Not so lazy now.

So, its been a while since I had the time, energy and access to good internet to update a blog.

I think last time I wrote it up, I was in Malawi. Since then, I've ridden out of Malawi to Zambia, across Zambia to Victoria Falls, took a detour into Zimbabwe, powered across rainy Botswana and landed here, in Namibia.

Its been a pretty wearing few weeks. Part of me expected to be home and hosed after the hills of Malawi. I figured that the long days in Botswana must mean that the riding was easy. Not so. Our promised tailwinds deserted us. Even turned against us on the last day of riding. The wet season made a return, so we had rainy camps and wet rides.

Despite that, it has been great. Even on the days that turn into slow slugfests, there is something unreal about what our bodes are capable of now. I couldn't do a hand flip to save my life now, but I can sit in a saddle and mash my pedals for hours every day. The moment I realised that even though I felt terrible and wondered what I was doing I had still ridden 80km before morning tea and was about to cross the Zambian / Botswanan border on a tiny ferry was awesome. It was like the time I was zipping down to the bottom of the Blue Nile Gorge, overwhelmed by the immensity of the place and amazed that I was being allowed to race through it.

Here is me in Namibia, halfway through a day fighting a massive headwind.

As you can see, I am now made out of spaghetti and tangerines. My bike is still holding it together pretty well. For the last 3 or so weeks, I've been pumping up my rear tube every morning because I have a slow week. I figured that I had to change my tires in Namibia anyway - no point doing that extra work. Of course, on the last day before tire changes for the dirt, I got a flat in the ride and had to spend some extra time changing it.

My (now maybe dead) GPS in the middle of a longish day.

On the really fast days, my GPS shudders around like nothing else. Even with the zipties, it is like being in a WWII fighter plane, plummeting towards the ground, trying to read the alitimeter. At 70km/hr, I can barely see the numbers. It is how you now that you are going awesome speed. As an added bonus, you can see the relaxed, professional grip that I have on my bars.

In a Wimpys in Maun, Botswana. Maun is a jumping off point for safaris into the Okavango Delta. This girl had found a chameleon on the side of the road. I suspect that it did was going to have a very brief, much loved life.

Still too lazy to blog

Now in Maun, Botswana.

Here is a turtle I rescued from the middle of the road and put in the bushes.

Not dead, still EFI, but no news today

I'm here in Lusaka, Zambia. Can't quite work up the energy to write blog posts just yet. Been a really long stretch since Llongwe: 700km+ in 5 days of riding, including a 200km day. Went to dinner and a movie last night, just like real people. I ordered ribs - turned out to be 3 racks of ribs, onion rings and fries. While I was in the bathroom, people bet on how long it would take me to finish eating it all. Turns out that I couldn't finish it at all.

In the meantime, you can enjoy this picture of the bone I used to dig a hole in the middle of Northern Kenya.

Day Three - Soccer Field Camp to Kasunga

Distance: 107.27km

Ride time: 3:19

Climb: 531m

Another day, another hotel to sleep in. I am definitely starting to appreciate the convenience of having your own bathroom more and more. This morning before getting on the bike I took the shovel for a walk four times. A ridiculous number.

Anyway. Riding.

Today was a truly enjoyable day of riding. The whole day was one big downhill with a sweet tailwind. There were occasional upticks and times when the wind was coming across or slightly to the front but they were almost irrelevant.

The strangest thing was that the downhills weren't always free speed. Normally with a -2% or -3% grade, it is possible to get about 40km/h pretty easily. At -4% I normally tuck in and roll up to 50km/h or more. Today there was something at work that I couldn't pin down. With the tailwind, I should have had been rocking along even quicker. Instead, I was having to pedal all the downhills to keep up a decent speed. Very odd.

Despite that, it was a pretty easy day. Doing it solo with no supporting paceline was not a problem at all.

Lunch was fried egg sandwiches with avocado and tomato. Unfortunately, just looking at them made me think of my morning walks, so I opted for a couple of chunks of pineapple and some electrolyte drink. This quick lunch made people think that I was hankering for a stage win. That couldn't be further from the truth. I was just trying to get to camp quickly so I didn't have to wade through a cornfield trying to find a place to - well you know what. Some of the other riders were less lucky. I think that there could have been more than one emergency stop on the bikes today.

Another rest day tomorrow. It seems that our seven day stretches in the desert or bush with no amenities are a thing of the past. It makes it a pretty different ride. In the desert or bush, we huddle the tarps from the sun or rain. We wait around drinking soup and waiting for dinner. Here in the hotel, we can rock up and have a breakfast beer (it helps having a three hour ride and starting at six am).

Dan's Camping Tip: If you are camping at the hotel, pitch your tent before you start your breakfast beers.

Day Two - Mzuzu to Soccer Field Camp

Distance: 124.0km
Ride time: 6:00
Climb: 1998m

Best shuffled song: Alive by Pearl Jam

Another mando day. Today was probably the easiest mando day for a while. No dirt, no rocks, just a fair whack of climbing. It was pretty nice climbing as well. Up through the something or other Mountains.

There is a lot of hardwood harvesting going on in the mountains. It could well be one of those short-term good, long-term environment disaster deals, but it is nice to ride with the smell of freshly cut timber. Even better, towards the top of the climb it started to rain and a headwind started to blow. Rain and wind make any climb better.

At one point in the climb, I saw a huge mutant dog loping along the road. I thought that finally all my years of preparation for fighting mutants (read: playing Fallout) would pay off. I was about to jump off my bike and start having at it when I realised it wasn't a mutant at all. It was just a big baboon. For my money, these are actually more dangerous than mutants. They have some pretty big teeth and lot kind of strong.

The big news is that another GI sickness is going around camp. With that on top of my not-quite-cured ESS, I am somehow managing to have two different types of sickness at once. I dunno what to do about it really. I'm cutting a lot of the snack foods out and reducing my portion sizes as well. It would really suck to have gotten to this point and not be able to ride because I can't keep my guts under control.

One of the new Indaba guys, G, has started to ride half days. He has to ride on the lunch truck and do lunch in the morning, so he can't do full days. He rode some loaner bikes a couple of times. Today though, he actually rode sweep (the last rider who has to scrape) - in a pair of borrowed bike shorts. He was lightning fast whipping on his baggies as soon as he got into camp. Pretty funny. Every other rider here is pretty used to getting around in bike gear. Some riders take it too far though: bibs are not all day wear.

Camp today is on an oval near a school. In keeping with the Malawi != Ethiopia, the kids seem to be pretty under control. The local village is also celebrating Easter. Most of it seems to involve smoky fires and drumming.

Dan's Camping Tip: You definitely need to bring a sleeping bag liner. Even if it is too warm to sleep in the liner, you should probably sleep on it. A Thermarest that has been all stunk up with rancid, tropical sweat has a very particular, and in no way pleasant, odour.

Day One - Chitimba Beach to Mzuzu Hotel in Mzuzu

Distance: 130km (per TDA)

Ride time: Unknown

Climb: 1600m (per TDA)

Best shuffled song: The Legend of John Henry's Hammer.

Each day out of rest day seems to be harder than the last. Not the riding, but battling the malaise brought on by the rest day. Something about not riding, sitting around and eating whenever brings on some powerful apathy. Its strange though, because each time I get back on the bike and really enjoy the day of riding.

Today was especially nice. We cruised down the coast of Lake Malawi for 16 or so kilometres then rode up the escarpment. This was only around 600m or so of climb, but it was enough to afford a great view of the shore, the lake and the rivers that feed into it. Like I've said before; a good view can make up a lot of climbing. At one point on the climb today, we could see along the escarpment and watch a couple of waterfalls spilling out of the forested top of the escarpment. There was also a waterfall right next to the road. I saw a few riders taking advantage of it to try and beat the humidity - it is still plenty muggy at the lower altitudes here.

At the top of the climb, we got our reward. An almost too long and too fast descent down to the valley below. Then a super fast 30km or so with a tailwind. I basically got blown all the way to lunch.

After lunch, we had some taller and steeper hills to contend with. We also swung a bit further southwards and picked up a headwind. This was a bit of a downer - instead of gently sailing along I had to work for the kilometres.

The strangest thing about today was that I had no GPS at all. Like Rambo who had to cut away all his high-tech radios when his cord got tangled during his jump. Instead of a parachute malfunction though, I had a laziness attack and forgot to charge my GPS. Or it got turned on in my bag or something. The upshot was that I had no cycle computer all day. I should have been asking people how far we'd gone when I passed them and checking how long it was taking, but I don't have a watch anymore either.

Riding with no idea how far there was to go or how fast I'm going was kind of nice. Normally, I spend heaps of time thinking about how long it is to go till lunch or camp or whatever landmark is next. Today though, I just rolled along at my own pace looking at the scenery and thinking not much at all. I did go slower than usual though. A couple of times after lunch, I saw Rod and Jullianna in the distance. Normally, I think that I would have caught them. Today, no. I wouldn't want to ride the whole tour without a cycle computer - especially on the harder and longer days - but a day is a nice break.

I am having second thoughts about my Malawi == Ethiopia comments. So far, the kids have been nowhere near as crazy as in Ethiopia. Also, I've started to see more schools which seems to be a good sign. On the downside, I've seen a ridiculous number of coffin shops. Like multiple, competing coffin shops per village. It is the kind of thing that if you heard it on a serious documentary narrated by Dame Judi Dench or someone, you'd think that it is terribly sad. If you see it while riding your bike, you'd probably think it is kind of weird and cool.

Dan's Camping Tip: If you have a hole in your Thermarest you should mark it with tape. If you mark it with chalk and then misapply the hot glue and then pull off the patch in a rage then you will take off the chalk as well. Then you won't be able to find the hole again because the glue will plug it for a while. Then you will be in a pretty pickle indeed.