opportunity to go to university and high school and junior high and elementary school for that matter. I feel privileged that I go to bed every night with enough food to eat and I can drink the water out of the taps and I don’t have to worry that I might get diarrhea that will eventually kill me. I feel privileged that I was not pregnant and expecting my first baby when I was 12 years old or raising my 5th child before I was twenty years old. I think being in Africa has opened my eyes to the incredible injustices that we face every day in the world, and a lot of them occur solely based on where people are born. I always think about the poem “if the world was only 100 people” it is eye opening. We have enough, a lot of the world does not and that is an important reminder that Africa gives us on a daily basis. I want to thank Ethiopia for opening its arms to us in the ways it has. Although not all the interactions were great, in fact some of them were very difficult and frustrating, for every rock I had thrown at me, someone else said “welcome” or showed interest in my trip through their country. For every aggressive tone, there was a smiling face waving and cheering on the side of the road. Ethiopia has taught every rider on this tour a little something about themselves, their tolerance, their resolve and their ability to pick themselves back up when the going gets tough and keep going, this is something that I believe every Ethiopian does every day of their lives. If this is all Ethiopia has been for some people on this tour, let it be, but they do have this place to thank.

New pics added!

2010-02-23T14:00:00.000-08:00

Scroll down to older posts to view updated pics.

14? Could This be the End PLEASE

2010-02-21T11:09:00.000-08:00

So when I think back to what I put the most effort into purchasing, tires was definately it. I rode the tire/rim combination that I am running now, all year with NO FLATS. I thought my Unlucky 13 from the other day would have topped it off. On Yesterday's ride I was beginning to get sick so I wasn't at my best, plus we had rode the Blue Nile Gorge the day before so with several thousand meters of elevation gain this week already I am feeling a little under the weather. We rode a short 90km ride yesterday but with 1120m elevation gain, which made it feel a lot longer than the 90km it was. The last kilometer something was feeling really wrong with my tire. I asked the guy I was riding with to look at it and he said it looked okay. We rolled into camp and I got off my bike, layed it down and walked to get my stuff. I sat on my bag for a little while to regroup before going through the motions of setting up my stuff. When suddenly the camp was stopped in its tracks by a loud "BAM". It was a tire. This rarely happens so people were checking their bikes. Needless to say, it was my bike and the tube had blown up so hard again that it blew the tire off the rim, again. Paul the race director said he thought it was becoming a little dangerous and offered me his new Specialized Armadillo tires. I put them on after careful inspection of the rims, tubes and tires, but because of being sick today I didn't get to try them out. I hope I can ride the day after the rest day (23) and give them a whirl. The other difficult thing about this whole situation is that I have burned through all of my tubes and a lot of my patch kits already. I am looking into the possibility of getting some new things shipped to me in Nairobi, Kenya as my bike cannot run without tubes unfortunately.

The intercontinental hotel is exactly what I needed to cure myself. I didn't want to go initially, probably mostly because of how difficult it will be to leave here, but a good 20min HOT shower is exactly what I needed after a difficult day and night.

Thank you for all the messages of support and donations to the Suncatchers Project. Keep them rolling in!

The Ethiopian Flu strikes me down

2010-02-21T06:15:00.000-08:00

February 21, this has been an incredibly long long day and I now find myself sitting in the swank lobby of the Intercontinental hotel in Addis Ababa. Today I lost "EFNT" (Every fabulous night in a tent) and "EFD" (Every fabulous day). I woke up last night at around 1am and had been struck down by the "Ethiopian flu" This thing is nasty and this is the sickest I have been in about 10 years. I spent the night over the squat toilet facing the most intense stomach cramping I have ever had. If this is what contractions feel like, you can be assured I will NEVER have a baby. I had a serious fever and was trying my best to sleep despite the hot cold chills. I could bearly make it out of my tent this morning let alone get on my bike. This was the first time of the whole trip I got up and dressed myself in something other than biking clothes and got my bike, through it on the lunch truck and opted for the back seat where I could lay down. Luckily I have made some very good friends and have an adopted mom and dad here (Geoff and Diane) and they helped me get settled. We drove the 65 brutal kilometers to lunch. At lunch I asked for the nurse to come see me and she gave me Buscopan (the magic little pill that stops stomach cramping) it took a long time to start working and lunch seemed to go on for ever. Smart choice not to ride, at lunch 20 riders also joined me on the lunch truck due to the difficulty of the morning ride. I finally got off the bus at 4pm, and Rick and Jenn loaded me up (somewhat reluctantly) to the intercontinental. $100 per night seemed crazy but now I am here I am very thankful to them. I hope to shake this thing tomorrow. I need to start riding again after Addis. I am still less than 200km short of completing the entire ride. The intensity of this thing is so real now. Every single day to ride 100+ km is nuts and so hard on your body. 5 weeks I have spent in my tent with cold showers and waking up to riding everyday. I hope the fever breaks tonight so I can get over this....and enjoy the hotel.

Blue Nile Gorge

2010-02-21T06:05:00.001-08:00

It would be hard to find somewhere in the world that is more stunning or spectacular than the Blue Nile Gorge in Ethiopia. This has been a long awaited riding day by most riders non the tour. We had a 49km ride to the edge of the Gorge, which was only recently (THANK YOU JAPAN!!) paved as of 2008. My hats go off to all the past tour riders that under took this ascent and descent on the unpaved roads of years past, as even the pavement challenged us. As we rolled over the edge, the views were incredible. It was a hairy 20km descent with children armed with rocks and “YOU YOU’s” and cattle and donkeys alike. Large trucks slowly chugging up the hill spewed their hot exhaust against already hot cycling bodies. The temperature was a dripping 39C. I needed to stop several times on the descent to give my hands a break from holding onto my break levers with all my might. Actually as we approached the bottom and the heavily armed bridge over the Blue Nile, I was thankful to begin the 22km ascent out of the gorge, just to give my upper body a break. I never thought I would say this, but I enjoyed the uphill more than the downhill on this section. The climb seemed endless as some of the riders chose to do the time trial up the other side. I opted out of this time trial, instead trying to take in the beauty of the day and the ride. I also think it would have been hard to push myself harder than I already was, as the altitude has been greatly affecting my speed on this section of the ride. I have been coming last or near to last of the riders that have not been on the trucks this last week. There are still several riders that are still suffering greatly with The “Ethiopian flu” ( diarrhea and vomiting), with several riders “bunny hopping” (as it has been termed) ahead to our next rest day in Addis Ababa several days ahead of our arrival there. Several other riders have opted to have a field trip (days off of riding) to Lalibela (a famous historical site here in Ethiopia). I either have been blessed with the immune system of an ox, or I am just taking my unluckiness with flat tires rather than sick guts. I think I would take the later based on the state of some of the riders.

Our stone throwing Ethiopian spectators continue to plague us. With one rider being stuck in the helmet, breaking her helmet and another rider receiving the first stone throwing stitches in his arm, riders are becoming more and more on the ready for our stone throwing spectators as we bike along. Yesterday I was actually punched very hard in the back while riding and another “sweet looking 10 year old girl, grabbed my butt while I was riding and I had to hit her to get her off… I guess you could say I may have been riding too slowly for these things to occur to me, which may be the truth but it is hard to go faster up these crazy hills. One rider was attacked with sticks and rocks while riding through several hundred school children on their way home from school yesterday! I was thinking how much energy it takes both physically and mentally to ride through Africa. I can only compare it to being in a parade, from the time you wake up in the morning until you arrive in camp. The problem is that you are in the parade whether you want to be or not and the spectators can be supportive and kind or angry and aggressive and at all times you need to be prepared to react to either. Instead of candy being thrown in this parade, it is rocks, from gravel size to rocks that you watch the children carry to the side of the road that are so big they can hardly manage them. It can be mentally exhausting. It seems the afternoons are harder than the mornings as the hundredth child comes screaming “you you you you you you” following you up a hill- sometimes walking faster than you can ride. Our local rider from Ethiopia had several spokes broken on his bike by the rock wielding children, so he went to the school and reported them so that they will be punished in front of others. Hopefully they begin to learn the consequences of their actions. Ahhhhh Ethiopia- what a joy! It is unfortunate because the country is stunning and the people generally amazing and hard workers. I have taken to noting the speed at which some of these children can run along side the bikes going uphill. I watch my odometer on my bike and have continuously noted children running along side the bike uphill for a serious length of time going 18km/hr, BAREFOOT! It is not surprising some of the best runners in the world come from this country.

Arriving at the top of the gorge today at 89km was a very satisfying feeling of accomplishment. It was like my climb of the Malahat highway on the island, only 1500m higher!!! I think it would have done me good to ride that a few more times before arriving, but it will seem like a breeze after today when I get home. For a number of riders, this was the most climbing they had ever done in one day. The views and breathtaking scenery and looks on the faces of the drivers passing us made every second worth it. I rode with Georgie and Mark (our sectional riders from the UK). Mark took the opportunity on the descent to propose to Georgie, despite vomiting all night and not feeling so well today. It was so great. It has been amazing to ride with Georgie and Mark this past week. They will be dear friends for years to come and I will be very sad to see them leave in Addis Ababa.

I decided today that everything is relative in difficulty. As I ride my bike up hill after hill after hill, women and men walk past piled high with hey and cow dung, or heavy clay pots of water. They plow the fields by hand and spend countless hours herding their cattle along side the scorching hot pavement roads. On one hill the other day a ten year old girl walked up the same hill I was riding carrying a full bag of cement on her head. The Ethiopian people are incredibly hard workers, it is very impressive and puts my life into perspective on a daily basis. What an amazing perspective of the world you can get from the saddle of a bicycle. I feel like I get to see the real Africa, far from the big cities and tourist areas. The everyday life that goes on. I am thankful everyday for this experience that I am fortunate enough to be having.

Unlucky 13

2010-02-21T06:04:00.001-08:00

I should have known to beware after the twelfth flat tire that I had due to the fact that the 13th of anything is supposed to be bad luck. But my luck with flat tires has been absolutely atrocious so far this trip. It is not surprising for me to arrive at camp, having had one or more flat tires throughout the day. It has helped me to get extremely efficient at changing flat tires though which I guess is the positive in this situation.

The 13th flat happened so suddenly I really have to say this one took the cake. I had just left camp and was approximately 10km down the road chatting with Georgie about how much I liked the road that we were riding on as it was a good downhill grade. We decided to slow down to take a photo when BANG! A very loud noise of the tube popping, which in turn blew my tire off my rim and sent a small piece of the tire tube towards Georgie and it hit her arm. It was pretty scary because it brought me to a standstill pretty quickly and if I had of been going faster I definitely would have crashed. I didn’t even actually realize that the tire could come off the rim like that, ignorance is sometimes bliss I think. Unlucky 13, or maybe better yet, Lucky 13. I guess it depends on if you see the glass half full or half empty. I could have been injured but in fact, it just startled me.

Everybody Must Get Stoned

2010-02-15T06:59:00.002-08:00

Rest Day-Bahir Dar, Ethiopia- A funky little town on Lake Tanna, the source of the Blue Nile. Palm trees and triple layered juices fill my belly with goodness and my body with the break that my body so desperately needs. The juices have truly changed my life and I will dream of these forever after leaving this country. They consist of Avocado juice, Mango Juice, Papaya Juice and Pineapple Juice Layered in a pint glass. This would cost you at least $20 to make on your own and they sell them for under a dollar. I have had three today, making my daily fruit intake probably in the neighborhood of 30 servings. I haven’t caught the “Ethiopian Flu” yet (Terrible diarrhea which everyone apparently comes down with here) but the juices might help guide me in that direction. Several riders have spent the last two days from Gondor on the bus with flu like symptoms and terrible GI issues. I must have taken my unluckiness in flat tires as I have not been sick yet…. Knock on wood. We have had a delightful two days of riding 117km followed by 61km today, our shortest day yet! We arrived in Bahir Dar at 10am so we almost have two days off! We are getting a lot of rest because we have a long 5 day stretch ahead of us including the famous Blue Nile Gorge, which for the racers will be a time trial, 20km down, 20km up… 10% grades…. We will arrive in Addis Ababa the third highest capital in the world on February 22 and then will be taking a one day shorter route to Northern Kenya due to our truck breaking down North of Gondor. They are having to get a new engine sent from Nairobi so plans have had to change a bit. Instead of riding through Arba Minch, we will ride through Yebello.

Ethiopia has taught us how to be quick witted while riding uphill in the altitude. At any moment in time, no matter where you are you can be ambused by several children. They begin by screaming “YOU YOU YOU YOU” Evidently the only English word they know. Sometimes it is followed by “MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY”… Then other times it is followed by “Where are you go” which we have learned means “Where are you from”… This is often followed by the children moving into the street, making it difficult to predict if you are going to be able to avoid them at the speeds we are biking. The children will have huge smiles on their faces, seeming excited to see you and just as you pass, you get the final treat…Large stones lobbed at you, your bike or anything they can hit. It is a lesson in patience, a lesson in understanding and an extremely frustrating stressful thing to add to the fact you are biking long distances in the heat uphill. I have been hit several times. They are extremely accurate. Being in Gondor the other day actually helped me to understand this phenomenon a little better, they do not reserve throwing rocks for foreigners alone. In fact… Everyone throws rocks at each other. I saw two men get into an argument at a store and as the other man walked away the first man picked up a stone and threw it at the back of the first man’s head knocking him out. I saw a small boy (under 10 years old) get into an argument with his mom and as he walked away he picked up a rock and threw it at her face. It is a learned behavior. In fact the times that adults see the children throw rocks at us as we ride by, they often pick up a rock and throw it at the kids, to “teach them a lesson?”. Pretty scary. The people are great when you are not riding by. We had several hundred “mountain people” surround our camp last night watching very intensely our every move… ready at any chance we were not looking to zip in and steal whatever is lying around. Theft is actually a big problem here and we lock up our bikes at night and put everything into our tents. Something we have not had to worry about in the past. So far I think riders have been pretty lucky. Not losing too many things. We have to continue to be on guard to protect our things though.

Everybody Must Get Stoned

2010-02-15T06:59:00.001-08:00

Reflections on Sudan

2010-02-15T06:52:00.003-08:00

It has been almost a week since we left Sudan. Most people have been able to dust off the final bits of sand from their chains and cassettes, however it still often shows up in the tent and other places always reminding us of the sand storms and scorching hot desert days. I will remember Sudan for the long stretches of desert riding with not a soul in sight and the relief of the shade found under the tarps at camp. We had easy riding days and we had some of our tough, but they all made us stronger each day. It is funny how we cross a border in Africa and it really does seem like a different place, as we crossed the border into Ethiopia the desert days and flat roads ended and the views turned to mountains and hills with more fertile soil. We will miss Sudan for the lovely people and the amazing ginger tea and coffee and delicious flat bread. It is amazing to think of the genocide that occurred in Sudan as it seems like such a peaceful place with caring people. I feel blessed to have gotten to see this country and would encourage anyone who had a chance to visit here to come. I think we often view Sudan as a war torn country which it has been in the past but it has moved on and it is a beautiful place with a soul. I will remember the caravans of camels coming from Darfur to be sold in Egypt. Khartoum, a dusty, hot city in such an inhospitable hot desert stretch, with its only source of water the Nile floating ominously through the heart of the city. The Riders will never forget the infamous Dinder national park or the difficult scorched earth we biked over for days. Sudan is etched in my memory for several reasons, time went fast here, despite the fact some of our riding days felt like months in themselves. We are a month into our expedition and race and the time is taking its toll on riders. Riders are injured and sick and generally fatigued, the 3000 kilometers we have riden so far has beaten us down and built us up simultaneously. Each day we become stronger riders but each day the kilometers also take their toll on us, with rest days our only chance to recoup and regain the massive amounts of energy we are dolling out on a regular basis. Ethiopia has us anxious and excited - with each new country having a new vibe and with new challenges in themselves.

Ethiopia

2010-02-12T04:54:00.000-08:00

Ahh, Our first rest day after the Seven Days of Misery. It feels good to me that I stuck it out, and alas I am tired, to the core of my existence tired. Like I just finished two back to back Alaska Crossings trips Tired. One of the trucks broke down yesterday, actually the breaks broke on a down hill section and they had to use the engine to slow the truck. Luckily no one was hurt but the truck was left behind to get towed in, which means AN EXTRA REST DAY!!! Horray!

Today's ride was very tough. The total elevation gain was 2500 meters. UP and UP and UP we went. I averaged a little under 10km/hr for the day, 107km. Another very long day. The longest hill was 20km with parts on a 13% grade. I didn't think it could get any worse until we approached the top and it became unpaved!! Wow. My heart got the workout of a life time yesterday. When we finally arrived in Gondor we passed the Dashun beer brewery on the way in, four of us decided since twenty riders hadn't even ridden the day and several riders got picked up over the course of the day that we would stop and have a beer before reaching the finish line. Questionable whether this was a good Idea with 14km left, 3km of which took us to the hotel and campsite on a mountain overlooking Gondor. After the one beer I defiantely felt a little wobbily on my bike. Arriving at the hotel felt amazing, just to know we had accomplished the day and for that matter the trip. We learned one rider had crashed into a rider, breaking his collar bone. Really crappy luck. This trip is taking riders out left right and center at this point and people are needing to be very very careful. It was a long day of riding by hundreds of children as the yell "You You You" And "Where are you go?' and then if you don't answer and for that matter, even if you do, they will chase you and grab you and try and take things from your bike and worst of all throw rocks at you...
It is exhausting especially as you move at 7km/ hour uphill...

Ethiopia is beautiful, the Simian Mountains and landscape so different from the deserts of Sudan and Eygpt. I am so happy to be here, experiencing this place this way, despite the difficult riding. This morning we visited one of the riders Charities, Link Ethiopia and had a ceremony at a school he helped pay to build. They put on an amazing ceremony for us including roasting us coffee and hand grinding the beans. It was increadible. We all gave some money to help buy thirty children at the school uniforms and books. It was great to see the difference some of the riders are making for places. It feels really good to give back to the countries that are hosting our ride. We are awaiting anxiously the distances and difficulty of the next week of riding.

“Because I am Loving Every Horrible, Wonderful Minute of This…” Or “7 Days of Misery, A Little For Everyone…”

2010-02-12T04:35:00.002-08:00

We have quickly realized that since we left Khartoum our “real” trip has begun. No more Egyptian paved roads or the new roads that the Chinese built for Sudan last year…TIA- This is Africa..These 7 days were worrisome when we saw the distances on the white board as we left Khartoum, and now as we approach the last day of the stretch, the reality has set in and we are getting a true test of what people are made of, and, if in the darkest hour they can dig down somewhere deep inside and find the resolve to carry on. This week has seen many riders at their weakest point, especially through Dinder National Park. Someone said it was the biggest EFI Massacre in TDA history. We are down to only 12 or so riders that have EFI status and a lot of riders with injuries, crashes and illness. Approximately 20 people have chosen to go ahead to Gondor, Ethiopia and not ride these two days to try and recover, from the things that ail them, whether it be physical ailment or a dampened spirit. Despite tomorrow’s “Mando day” which is a race day that cannot count as a grace day in the end due to the difficulty…2500meters of climbing up hill, what Ethiopia is famous for.

This stretch of riding is unique in that it has had something that has tested each rider to the limits of their riding. Endurance, off road, traffic, and hills, something in that mix definitely challenged every rider and we won’t even talk about Dinder in this blog, that will be a separate blog all together.

Leaving Khartoum we faced two very long riding days on tough pavement, 161km and then 163km. The traffic along this stretch was horrendous and everyone rode along anxiously surveying the shoulder to select easy and safe exit points for emergency evacuations. I don’t think there was a rider that at some point didn’t have to exit the highway urgently to avoid a head on collision with an oncoming bus or double wide trailer. Scary, especially since the shoulder was not always the greatest option. Two riders had serious crashes which caused them to have to go to the hospital with several days off from riding and head injuries. Luckily, they are both okay. Over the course of these two days I get two flat tires and a migraine which led me to lay in the ditch for 15 minutes and then ride with limited vision for a long time, I should have known this was only the beginning of a long stretch of challenges.

The next day brought our first day of “dirt roads”… 132km total, 91km on the dirt. This was the first day of the extremely difficult (mentally and physically) days for most riders on this section. The scorched, washboard terrain with loose sections rattled riders arms and bodies to a point that ended with 16+ riders opting for the lunch truck instead of carrying on. There were many places throughout the day that the road split and the “correct route” was marked with flagging tape. Unfortunately the villagers in this area, having never had the Tour D’Afrique come through before thought the flagging tape was very cool and they took the tape. This led to 6 riders getting completely lost and the support vehicles searching for these individuals even into the dark of night. Those of us that are riding rigid frame bikes and opted for No Shocks, quickly learned the value of these. 91km on serious washboard with your forearms as the only shocks, is not promising for the next day on the same terrain. The only thing that I could describe the pain as (even before the end of the day) was that my forearms felt like they were bleeding on the inside. At one point I took my first serious rock hit, a huge fist sized rock lobbed into my back caused me to shout out in pain and almost lose my balance on my bike, the first of many bruises from being hit with rocks over the next few days and I can only imagine the whole trip. Noone is quite sure why the urge to throw rocks at riders as we pass through has become the norm, but it is and it is a difficult situation to deal with, riders have thrown rocks back, shouted, found adults, everything to no avail. Our best bet is to keep your eyes sharp and hope for luck.. By the time I reached the 132km camp after 8.5 arduous hours, my forearms were very swollen and too sore to touch. The only solution to this situation for me was to stock up on ibuprofen to even get on the bike the next day. This long day seemed difficult, however we went to bed really unaware of what awaited us the next day….

The Disastrous Dinder Defeat

2010-02-12T04:35:00.000-08:00

“Dinder National Park”, is a new route that the tour decided to take this year to both avoid the heavily trafficked roads south of Khartoum and we were invited by the “ministry of tourism” to ride through the park that has been officially closed for seven years. We should have known that the park being closed for seven years would be an indicator for the type of roads we were about to face… The total distance of the day was set to be 140km, based on the results of the day before, we knew it would be tough to get the distance in. Based on my morning leaving camp, I should have known what a horrible day it would be for me. I started off the morning, unable to move my arms very well due to the extreme abuse of them the day before. As I rushed to get my stuff ready for the day to get out of camp by 7:15am, I noticed my bike computer had died, I tried to change the battery, breaking the entire sensor for the computer off of the frame. In a desperate attempt to fix the situation I duct taped the entire computer back on, to no avail. It would be a long day of riding, having no idea the distance or speed. A very difficult concept for a control freak… Not being able to wear a watch either, due to the fact that the watch greatly irritated the badly swollen forearms. Captain Erin says that it is time to go, and as I struggle to get organized, I get my helmet off the ground and as I go to throw it on my head, see at the last second a scorpion fall out… Yikes, close call. We start the ride. The day starts out with similar terrain as the day before, washboard, and crappy, crappy roads. Little do we know that as the day goes on it will only get worse and worse. Extreme concentration is needed to ride over this terrain as any lack of attention leads to falls, especially with clipless pedals- As many riders and the nurse could attest to later on with late night patching of all the injuries. At 49km we reach the Entrance to the Infamous “Dinder National Park”. They tell us it is essential to ride in groups of 4-6 to keep us safe from the animals in the park… We wait at the entrance until groups are formed and off we go. The roads become HORRENDOUS. Scorched, dry, corrugated, farmer field roads that have not seen water for maybe 100 years, with loose sections of sand and dirt on top, with irregularities and potholes everywhere. The only thing I think you could have done in advance to train for this would be to find a farmers field and ride your bike around in it, although it would have had to be just combined and crappy with no irrigation. This is the most difficult riding I have ever done as was the case for most riders, not to mention the fact my arms still felt like they were bleeding on the inside from the day before. Every single bump led to a winced face trying to suck up the pain from the lack of shocks and the difficult terrain. Minutes turned to hours as we anxiously awaited the 75km point where we could get more water and eat lunch. I have never wanted to be done something so badly in my life and to make matters worse, truck after truck of military vehicles brought “spent and broken” riders past the riders still on the road as riders quit the day opting for any way out of the park. I found this both demoralizing to see these people finished with their agony for the day and encouraging to know that I had the gumption to carry on, while these riders could push no further. We arrive at lunch at 3:00pm, 75km in, they tell us the day has been changed to 118km, which at the speeds we were moving, would still be incredibly difficult to achieve, but everyone has been held here, awaiting a new grouping of people by the park officials to ride in convoys, again, to protect us from the dangerous animals (of which no one had seen anything). At lunch the tour is trying to figure out the logistics of incredible numbers of riders who will no longer ride and want a ride in a vehicle to camp… Very unforeseen to them, it is quickly becoming obvious to everyone that Dinder was not a good idea, but now we are in it, people are upset at losing EFI status and the state of their bodies. The staff is getting abused by tired riders and they are trying to make plans to transport craploads of people. I grab a quick 20 min lunch and decide to head out on my bike, determined to finish- or get picked up trying. Again, truck after truck of broken riders continue to pass by. I am riding with Dave for a long time. At 85km I see some of the best riders getting into a truck. My body hurts and all I want to do is quit but my stubborn nature overrides these thoughts, I ask Jenn for a headlamp as I know at this point I will be riding in the dark and possibly alone and I carry on. Dave and I decide that we will ride to the end or get picked up together trying. At 90km the worst thing happens, it is after 5pm and I get a large thorn puncture my tire, a pssssssttt sound followed by several choice words and a stressful situation. Dave the champ decides this is the perfect time for a cheese sandwich for both of us, I change the tire, as he makes the sandwiches out of scrounged stuff from lunch. Both of the spare tubes I am carrying, one is new, seem to not want to take air. Now it is 5:30pm and I am patching a tube. I put the tube in and as I blow it up, the patch fails. Another flat tire… A couple of riders ride by before I find someone with a tube that will fit the tire. By this point Erin and Dana (my usual group) have ridden by and Wayne finds us and stops. We get the flat changed and quickly get back on the road. The sweep vehicle pulls up and we realize we are going to have to book it if we will be able to finish. I tell Dave to go on, as I feel I am slowing him down and I catch up with Wayne and Erin and Dana. It is getting darker and darker and now we have a truck behind us following us… At any point they can decide it is over. When I get a chance, I power up…and leave the group, knowing if I get ahead alone there is a better chance of finishing because they will have to fuss with the riders and bikes as they load people up in the dark. It is 7pm and dark and I find myself alone in the park, a military vehicle pulls over and tells me it is over, and I need to get in the vehicle because the river is 10km away and the roads are dangerous. There are lions and they are worried. I know they are not in charge of us and don’t make the decisions of when we stop or not, the tour does, and Paul (race director) has told me about 45min ago that we need to get to the EFI line at the river and they will shuttle us to camp from there. I tell the military guys, I am okay and I will not get in the truck. They are very worried. They say “you are crazy lady”… They try again to put me in the truck, I get in my bike and ride away fast so they cannot put me in. It is hard to see now as it is very dark and I am riding with just the headlamp. I am not worried about these so called lions, in fact I decide at this point I would be stoked to see a lion as I had worked so so hard all day to ride through this park only to see the crap road ahead of me…. It is now 7:20 and I reach a small intersection. It is done. I don’t know which way to go, I can’t see the flagging in the dark so I sit on the side of the road waiting for the sweep truck. I am at 103km. I hope the sweep truck will follow us with the lights so we can keep going. Finally at 7:35pm the trucks arrive. I am sad to see Wayne and Dana and Erin inside. Kelsey gets out and says it is over, I have to get on the truck. It is too dark and too dangerous. I am initially devastated and then proud. I was the last person to get put in the truck. Erin and I talked about it the next morning and she said something that I found very valuable and will remember for the rest of this trip. She said “It is funny how sometimes a failure can also be a success”. It was so true. As the four of us rode the truck to reach the camp, we started following a convoy of trucks of bikes and defeated riders. The difference was that in that moment after 12 hours and 35 minutes of riding with a 20 minute lunch, we each knew that we had given that day 100% of absolutely every single bit of energy we had. We were broken, both physically and mentally but we were stronger for it. And every day of this tour will be different for me now. I officially lost my EFI on day two 3km outside of camp but I felt robbed of those kilometers. But the Dinder Defeat was a legitimate loss of my EFI, but I put every ounce of my soul into that day and therefore it was a success. As the convoy of riders converged, and we got out and got into the truck together to go to camp, some having just gotten off their bikes, some having been in the truck all day, we realized that in that day 40 riders had to get on the truck. Peoples dreams of “Every Fabulous Inch” were stolen from them in the Dinder Route. Many people lost their dream of EFI but we will have the memories of the Dinder Defeat forever. There were a lot of tears and injuries and stories of the day, and that is what memories and expeditions are made of. We arrived at camp to learn that some riders had riden the entire 140km to camp! Unbelievable and fully deserving of EFI and the respect of everyone arriving in trucks. I got off the truck to hear “Steph you are on dish duty tonight”. The irony of this situation just made me chuckle. I took 4 ibuprofin for my arms and went to bed. It was a long day, but we had to wake up in a mere 6 hours and do it all again, so the only answer was to put the day behind us and move on. I was battered and sore and I slept in my clothes laying in the hot tent in the desert of Sudan.

Day three on the dirt. It was another hot, hot 45C day on the terrible farmers field corn field washboard. My arms were now at a state that I thought there may be irreversible damage as I have never know the possibility of forearms being so swollen. From the side you could see that my forearms were visibly 1 inch swollen. Erin and I were physically done as were many riders. The lunch and dinner trucks were full before even leaving camp this morning, people had decided if they had lost their EFI already, they were not going to ride, others were injured and others were just dealing with pure exhaustion. I felt like I had all of the above but alas still too stubborn to get on the truck, mounted my bike and rode away. Riders that needed to stop in the morning were unable to mount the trucks because there was no room. At 10km in Erin got a flat (her first) so we stopped and I helped her change it. Our bodies were battered, both of us now (after Dinder) dealing with saddle sores ( my first of the trip) and my arms were in horrible condition, making changing the flats aweful. At 20km I got a flat tire (my tenth!!!) We stopped and changed it. We were done, emotionally and physically. We biked and walked the rough sections, ground that I don’t believe anyone in their right mind would choose to bike over… At one point we stopped and made a video of the difficulties of the last 24 hours. We arrived at the lunch truck at 3pm. Doing an analysis of the time, our condition and the heat (46C), Erin and I both (although we are two of the strongest women I have ever known) decided we would never reach 140km before dark and it would be a fruitless effort. I put my tail between my legs at 65 km and willingly for the first time on the trip got on the truck. Again a failure but also a success of knowing when enough is enough and knowing we had given that day our all. As we drove along in the lunch truck we passed truck after truck of defeated riders and bikes. Another atrocious day, more riders losing EFI and everyone arriving at camp either by truck or bike very late…Heat stroke and injuries plagued riders along the route. Most people arrived in the dark another day in a row. We shared the one squat toilet amongst all 70 of us and then went to bed to wake up and do it all over again, only this time in Ethiopia…

Today was another trying day but in retrospect, a piece of cake. We woke up and 15 riders decided to they had had it and got a mini van to Gondor, Ethiopia, our next rest day, two days out. They were done. The rest of us approached the Ethiopian border (a piece of string tied across the road) and waited for each person’s passport to be checked against a book of hundreds of names not allowed in the country, this you can imagine took time and then we entered our third country of 10. Ethiopia we knew was not going to give us the rest we all desperately need but it is a change. It is notorious for its endless hills, altitude (Addis Ababa- third highest capital city in the world next to La Paz,Bolivia and Quito,Ecuador and the children that throw rocks and steal stuff off the bikes as you ride. Our day today was 98km with 1098 m of climbing. The country started off with a hill right from the border, the hills were hard and the kids relentless but in a weird way, no where near as hard as Dinder. At camp 5 more people decide to forget the riding tomorrow and go ahead to Gondor. It was a quiet campsite tonight with 20 riders missing but it made us see what people are made of. Tomorrow is a mandatory race day, 2502m of climbing, but the beer will taste so much better knowing we worked so hard to achieve it. TIA- This is Africa and so our adventure has begun. 7 days of misery- 905km (of which I rode 814km). Khartoum and that rest day feel like a lifetime ago.

Captain Erin Speaks

2010-02-12T04:11:00.003-08:00

Captain Erin Speaks

As time has gone on we have really started to fall into our natural biking groups. Speeds have been determined and riders are becoming more consistent with who they ride with. Of course the fast racers are nowhere to be seen most of the day and the slower riders generally go onto the lunch truck after lunch, it has been difficult to find riders of the same speed and ability as me. I have found myself in a bike group with a very strong rider (Erin) who we affectionately call her “Captain”. Erin is in the Guiness Book Of World Records for being the Youngest woman to run a marathon on all seven continents at the age of 23years old and she is an ironman. She is 26 and very determined. I have met my match and possibly my future ultrarunning partner. She is great, however Erin is very consistent and does not wait for anyone. I have learned this the hard way several times as I delay in the morning or go to the bathroom and get left behind. One morning I told her I was running to the bathroom and she says, “catch up!” which is an impossible task as she is an incredible rider. It makes us efficient in the morning though and and those of us that want to ride with Erin, know to watch her as she eats in the morning to know when we are leaving… It has become a joke as we can now leave whenever, punching in. Our morning routines, seem so natural to us now, however to an outsider may think it is very bizarre. With 58 riders plus sectional riders everything involves trying to figure out the most efficient plan of how not to stand in lines…. My morning generally looks like this, I wake up at 5:15, go to the truck, get the shovel, walk into the field and take my morning toilet trip. I walk back to my tent, put on chamois cream and sunscreen and don my bike clothes, pack up my tent and try to arrive at the door of the truck no later than 6:20am (the line starts shortly after this or some days someone makes it ahead of me…) At 6:30 the truck music turns on (wake up alarm clock if you want to stand in line later on…) then the truck doors open. We head down the two foot wide locker hallway and try and cram all our crap into our lockers as quiclkly as possible to not cause a delay for the other 50 riders, the longer you take the longer the line gets… Then I get off and fill my water bottles, double check my tires, put my newly patched (did I mention I get a lot of flat tires?) tubes into my bike and head back to pick up my hot drink at 6:45, which used to be 7am until I filled enough complaints to get that time changed to the celebration of many riders…( Anyone who has worked in the field with me before knows how near and dear to my heart hot drinks are, and the thought of watching the staff drink their hot drinks before 7 and us having to wait until 7 was pushing me over the edge….). At 7 am breakfast is served and we huddle around the table to avoid being last in line, which means, leaving camp later, which means arriving at lunch and camp later, Every decision has consequences… We scarf down breakfast and then get back in line to put our dishes into the locker…Or in my case see who I can bribe that day to put my dishes in their locker… Then helmets on, bike gloves on, scan in, and on the rode no later than 7:20am (Captain Erin speaks! This is her time of leaving, if you wait any longer you will get left behind!). We arrive at lunch hours later, eat lunch and ride to camp, scan in, get our stuff out of the lockers, set up our tents, and eat soup. Depending on what time you get to camp based on your riding day means how long you wait for dinner. Then we have a rider meeting, learn about the next day and then eat dinner, go to bed to wake up and do it all over again. And that is the day in the life of an African bike rider.

To Khartoum By Bicycle

2010-02-03T09:52:00.000-08:00

Another rest day. Another day of hand washing and loading up on junk and showering and preparing our bodies for the next stretch, a long one, 7 days to Gondor, Ethiopia. We will have two century rides, three days of gravel through Dinder National Park and several days of climbing. It is hot, and dusty in Khartoum. We started the day off with a 20km time trial, everyone for themselves as fast as you can go in as much of a sprint as possible, followed by 44 km of riding then a hot, loud LONG 40km police escorted convoy into the sprawling city of Khartoum. I surprised myself in the time trial, moving a lot faster than I thought was possible for myself. Cool that my first ever time trial was in Sudan, of all places. The last few days of hot riding has taxed people and the rest day is a lucky break. The temperature was well into the 40s as we rode past donkey carts and taxi cabs and mini buses. We rode over the bridge which is the confluence of the Blue Nile and the White Nile, an amazing expanse of water in a dry land. It is no wonder 8 million people live in this city so close to the water, because as we can attest, the desert is a tough place to exist.

Last night in camp we had a sand storm, one of the things that my camping skills are not yet solid with. Our tents got tested to their maximum wind ratings and everyone went to bed with small sand dunes inside their tents. Sand and desert has such a romanticized feel until you have sand stuck in every orifice of your body.

The last week of riding has increased my self confidence and strength with my riding. The sun is a whole new element to learn to deal with especially with the start of Doxycycline for Malaria which has a side effect of increased sun sensitivity. Already I have been dealing with extremely bad heat rash on my thighs which I imagine will only get worse as the temperature rises. We have been told we have not seen the hottest temperatures yet. I can only imagine. The unfortunate part of the desert is how freezing cold the mornings are, we huddle together drinking our hot drinks in our arm warmers and leg warmers only to be dripping with sweat hours later, drinking warm electrolyte drink and water from our water bottles…oh the irony.

Magic Clay Pots

2010-02-03T09:47:00.000-08:00

Sudan= Desert, Heat, Amazing Sunsets, Sunrises and Moonrises… and Stars as far as you can see in the Desert. The temperatures have been Hot. 45C has been the highs in the afternoon. We are leaving camp by 7:15am and by 11am it is so hot you wished you could have left at 5am. My biking crew have been reaching the lunch stop by around 10am sometimes a little earlier, which makes “the afternoon” tolerable, but it is crazy hot.

Yesterday was one of my most difficult days thus far with two flat tires and a miserable sore throat and a 141 km day mixed with the fact I struggled to do more than 17km an hour for a lot of the day. Luckily I have made enough friends that I had an amazing “nascar pit stop tire change” where I was actually told to get out of the way so the tire could be changed faster… I guess it does pay to be a woman sometimes. Chivalry is definitely okay when you are in the middle of the hot desert.

The only savior from the heat are the “magic clay pots” that exist in small shelters along side the highway for emergency water stops in the hot Nubian desert. These are community pots for anyone to use, and the clay pots allow the water to evaporate out the sides, making the water left in the pot ice cold. It is the perfect temperature to cool an overheating biking body. I am hesitant to use the pots when locals are around as I fear they might lose their mind seeing us white folk roll in and pour this water over our bodies. I am still not sure how the water gets into these pots, but I am sure it is epic. I feel somewhat bad about the “misuse” of this water however I use it sparingly and at the time it feels like it is essential to keep me moving forward. Riders have quickly realized just how much water is required to keep from dehydrating. It is an insane amount. I am definitely upwards of 12 liters easily per day right now and I am lucky if I pee twice. It is a constant battle. So much for the Bikram yoga training!

It is the time of year that the “camel caravans” march their camels from Darfur to Egypt to sell them, which apparently takes 40 days. We have been lucky enough to see some of these camel caravans coming through the desert. It is also so hot here, that some of the camels don’t make it… We have seen several dead camels laying in the desert, and without any worms or vultures or predators, these corpses lay in the desert with their only decomposer being the hot sun.

The honeymoon of the trip is definitely over, as we hear about our upcoming schedule and our “mando days” . These are days that racers must use in the calculation of the overall time due to the difficulty of the rides. Our largest climb will be coming up on Feb 12 with a 2500 meter climb! And our longest riding day will be in Botswana with a 207km day! Yikes. Well hopefully by then that will seem like a drop in the hat. It is actually amazing how the body adapts to this day after day riding. Our bodies are very resilient. We are taking a new route through Sudan which everyone is getting very excited about. Once we leave Khartoum we will head south through Dinder National Park, which has been officially closed for 7 years. We have been invited to ride through this park which is a very big deal. It has meant a change in schedule, long riding days 160km, 160km, and then several days of gravel roads through the park, but well worth it in the end. The park is home to lions, and other large animals and since it is very seldom travelled, we may actually get to see these animals. Camping out in the park we will have “guards on camels?” to protect us from the lions at night, hmmm… don’t think it will be a smart idea for people to go to far alone at night…

We now live for “coke stops” and are told about them the night before our riding days in the rider meeting. Small shops on the side of the road that probably usually get three or four people a day, are now inundated with 70 riders all VERY thirsty and hot. We found out yesterday that if you don’t bike fast enough, these “coke stops” can be very disappointing when you arrive and they are “sold out” of all cold beverages. Just a motivator I guess to bike faster, and harder the next day. Hot drinks are still available in the morning and afternoon at camp so I get my fill of tea which breaks up drinking only water which I have never really been a fan of, and despite the heat, I still love my hot drinks.

Riders Down

2010-01-29T12:28:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-29T12:23:00.001-08:00

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

2010-01-29T12:21:00.001-08:00

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

2010-01-29T12:20:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-21T09:01:00.001-08:00

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)

2010-01-21T09:00:00.001-08:00

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

2010-01-21T08:59:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-13T05:40:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-11T16:23:00.000-08:00

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

Final Preparations

2009-12-30T10:59:00.000-08:00

Rushing around Victoria, hoping not to forget anything, it is the final hour of preparations. Thank you to so many people who have expressed interest in my ride and to those of you who have donated to my charity or expressed an interest in doing so. Suncatchers Project is an amazing organization who does important things for Africa and our world as a whole.
1 billion pounds of wood are used everyday in Africa to cook
Women spend 4-8 hours daily searching for firewood, victimizing them to rape, violence and roadside injury
It takes the average family one month to earn enough money to buy a bag of charcoal needed for cooking
Diseases caused by waterborned bacteria are estimated to kill 1.6 million children every year

What if it was possible to supply every person in Africa with the ability to cook meals and sanitize water without using one drop of fuel, one brick of coal or one piece of wood? It is Visit http://www.suncatchersproject.org/ and give generously.

Let them know you are donating on behalf of the Tour D'afrique ride.

Thank you... The next post will be from Africa!
Take care...