Day Five - Bush Camp to Chitimba Beach

Distance: 120.9km

Ride time: 5:58

Climb: 385m

Today was a pretty strange day. Because the rest day tomorrow won't have access to food and markets, TDA wanted us to buy up our stuff today. This meant that the race wouldn't start until 30km in the ride and after we had done our shopping and put it in a 4x4. We got told that the shop didn't open until 8am. Since the store was 30km away, we would need an hour at most to get over there. All the clocks went backwards an hour here in Malawi (I'm ignoring it because I don't like Malawi) so 7am is pretty late. Every other rider had set off by the time we left.

All quiet in camp.

Well, when we got to the store, we found out that it opened at 6:30am, rendering all our delaying kind of useless. The store wasn't too crash hot either, definitely no Nakumat. Not such a big deal though. We've got used to storing a pretty large snack stockpile in case there isn't anything great at a rest day. All we had to get sorted was a bit of food for lunch the next day. We settled on sausages, baked beans and bread. Super, super nutritious. Time will tell if we manage to transform that into an edible meal.

After shopping, the race actually started.

What should have been a pretty easy day - no hills, short distance - turned into a bit of a trek for me. Firstly, there was a headwind the whole day. I think that the relative size difference between me and Stuart and Gisi means that sometimes I don't get much rest in a headwind. I find pulling and not pulling about the same effort. Maybe it is like that for everyone in a headwind. I haven't ridden enough to really know for sure (or even for perhaps).

At about the 90km mark, my back really let go. If I wanted to ride in the paceline, I'd be standing up every couple of minutes. Pretty disruptive. Instead, I waved Stuart and Gisi ahead so that I could make a picnic to camp. As soon as I'd given them the thumbs up and waved them on, I had a new experience on the bike.

My first flat while on the road. I've had plenty of mysterious flats and slow leaks in camp, but before today, no on-the-bike incidents. It was a pretty good flat. A massive thorn straight through. Once I pulled over, about a dozen kids came up to watch what I was doing. One of them, Christopher, spoke okish (he was only 10 years old or something) English. Enough for him to ask me where I was going and understand what I said back. In a lame attempt to keep them amused and not fooling with my bike, I tried keeping up a positive, upbeat commentary on what I was doing and why. It was a pretty textbook operation. Old tube out, check for the cause, find a massive thorn, new tube in, pump it up, quick wonder if it was the right tube I just put in, pump up the tube outside the bike and find out it has a puncture, wheel back on bike. Done.

The funniest part was that as soon as I put on my ipod, some of the kids start bopping up and down. I guess they know what headphones mean out here.

The paceline about to be torn apart by my bad back.

After that, the ride was pretty uneventful until camp. Uneventful, but not fun. One km from camp we turned down a "dirt" road. By dirt, TDA must have meant crappy sand that is impossible to ride through. On top of a tiring day, this was pretty annoying. It made me fail my personal goal of not getting annoyed for a whole day.

Anyways, in the overlander camp at Chitimba beach. They have a beach volleyball court. I'd forgotten how much fun this game is. Since I last played, I've developed the ability to dig the ball without freaking out. Makes returning serves much easier.

Dan's Camping Tip: Europeans love getting naked. If you are surrounded by old, wizened Europeans getting washed and changed, maybe keep your eyes on your soup bowl.