Couldn’t make this one smile for the life of me. Apparently mullets don’t do you any favours worldwide.

Changing a flat with an audience

Khartoum Rest Day

So after a few hard days of riding we are given what is called a rest day. This rest day is in Khartoum, a bustling city of about 8million people. We have the options of either taking a hotel room somewhere in the city or else there is always a campsite available where the staff will be staying with the trucks. TDA doesn’t provide anyone with food for the night before the rest day or any of the meals through the day, but will have breakfast ready for when we are getting ready the morning we leave. I have so far avoided the use of a hotel and have ‘roughed it’ in my tent. There is actually an award called the EFC award for people who never stay in a hotel for the entire trip. So far there are literally a handful of us who can claim EFC status as of a group of 60 riders, less than 10 are camping here. The facility we are at is called the Blue Nile Sailing Club. It is based off the Nile, and although extremely run down, has all necessary utilities for comfort (grass, running water, and electricity) Toilets are also extremely welcome but if you have ever seen an Arabic/ African style toilet you will understand that after a camp of 30 riders, a shovel is often the more attractive option. An average rest day will usually look something like this:

• Sleep in till a phenomenal 7:15 if you lucky as quite often we are camped within megaphone distance of at least three mosques.

• Lay in bed doing whatever (for me it usually has involved cursing anything that has woken me: mosques, dogs, donkeys, security guards testing sirens, etc.)

• Then you have a full day available to do your chores:
o Find wifi to post to you
o Wash clothes
o Wash myself
o Wash my bike
o Fix whatever is broken or buy replacements

I try to space all of these things out over a day as I have never been one to be proactive with chores 😉 Some people go out and explore the area, but so far my adventures have only taken me as far as the cheapest food stand (my record is a full meal of 2 plates of falafel, a bowl of bean soup, a coke, a stack of Egyptian bread for $2). After this day of relative comfort we are back on the road and always looking forward to the next amazing thing that Africa will bring.

Sudan Jan 29

So I have now developed a plan where I will write up a few blogs and then post them all together because otherwise there will be a very limited communication for a while. After a rest day in Dongola at an abandoned circus park, we pushed off into an altogether new desert. This desert was what one would really expect with fine sand that covers the landscape with yellow glow. Gnarly trees stand out on the horizon and are often accompanied by camels, whether they are wild or tame we are not sure but they seem at ease. After Dongola we had an enormous tailwind which just kept growing and growing. I know I wrote of a tailwind in Egypt but that was a breeze in comparison. We easily maxed out our gears and were carried along for the later part of the day. When we were about 40km from camp we stopped at a coke stop for shelter as a sand/dust storm had begun and we would rather sit drinking coke than hiding in camp. The dust storm carried on all night and a few tents were broken as a result. I opted to lay my thermorest out and sleep without a tent to save myself the trouble. My night was good if I covered up well but the blowing sand was uncomfortable when allowed to blow into the sleeping bag. As we are here to night we are getting ready for an individual time trial and a convoy into Khartoum tomorrow. After Khartoum will come the largest challenge so far if not the entire trip. A hard session of eight desert camps will set us up for the beginning of Ethiopia. We are going to have some large of road sections that are apparently really rough, although I am not too worried (whether or not I am foolish I shall soon find out). We have done over 1800km and are finishing the first stage of this tour. Already I am amazed how much I have experienced and yet we are only 10% into it. I wait every week in anticipation of what the next few rides will bring.

Sudan Jan 21

Sudan is HOT!! Um yeah that pretty much sums up these last few days in this extremely harsh, yet beautiful country. The ferry crossing although chaotic was not near as bad as what has been made out in previous blogs. We were told that the ferry was really quiet but in my opinion you just need to have patience as slowly but surely every single inch of space is taken up by luggage and people. Amidst all this chaos I lost my spoon and knife, and somehow my camera lens was broken along the joint connecting to the body so that the lens only stays connected on one side. I think I will attempt to tape it somehow but that was really quite frustrating as now I can only eat with a fork and pictures are just not happening. These last 3 rides were all very long, the first two being 145km+ and the third being 113km. On the pavement we estimate it is sitting at a steady temp of about 40 – 45*C. I am drinking over 7L daily with salt replenishing packages and am still left dehydrated. Coke stops have really become necessary after lunch in order to get something cold in the system and to allow your body to actually refresh. Many of us have found that without this break you actually cannot drink enough water to replenish your sweat. The landscape of Sudan is likely to rival that of Mordor as all that can be seen is rocky, sandy hills that are literally blackened- seemingly by the sun. It is a wonder that anyone lives anywhere far from the Nile, but somehow they do. The Nile really is the river of life in these countries. As you slowly climb up the last hills before camp you are met with a winding path of greenery and palm trees that encircle the Nile for a couple hundred meters. Two nights in a row we have arrived at camp settled, gotten changed and swam for a long time just cooling off. (only a few people from camp have been attacked by crocs so it’s all safe)
The people of Sudan are a welcome change from those of Egypt. Where the Egyptians will not take ‘no’ for an answer and are constantly in your face, those of Sudan are very withdrawn, yet with any sign of a wave are happily smiling ear to ear, calling greetings, and when we are stopped, trying to exchange facebook accounts. (they all seem to have Gmail accounts and facebook accounts). I’m not sure when I will be able to post again as things are getting much more remote day by day, but I am still here, trying to keep a smile on my face and just pedaling one day at a time ☺

Getting Ready for Ferry

Well we are now past the first 1000km of our trip and are preparing ourselves for the adventure of the ferry to sudan. From everything that I have heard I will be sleeping on the upper deck, as the older people will be in the bunks of the few rooms available. Right now I have 25 Egyptian pounds ($4) to buy supplies or else break a 50 into Egyptian and spend the rest of the trip with useless bills. I think I will be able to buy about 1 bottle of water, a bag of buns, and maybe some fruit if I barter well, otherwise I might be a bit hungry. I was told today that in Egypt we have burned about a minimum of 3000 calories a day but easily up to maybe 6000. This doesn’t mean much to me but it sounds impressive, and I feel justified in drinking over 2 litres of coke on a rest day ☺. Our last bike ride in Egypt was crazy as we swerved through market places and traffic at speeds probably too fast. The tuk tuks are a menace, and the constant donkey carts can become a bit of a nightmare. Horns are a constant tool for driving so there is always a constant symphony of honks and blaring sirens. Temperatures are currently sitting at about 30*C, and the nights are no longer cold but rather mildly warm. Things are only going to get hotter as we move towards Sudan and Ethiopia, and sunscreen a necessity rather than an amenity. The availability of internet is going to decrease even more than it already is, but if you want to find out how the tour is doing there are some people with data sticks who are posting frequently. You can find them by going to the TDA website and going under blogs. That should fill you in a bit more on what things are really like around here, as I find myself constantly at a loss to describe this amazing new world I am cruising through every day.

Luxor

We have arrived at the end of our first week and are sitting in the courtyard of a hotel where we camped last night. I had the option to do a tour of the valley of the Kings, but I decided to save my money and to clean and organize. Biking into a city such as this is terrifying and exhilarating at the same time, as there are people donkeys and busses to avoid as well as objectiles thrown infrequently by the crowds of children that line up along the road to shout hello. When cleaning my bike this morning I noticed an abnormality in my rear derailor and upon further inspection with the mechanic discovered that the lowest gear cog has split at some point. Luckily a guy named Vince had a spare one which he gave to me. The food that our cooks make for us everyday is amazing and there has always been something new for every meal. I am trying to stay organised as I have to currently pack my tent and sleeping bag into my day bag and the other bag is packed away until rest days. This leaves me with even less supplies than what I was already limited to and packing up the next day is always a pain. In desert camps we have all given up trying to keep the tents sand free and the base of my tent usually has piles spread around everywhere. In two days and a bit we will be on a ferry bound for sudan and egypt will be behind us. Please feel free to ask questions and I will try to answer them in my next blog whenever that may be.

500km

So the first 500km are down and the first of many lessons have now been learned. After a slow wander through cairo to our official start at the pyramids we were off and free to finish our day. To say I was in pain that night would be a great understatement. My legs have never felt so awful be it injury or exercise. Luckily all has improved since then and I am slowly becoming accustomed to the rather harsh territory. We did 166km on the second day and from then on it has been desert camps. There is sand everywhere and it just seeps in through all the netting. Near the third day we were blessed with a phenomenal tailwind. I was literally freewheeling uphill in my top hill we figured we were going about 50km/h uphill in some areas. Now we are parked on the beach of the red sea, and finally had access to showers (if you ever thought you have seen a greasy mullet wait till I get a good picture). Thank you all for the well wishes, I will try to keep you all posted. Unfortunately I can’t write a 1/100 of what I want to but maybe sometime 🙂

Arrival

Well I am now in Egypt, I arrived safely and finally got into my room. So far Egypt has been extremely cold and it has rained lots- exactly what you would expect from a tropical desert country. The drive to the hotel was rather entertaining with the highway resembling multiple holleywood car chases in progress all at once as vehicles weaved around honking and flashing high beams, with no regard for lanes or space. Everyone I have met seems to be very friendly and nice and the atmosphere from all is one of excitement as is to be expected. Today we went over a lot of information and got my bike assembled with relatively little setbacks. Tomorrow will be a bit busier of a day with more organization but for now things are good. Maybe I will get on a tour for the pyramids tomorrow but we”ll see.

Where I’m Headed

So here’s a little bit of information on where I’m headed and distances for those of you who would like to know. Heres a list of the countries I am going through and the distance through them.

• Egypt 1000km
• Sudan 1500km
• Ethiopia 1800km
• Kenya 900km
• Tanzania 1200km
• Malawi 800km
• Zambia 1100km
• Botswana 1500km
• Namibia 1300km
• South Africa 800km

All for a total of around 12000km

This trip will take me 120 days (including rest days) if everything goes according to plan.

The general map