Day One - Windhoek to Horse Farm
Distance: 113.6km
Ride time: 5:01
Climb: 1085m
Descent: 1000m
There is a definite sense of the end times about the TDA now. With only two rest days and a thousand or so kilometres to go, it sure feels like I am basically done. I guess that this would be the classic way to get myself into a terrible pickle - especially since this Nambian section is meant to be quite hard.
Our route is going to take us south west out of Windhoek to Sossusvlei and from there down to the border of South Africa. Seven days riding; three before Sossusvlei and four afterwards.
So far, the riding has been ok. This morning we had 11km of paved road out of Windhoek before starting on the dirt. Unlike Northern Kenya, Tanzania and Dindir, the road we are riding is actually well maintained. Many of the roads around Yass back home are worse. There are some sketchy parts. On some of the descents, it was all to easy to get stuck on an unfavourable line. It never feels comfortable to be heading towards a big sandy patch knowing that you can't change lines without risking the front wheel digging in.
At the transition between the pavement and the dirt, Gerald had organised a group photo for the EFIers. Groups of us stopped and held up the 10000km sign. Apparently we smashed through that distance somewhere around Windhoek. We've come a long way, but it still feels a little like tempting fate to take an EFI photo so early. It was really neat of Gerald to organise it though. Something to remember for sure.
I'm not sure if we are in the Namib Desert now. Today we seemed to be climbing up to some sort of pass between Windhoek and the coast. Lots of hills to climb, which is a nice change from Botswana. Apparently when we drop down to the lower plateau tomorrow we will be able to Russia / my house / half of Namibia.
Day Two - Horse Camp to Solitaire
Distance: 122km
Ride Time: 5:50
Climb: 630m
Descent: 1323m
So. This Namib Desert thing. It is a desert. There are signs up in the Horse Camp bathrooms: "Namibia is a dry country. Adapt". Only thing is, its been raining massively since we turned up.
Late yesterday afternoon we could see the thunderclouds gathering on the far horizon. During the night it rained so hard that it was coming up under the fly and through the mesh of the tent.
In the morning, the thunderclouds lined the horizon towards which we were going to ride. It actually rained in camp for about 30 seconds during breakfast. This caused a bunch of riders to make a beeline for the lunch truck. It was kind of funny watching how fast they got their bikes up on the truck.
It looked like it was going to be a day of epic proportions. The hills here are exposed rocks with small thorn bushes growing on them. I felt like all it needed was a small Mexican boy pointing towards the jagged hills saying "There is a storm coming". The ride to lunch was all riding towards, up and through the hills.
On the way, I saw a dead snake. Its tail was all mashed up, so I decided to put it in a ziplock baggie for the ultimate prank. I threw a rock at it to make sure it was dead. Then I stepped towards it, hand outstretched, to pick it up. And the snake moved. It seemed like the snake wasn't quite dead yet. Suddenly, my practical joke had taken on a whole new dimension. I decided that I didn't want to die for the sake of comedy and jumped back on my bike to ride away. A little ways down the road I started to think that I should have just pinned its head with a forked stick and stabbed it in the brain with my pen knife. That was when I decided that I had become a crazy man and should think a little bit harder about things when I have been riding for a while.
After lunch, we had an unexpected highlight of the tour. Really, it was one of the best rides of the whole trip. A crazy 600m drop down to the next plateau. At times there were -18% drops and 16% climbs. Some of the road had been paved. Not tarmaced, paved with pavers. From the very top, it didn't look like very much - just a drop down with a good view. Only 100m down the road though, I could see the way the road wound down the side of the hills and got pretty excited.
After the drop, it was a bit of a grind to camp. Hail, big headwinds, rain and sand. The lunch truck brigade found this too unpleasant and pulled into a rest house on the way then got a lift the rest of the way to camp.
Day Three - Solitare to Sossusvlei
Although we had rain overnight and some sprinkles in the morning, we could see huge patches of bright blue sky this morning. It was an awesome feeling setting out into the cool morning with the dawn on one side and the heavy clouds on the other side. I felt pretty good and with a short day (83km) ahead, I decided to push it out for the morning. At one point, there was a pretty heavy headwind going up a hill and I felt that maybe I had overestimated my reserves for the day. Soon enough though the road turned again and headed downhill so I could wind it back up to >40km/hr.
By lunch I had caught up with Tim and Marcel who I figured were the front of the pack. They had slowed and stopped just inside the Namib Wildlife Park. They'd been lucky enough to see some springbok and orixes. Other riders saw giraffes and bat eared foxes. I saw springbok as well - they jump so high it is pretty hard to miss them. It was pretty cool to see all this stuff. The riding today was actually great all around. Awesome vistas of the desert and ragged hills. I wonder if yesterday had been blue sky instead of raining it might have been the same. Today's views coupled with the awesome, hair raising descent would have been unreal.
Somehow I managed to get to camp first. It felt pretty good to be the first wheel for a change. The only downside is that I can't blindly follow the tracks of the good riders in front of me I have to choose which line to take on the road. This can be a bit of a gamble at times. If you cross the road, bouncing over the centre corrugations and then find that the other side is just as crappy you can be pretty depressed. Having said that, the road was so good for most of the day that at times I could ride with no hands - maximising my air drumming abilities.
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