Coffee Bay to Hole in the Wall - On foot

Coffee Bay is one of the destinations on the Wild Coast that we had decided to skip. Both the backpackers there got pretty bad reviews; unless you are going there to booze it up - stay away.

But. We heard from a couple of people that the hike along the coast to the famous Hole in the Wall is pretty awesome.

So. We switched from going to Port St Johns to Coffee Bay and took our luck with the Coffee Shack backpackers.

Getting to Coffee Bay is pretty cool. We took the shuttle from the Mthatha petrol station to Coffee Bay. That area of the Transkei is pretty awesome. I am jealous of Hardy, a TDA rider, that rode along there after the tour on his way to Pretoria. Lots of hills, valleys, turns and forests. Also plenty of poor villages spread for ages across the hills. Its not Ethiopia - not even close - but it is the poorest I've seen in South Africa.

The Coffee Shack was pretty much what I expected. Compared to Buccaneers at Cintsa it is an absolute dump. The reviews are spot on. If you don't drink, stay somewhere else. We stayed across the river in the "quiet" area. We still got treated to the full show: doped up fools boning in the bathrooms, puking in the morning and rolling a contemplative joint to work out why being an idiot is so hard work.

On the other hand, the hike itself is awesome. The trail winds right along the sea which means that it is pretty exposed. If you are afraid of heights prepare to spend a bit of time managing it by looking at your feet. If you do look up you'll see plenty though. We saw whales breaching and a huge pod of dolphins. The landscape itself is pretty rugged and barren. It feels pretty remote, but there are a lot of mobile towers and so on around, so I guess that help wouldn't be too far away.

Here is the route that we took. Forgot to start it and the phone went flat just before we got back to White Clay, so don't plan a mission based on this or anything.

Hole in the Wall (Partial) at EveryTrail


We weren't sure how far away Hole in the Wall was, and we'd been told that there was nothing around. So we were pretty surprised to walk past a small town and then see it. We were so surprised that it took us a while to work out that we were actually at Hole in the Wall and not some other thing. It didn't help that we were there at high tide, which makes the hole look a lot smaller.

We took a slightly different route on the way back in places. A beach that we'd powered across had been covered by the tide so we had to struggle up an extra steep hill. On the other hand, we knew which of the other trails to take when there were a bunch of choices.

If you can arrange it, stop at the White Clay Guesthouse on the way back. It has great fish and you can look at the waves smashing themselves in to the cliffs you just skirted.

Dan becomes a "backpacker"

[Dan's Note: A guest blog from Steph.] As we travelled across Africa on our bicycles, we were always just short of the luxuries that we wished we had, sometimes hot water, sometimes a dry place to sleep and always a bed. As the trip moved away from the “desert camps and bush camps” of Northern Africa and we were often close to or around hotels, a certain group of the riders would Always get a hotel room. Dan was one of those riders. These riders would talk to each other days before the arrival of one of these towns, deciding who would ride faster to obtain the precious commodity of a hotel room (with 60+ riders, not everyone would get a room, not even close). Near the end of the trip the commodity actually became a bone of contention within the group as riders would select another rider to zoom ahead on the truck to secure the rooms for themselves and a select group of other riders before the “actual riders” made it. Being a professional wilderness guide myself, I prefer to live in my little tent. I also prefer the non- cookie cutter style of travel offered by backpacking across countries and living in hostels as opposed to fancy Protea, or Hilton hotels. When Dan and I began our trip across South Africa once the biking was over I proposed this style of travel to him. Dan having never done it before, was very hesitant and not overly excited about the idea, but agreed. There were some conditions that Dan laid down in the beginning. These were the conditions: 1.We would never stay in “Dorms” 2. We would get Double en-suite rooms…. (Hmmm not really backpacking I thought) but a good initiation into the world of backpacking that I have been doing for years. When Dan suggested that we should rent a car to drive up the wild coast, I suggested the Baz Bus, a backpacker hop-on hop-off bus that drives up the coast. He was less than thrilled with this idea but agreed. From day one the Baz bus was full of young intrepid backpackers, and us, Dan slowly learning the ropes of meeting and greeting travelers as they got on the bus. I love people and interacting with strangers and hearing people’s stories, Dan is more of an introvert sitting on the bus with his headphones on secretly hoping no one will talk to him. First stop: Wilderness, South Africa where Dan and I agreed that Dan would have his last “fancy hotel” a small little guest house called Moontide, where we stayed in a fancy little treehouse. I also decided this would be a good trip to teach Dan about the joys of hiking, running and maybe scuba diving, three of my favorite things… He wanted to show me about computer coding (his favorite thing) however my brain is not smart enough for that. Moving on from there in the Baz bus we went to a place called Plettenberg Bay, where we stayed in a hostel which was pretty empty and stayed in a double en-suite which seemed to be more like a cheap motel than a hostel to me. At this hostel a British couple was in the kitchen at the same time as us wanting to cook on the stove. As we all started cooking the fuse blew and we were unable to all cook at the same time. I told the british couple to go ahead and cook and we would cook later, all the time Dan was standing (looking very scary and angry with his arms crossed by the fridge). The woman looked at me and then Dan and was like “oh that’s okay you go ahead” I think she was frightened by Dan’s look. I said “no really go ahead”, just as Dan stormed out of the kitchen to watch TV. I don’t think he really cared but he didn’t realize how scary he was looking. In the aftermath I stayed behind to chat to the couple to make sure they didn’t think we were mad. When I told Dan later, we had a good laugh. Next we zoomed along on the Baz bus to Storms River. Here, Dan was introduced to the “hippie world of the backpacking scene”. We had a really cool theme room double en-suite in the hostel. The owner was a real long-haired crazy dude who talked a lot. We said we would have dinner that night at the hostel as we arrived late. We got our pizza they made us and we chose to sit at the bar. The owner then came and talked some serious crazy talk to us for over an hour. It was Dan’s birthday so I felt badly that we were being held captive by this crazy hostel owner, as I was trying to endear Dan to liking backpacking, not getting them to hate it. Finally there was a small window of opportunity to get away so Dan and I escaped with out saying any more. We had one more night at this hostel where we ate at a restaurant for dinner and tried to avoid the strange environment of the empty hostel (guests) and a lot of hippie workers? Or whoever they were. Next was the best yet. We travelled on the Baz bus to Port Elizabeth (Nelson Mandela Bay) to arrive very late (around 10pm) after the Baz bus picked us up over an hour late. When we arrived at the hostel, the entire Baz bus was also getting off at the hostel. I should also mention now that while I was trying to teach Dan about hostel, backpacking we were not actually travelling like backpackers. We (Read: I) have A LOT of luggage. This is because when you come on a trip to bike across Africa, you never think that at the end of it, it would be really enjoyable to backpack across South Africa, so you don’t lighten your load. Dan mailed one of his whole bags back to Australia, but since I will need a lot of the things in my bag after this trip, I have EVERYTHING… Bike parts, tires, sleeping bag, bike clothes etc. etc. It makes getting in and out of the hostels and Baz bus a bit of a gong show. So we get off at the hostel and we are in a line up to get into the hostel. When we finally make it to the front we find out that they thought when we booked a double en-suite, that we actually wanted a single room and Alas, they were now out. She said this is what you booked… Dan looked really scary. I said “Well it is too late to go somewhere else, so we have to figure something out”. I said to Dan, maybe you should stay in the single and I will stay in the dorm. Dan said, no I will just stay in the dorm too. After a lot of deliberation about what to do, they decided the dorm was the option. She took us to show us. As we approached the dorm we could see the entire Baz bus, girls and guys were in the dorm, the last two beds (for Dan and I ) were on the top bunk of two of the bunk beds. This was like the Hostel worst nightmare scenario. I peeked over at Dan to see what he was thinking. I am not sure if he looked more like he was going to cry or freak out. So I said, maybe you should just stay in the single. He said that was what he was going to do. Yikes. This had quickly turned from slow integration into backpacking into advance levels. So Dan stayed in the single and I stayed in the Dorm. Funny enough we both slept better than we have on the entire holiday thus far. Today, the man that owned the hostel was trying to make things better. He couldn’t get a double but he gave us a private room with four twin beds. He also offered free internet, free beer (but since Dan said we don’t drink he gave us cokes) and then he said what else can I do to make you less angry (obviously this was directed at Dan, not me) Dan said I want to take the Jaffle Iron next door- This is the story of this man’s heart, all you need to make him happy is a Jaffle iron. So that is where we stand now. Who knows what will happen next on this backpacking odyssey… Luckily all the hostels were full for Durban and (sigh) all Dan could find for us to stay in Durban due to the World Cup was a Hilton. [Dan's Note: the poor guy even offered to refund my money. It just goes to show that the secret to good customer service is being a brooding monster. Take note simpering whiners.] I don’t know if Dan will ever backpack again, but now he has “experienced” life as a backpacker, he might even win a EFI- backpackers award for South Africa.

The End of Something

So. The TDA is done and dusted. After four months, it seems incredible to be in Cape Town.

A week after the race finished I am still adjusting. Only now am I starting to realise that it is over. 120 days might not seem like a long time in the scheme of things, but it is more than enough to be habit forming. Most of me still expects to be getting on the bike tomorrow. To have my food cooked by someone tomorrow. To be in a tent tomorrow. To be drinking a litre of thick, sweet coffee tomorrow. To be seeing all the TDA people tomorrow.

But its not going to be like that.

The strangest thing is how quickly the elation wears off. There was maybe five minutes at the final lunch where I realised that I was going to keep EFI - I didn't have to worry about keeping it anymore. After that EFI seemed like a pretty hollow achievement. I see the photos from the expedition riders and it seems like they experienced so much more of the tour than I did. Don't get me wrong though. I wouldn't have wanted to do the tour without trying for EFI and I would have been pretty disappointed to lose it through accident or by giving up.

Cape Town is a pretty nice place to be having TDA withdrawals. The Waterfront has everything that you could need. This is me enjoying (and destroying) a platter for two at a German restaurant.

I look pretty healthy in this photo. Turns out that I am pretty weak though. Tabata Protocol at the gym nearly killed me and I can't lift anything to save my life.

Not having a protective layer of blubber means that I started to feel the cold a lot. Even though I am not super skinny like I was in the depths of sickess (85kg). On the first day in South Africa it was bitterly cold and I had no warm gear with me at all. Luckily, we stopped in a petrol station / cafe / supermarket / crystal shop / second hand emporium. I found a riding coat perfectly suited to cycling long distances.

Lightweight, waterproof, fashionable. All these things are hard to find in a second hand coat. I am also wearing a loaner helmet. I couldn't find my helmet at the start of the day. I have a system that means that my helmet should always be on my head or in my locker. On the rest day before this, I went for a ride to find some money then lost my helmet. Turns out that I just carefully packed it in my spares bag. The system broke down.

Final picture. Me after having jumped out of a perfectly good (well pretty banged up really) plane. Strangely, not nearly as scary as going up a ladder.

Sossusvlei, Namibia to Felix Unite, Namibia

Day One - Sossusvlei to Betta

Distance: 137.14km

Ride time: 6:27

Climb: 887m

This morning was a pretty hard section. There were a couple of 5km or so 1-2% long climbs. Those combined with the bad sections of road were tiring. Having another four big days of this stuff to go is a bit daunting. My hopes of the last two weeks being a cakewalk have totally evaporated. We have hundreds of kilometres of dirt and TWO mando days in the next four days. Not going to be easy.

Riding meeting today was good. I got my plate for winning the stage into Sossusvlei. Hooray. Actually, it was pretty good. Maybe I will become addicted to not being a mediocre rider.

Day Two - Betta to Some Lodge with Chocolate Cake

Distance: 152.93km

Ride time: 7:20

Climb: 942m

First mando day of this stretch. We did a bunch of climbing before lunch. I couldn't get my heart rate up at all and really suffered. Grinding it out. For a lot of the climb, I could see the same rider in front of me. Normally, I can reel that guy in easy. Especially on the hills. Today I had nothing to use to even catch him. Let alone keep him back once I passed him.

Surprisingly, a lot of people were still there at lunch when I turned up. All my experience at lunching quickly was handy. I jumped back on my bike… wait a minute. I didn't jump back on. When I got into lunch, I couldn't unclip my right foot so I just unstrapped my shoe and walked around in my sock. When I went to get back on I tried keeping my left foot on the right hand side of my bike and re-strapping my right foot. This left me in a pretty precarious position. I couldn't swing my left leg over, get going and steer around the other bikes on the ground. Luckily, Canadian Dave was there to help out. He held my saddle while I got going, at the same time that Gerald cleared the bikes for me. Thanks guys!

After lunch, the day got a lot better. There were a few me climbs out of lunch but after that it was a -1% or -2% grade all the way to camp. Plus, the gravel road got much, much better. By the end, it was basically like riding on a paved road. I even saw their grader out cleaning up the road. Namibia seems to be really serious about maintaining this road. I guess it is because a lot of the overlander trucks use it. Every day we see a couple of those tin cans packed to the brim with tourists. I can't imagine what it would be like to be stuck in one of those for endless days. Especially since they are full of people. On the bike, you have a bit of freedom. Like, you can stop and take an emergency break when you need it. Plus, you can ride by yourself if you need some time away. Maybe overlanding appeals to a whole different type of human. One that likes other peoples' body heat and second hand air.

The best bit of the day was the lodge that we stayed at. Delicious homemade food - including ice cream - at really low prices. The milk tart (custard tart) was good, but the chocolate cake with coffee ice cream and chocolate liqueur was awesome.

Day Three - Some Lodge to Seeheim Hotel

Distance: 126.07km

Ride time: 7:24

Climb: 351m

An easy day today. A short distance plus 90km of pavement made for an untaxing day. At the end of the 30km dirt section was the town of Bethane. There was a pretty awesome coffee shop there. I had a couple of cheese toasties and a few cups of coffee. A pretty nice way to start the day. It turned out to be a long day though. 7+ hours.

The camp tonight is strange. Seeheim seems to be just a small collection of buildings near a railway station. And the railway station seems to be used only for cattle. There is one crush and a loading ramp. Not in use today. But the hotel for this town is pretty amazing. Multi-storied, turret, thatch roof. Pretty cool. So out of place though - I can't imagine why it is here. If I wasn't feeling so strangely tired I would ask the owner.

Day Four - Seeheim Hotel to Hobas Camp at Fish River Canyon

Distance: 108.9km

Ride time: 3:43

Climb: 481m

Another short day. I dunno why, but I felt like pushing it out a bit. I'd left it until nearly everyone else had left before I set off. Straight out of camp there was a fairly steep climb and my heart rate went straight up to 160. It didn't come back down for around 20km. I was hauling along ok, going past people, but I was definitely feeling it, so I had to wind it down a bit.

By the time I was getting close to lunch I had passed most other riders. I could see a bunch of riders in the distance though and wasn't really making up much ground. Stuart still hadn't caught up to me yet though, so I pushed it out a little bit more. When I rolled through lunch, I saw Sunil and Marcel sitting there. There was still one more rider in the distance though, so I didn't stop and kept on going.

At the 76km turn I caught up with Tim. I still hadn't seen Jethro though, so I figured I had to crank up the Slayer and push even more. The turn had swung us out of the tail wind and into a cross wind, so things also got a lot less pleasant. Every 1km I had to stand up and mash a bit to loosen my back. I also snuck a look behind to see if Stuart was gaining on me. I could see a dark blur back there but I couldn't tell who it was or whether they were closing. I figured that there wasn't too much point looking back there. Could I ride any faster than I was now? No.

Around 10km out, I heard a voice coming in over Slayer. I turned around and found out that the dark blur was Jenn, and she was calling my name. She had found out that she had unexpectedly come into the front of the pack as well. We both kept on pushing, not with any expectations, but just to see if we could. At 100km I dropped my bottle. I thought about stopping to get it but decided I had to keep going. Top of the last hill, I dropped my chain and had to get off and fix it. I looked back and saw another 2 dark blurs about a kilometre of two behind.

Jenn and I dropped down into camp. A couple of camp staff pointed us in the right direction and we checked in. I just had enough time to win the stage.

Just kidding. The locals pointed us in the wrong direction. They were standing in front of the trailer with the check-in machine on it. We rode off into the park looking for the trailer. When I got to the edge I realised that we'd been given a bum steer. "FUCK" I yelled and turned around. I rode back looking for the truck. Rode to the truck and found that the scanner was on the trailer was back up the rode. I threw my bike over my shoulder (not sure why, I guess I was pretty angry) and ran back to the trailer. I saw that Stuart was checking in already - I'd wasted whatever lead that I had fucking around looking for the trailer. Stuart hadn't realised what was going on. He asked if I was angry that he'd checked in. "No. I'm angry at the TDA", I said and booted my helmet across the camp ground.

By then, it was just after 10 am, so I decided to have some breakfast beers.

13 beers later, I went to see the Fish River Canyon. Surprisingly, the only effect I felt from the beers was that my legs were a bit wobbly.

And that was how the day was.

Day Five - Fish River Canyon to Felix Unite

Distance: 178.90km

Ride time: 6:53

Climb: 1235m

Second mando day of the stretch. Some might think that I had set myself up for failure by drinking 13 beers the day before. I felt fine though. Not fine enough to ride fast, but fine enough to finish the day.

It was a pretty strange day. There were two super long climbs after lunch with super long descents afterwards. The only downside was that the second descent had a massive headwind. Even on a -4% grade, it took effort to get above 30km/h.

Two notable things about the day:

1. Adam and I had our sprint. Adam outsmarted me and won.

2. Tony and I thought that we had taken a wrong turn so we turned around at 178km. Turns out that we should have kept going over one more hill. Instead we rode some extra kilometres.

And that was that.

Instead of a picture of the Fish River Canyon or Namib Desert (which you can get off Googles), here is a picture of me, sitting in a tent because someone started to take it down because I was taking too long to get ready in the morning. Safe for work: I am wearing pants.

Windhoek, Namibia to Sossusvlei, Namibia

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.

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.

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.

Day Four - Stockholm Hotel in Mbeya to Bush Camp

Distance: 120.15km

Ride time: 7:04

Climb: 972m

Non-race day. Hooray.

These are the days that we get to have cokes, take photos and generally mess around.

The ride itself was pretty nice. A pretty decent climb straight out of camp. This quickly took us out of Mbeya and all its craziness and above the layer of cloud. Above the cloud there was a fantastic view of the hills all around. In our head-down paceline we didn't actually notice until we saw a bunch of other riders standing on the side of the road. "Flat party?" Stuart wondered. Turns out no, not a flat party, but a photo party. Once we saw the view, we had to stop and join the photo party as well.

The photo party in full swing.

Part of the panorama at the photo party.

The climb to the top was pretty sustained but enjoyable. The whole time, you had a great view back into the valley that we rode up from yesterday afternoon. The whole valley was blanketed in a thick layer of cloud. Although the climb had been billed as a bit of a monster, it was over way too soon. I felt like I could have climbed it all over again.

So, too soon we were on the descent. After the climb, we dropped all the way down to the Tanzania / Malawi border. This was pretty sweet. Plenty of smallish (and not so smallish) hills. Most of them were exactly the right size for smashing up in the big ring. There were one or two that required some shifting, but for most of the ride, I could have been riding a single speed.

We had more cokes than was probably healthy. Stuart and I had six cokes before we got to camp. Three of them in one place. It is surely a nice change to the usual though.

One of the coke stops. Stuart, Gisi, Erin and Dana.

I don't think I have had more than a handful of days with cokes stops that weren't non-race days. One of them was the day after Dindir in Sudan when I was wasted and had around 1 million cokes. Another was the Blue Nile Gorge climb were I had a great couple of cokes about halfway up. Lastly was a stop on a really heavy traffic day out of Khartoum when we were all mentally shot from fighting against trucks and buses.

On non-race days, it seems like we have to make up for all this. Not only did we stop for cokes, I also bought a Camelbak full of passionfruit in a market.

The border crossing was probably the most annoying yet. The actual paperwork, getting stuff stamped part was pretty painless. The hassle came when we needed to get some Malawi money. Gisi and Stuart tried with some dodgy looking guys in the no-mans land between countries. These guys were pretty annoying. Crowding around, touching my bike, yelling, moving us around. I was pretty unimpressed and said that we should just go. Gisi changed anyways. It wasn't until we were over the border and in Malawi that she worked out that instead of 4000 Malawi monies, she had been given 400. She went charging back across the border to see if she could find the criminal that gyped her, but to no avail. It kind of short circuited a lot of hassle where they denied it happened, etc.

After the crossing, we powered up the slight incline to the camp. Basically, it was back to Ethiopian camps. The most frustrating thing about it is that a lot of the adults around the camp (read: the ones that have nothing better to do from noon to sunset on a Monday) think that it is hilarious when kids:

• watch women pee.
• watch women get changed in their tents.
• steal stuff.
• walking around peering in tents.
• yelling out for us to give us stuff

It is pretty crazy the difference between Tanzania and Malawi. In Tanzania there were schools everywhere, including in the remote, dirt road areas in the middle of the country (like where the guy had to ride for six hours to get where he was going), and there were hardly any kids hanging around camps. In Malawi, I've seen hardly any schools and there are hundreds of kids, on the sides of the roads and in camps.

So, I guess that if you are going to donate money, then donate money to some scheme that is going to build and staff schools. It may not make any real difference, but it will make life for cyclists a lot easier.

Dan's Camping Tip: If you have two doors on your tent, in countries that are officially pro-stealing stuff then you can use a keyring to lock your tent doors. Hopefully, key rings are some kind of magic that they can't understand.

Day Three - Bush Camp to Stockholm Hotel in Mbeya

Distance: 94.53km
Ride time: 3:52
Climb: 1079m

Today was probably the nicest ride I've had for a while. The paved parts of Tanzania are probably a close second to Ethiopia for enjoyable riding. Nice hills to ride up and down, good views, good pavement. Unlike Ethiopia, I don't have to worry about a little kid karate kicking me off my bike on the fast downhills.

The morning was pretty cruisy. Stuart, Gisi and I were all feeling a bit tired from the previous couple of days, so it was a pretty slow pace. We were still catching and passing the usual suspects. After a while though, we started to feel that none of us felt like smashing ourselves today. Stuart and Gisi planned on doing a sensible, spinning pace and skipping lunch. I decided to backtrack for a bit and ride with Steph. Her bad toe is pretty annoying on the bike and riding alone with an injury can really suck.

When I rejoined with Steph, she was going a fair bit faster than she normally does. I was feeling like I had plenty left in the tank, so we bumped it out to lunch. It sounds terrible, but it is way less effort to ride with someone that is even a tiny bit slower. Hopefully, Steph felt like she got a good deal being pulled to lunch.

After lunch (scrambled eggs with bacon!) we had the hard part of the day: a 25km climb up to the hotel where we would be staying. The average gradient for the climb was 2.5%, which is enough to be challenging. Especially in the humidity - dropping down yesterday and this morning meant that it was pretty muggy again.

Looking back down the climb to the valley below.

It sure was nice to get to the top of the climb and still have enough left in my legs to do a decent clip through the town. Doubly so since there was a fresh, cool tailwind.

All in all, an enjoyable day on the bike.

Camping tip of the day: If you are camped in long grass and expect a dew, trample down the grass under your vestibule. Otherwise, you will be pretty damp in the morning.

Day Two - Forest Camp to Bush Camp

Distance: 126.26km
Ride Time: 4:00
Climb: 824m

Today was a great ride. We descended over 1400m and had a morning tailwind, so we could knock out a fairly good pace.

Stuart and I got a bit carried away for the first 20km or so. On the small rollers, we were cranking it out pretty hard. For me, part of that is because at the start of the ride, you can see the riders that left earlier. The urge to chase, faster than you have to, is irresistible for me. On the change over from me to Stuart, Gizzy looked pretty uncomfortable with our reckless, unsustainable pace. Being fat and being able to bomb it down the hills has its advantages I guess, because I am definitely not faster than Gizzy going up the hills.

As expected, I couldn't hold the pace all day. When we hit the climb from 1100m to 1250m (not that big) at the end of the day, I was really suffering. I'm not too fussed though, because once again, I felt better than I did the day before. Maybe by the end of the trip, I will be as fit as I was at the start. That would be pretty sweet.

Ted, one of the riders that loves going on side trips, might have organised proper fitness testing in Cape Town when the trip ends. It will be pretty interesting to see if we are healthy or not at the end of the tour. I kind of feel that our adaptation to cycling means that we are going to be less generally fit. I can't accelerate on the bike like I used to. I certainly don't have the upper body strength that I used to.

A good day to be on the bike. Nice hills, kind wind and good scenery. Reuben was feeling like today was his day for a stage win, so he was out for the kill - just shouting out his number as he blew straight through lunch.

One of the other rides, Steve, wanted to ride his bike to lunch, but his bike was already on the truck. The bike spends a lot of time up there, so I guess that the Indaba guys assumed that it should go up. Instead, he rode the truck to lunch, then hitchhiked in a Coke truck to camp. Pretty funny.

Smells like dinner will have bacon in it. Definitely a good day.

Day One - Iringa to Forest Camp

Distance: 105.68km
Ride time: 5:17
Climb: 1300m

Best shuffled song: No music - iPods prohibited.

Today did not start well. I'd arranged through reception for a taxi at 6.30. I figured that would give me plenty of time to put tubes in my wheels before having breakfast. Well, of course the taxi wasn't there. When reception tried to call for one, the taxi guy didn't want to come or something. So, first the night watchman went looking for a taxi. Then the reception lady followed him (there might have been some angernon moments in between).

While I was waiting, I tried to check out. Despite having VISA signs and me having been told that my VISA would work, it didn't. I had no where near enough Tanzanian Shillings to pay.
So, when my taxi turned up at 5 to, the reception lady jumped in as well. I got a stack of cash out of the Barclays ATM and handed it over. My on and off relationship with that hotel did not end well.

No breakfast, dodgy job putting the tubes in quick photo of the board and we were off. I miss the Arusha Hotel.

Despite how it started, today was actually really, really good. For most of the day, the weather was great. Plenty of hills, but no terrible grades. Not nearly as much traffic as we had been told.
There were some dodgy moments. The normal thing of cars and buses overtaking slow trucks and taking the whole lane. I only got forced right off the road one time. One of the descents was a 70km screamer. At the bottom a bunch of potholes. Some people didn't look ahead far enough to see them and had to do some emergency manoeuvres. This would have been pretty risky if a truck had been coming the other direction.

Lunch is going from strength to strength. Today my sandwich concoction was half an avocado, two slices of cheese, baloney, a sliced pickle, Branson Pickle, cucumber and tomato. So much better than pita bread, tuna salad and oranges. I guess that being in a richer country is definitely a good thing.

Talking about wealthy countries, the rumour is that Malawi is like Ethiopia. We'll have a camp perimeter again and have to keep everything locked down. I am definitely not looking forwards to it. It is hard to relax after the ride when you are being watched by four hundred and sixty eight little kids.

Anyway.

No that I've got my appetite back and am sleeping through the night, I definitely feel much more enthusiastic on the bike. Still slow with no staying power and no acceleration, but I actually feel comfortable on the bike again. Hopefully I'll build back up to being _and_ feeling strong.

Day Zero - Rest day in Iringa

Since I am feeling so much better, I have been eating an inhuman amount of food.
The night before the rest day, most of the riders and staff headed to a bar called Shooters. Unfortunately, a bunch of Peace Corps people had also headed to a bar called Shooters. I didn't even know that the Peace Corps still existed. I thought it was one of those bad ideas from the Eighties like plaid shirts and leg warmers.

I had the strangest hotel room. Well, suite. Well, kind of suite. It was in a lodge (read motel) out of the centre of town. They had made a suite by knocking a big room and a small room together. Then they had piled in all the furniture that they possibly could.

So, in the little sitting room, there were:
* three chairs,
* a table,
* a TV,
* the thing that was the TV was on,
* a bar fridge,
* and a cabinet for the fridge to sit on.
This was all in a room about 2m by 2m. Pretty crowded.

In the bedroom there was:
* a pretty big bed,
* a wardrobe,
* a broken floor lamp,
* a dressing lamp,
* two bedside tables,

Ok. I got bored writing this list. This really would have been one of those cases were a picture is worth a thousand words. I should have thought of that before I checked out and left the hotel.

So Far Update

So, a clearer map of where we have been. Even though my GPS went flat before we got to Iringa, you can see that we are close to the border with Malawi.

Total distance riden is now 6058. Pretty close to last time - not much to show for seven days of hammering ourselves on dirt roads.

Day Seven - Hilltop Camp to Iringa

Distance: 74km according to the TDA guys.
Ride time: Unknown, GPS died.

Probably the best that I have felt since before Nairobi. I slept really well over night. No caffeine, no night stomach cramps, a reasonably hard day and cooling rain at night meant that I sacked out and slept pretty solidly. I did wake up at 4am to the sound of pretty hard rain. This got me thinking about my tent, and the velcro straps that hold my fly (the outside, waterproof part of the tent) to the poles. I had thought that these were to make sure that the fly is positioned so that water won't pool then seep through. But. I figured that they would also hold the poles in position, and the tent up, if I unclipped the inner. That would mean that I could do a rain pull down without getting my non-waterproof inner wet at all.

When the 6am wake up time came around, I put my theory to the test. Sure enough, I could do an inner-first takedown. The only limitation (that I can see) is that you have to do it crouched in the tiny vestibule. And by tiny, I mean extremely tiny. Like, smaller than me tiny. Still, it is way better than a wet inner.

The actual riding today was also pretty good. We started with a 20km, all climb, dirt time trial. This was pretty awesome. All the rain overnight, and the sprinkling during the morning, had softened the dirt into a tacky mud. This made for some slow going and some hard breathing. I definitely pushed too hard, enjoying feeling good, and ran out of juice before the halfway mark. It was still a fun climb. The classic climb along a valley, winding in and out with the contours. Heavily forested hills with low hanging cloud and a winding road makes for a nice climb. Looking across and seeing the road that you've come up is always inspiring.

I was really surprised (in a good way) at the speed that some of the people went by me. Jason and Reuben both flew by. Those guys have been loving the dirt. Jason is a great high cadence rider, I think that served him well on the rocky, muddy climb. Reuben is a strange guy. Sometimes I can fly by him in the morning and not see him all day. Other times, like today, he can really be up there, pushing it out and outdoing me with ease. Those guys both did great in the time trial - and totally well deserved.

Because the end of the time trial marked the end of the stage and the section people were free to hang around. So we did. Ate a PVM bar. Drunk some water, scrapped some of the mud off my bike. Stuart had a boiled egg he had the forethought to bring from breakfast. We were all pretty happy to be at the end of another section and to have no more racing for a day and a half. Plus, delicious endorphins from pushing up a muddy hill in the rain. When the dinner truck went by, we all looked at the people riding the truck staring at us out the window. i was definitely happy to be on the outside (in the rain, covered in mud, with another fifty klicks to ride) looking in.

I really hope that I don't have a fall or mechanical that forces me on to the truck. So much of it comes down to luck. Some of the strongest riders have lost EFI because they got sick at the wrong time or crashed. What is more telling than EFI is how people act after losing it. Some people get back on their bike as soon as possible. Others fall into a habit of riding the truck.

Keeping EFI is such a strong motivator for me that it helps me stay on the bike on tough days. Without that motivator, I know that I would be tempted to get back on the truck again and again. I hope that I would be strong like some of the other guys and ride as much as possible, writing off the loss of EFI as bad, unavoidable luck.

It makes me wonder how much EFI means - how many riders would have been able to ride the whole tour if it hadn't been for that one day of bad luck. I know that Dindir National Park was a turning point for a lot of people. The day was so unexpectedly and uncharacteristically hard that losing EFI must have felt like being robbed. Every day up to that point had been so manageable with consistent riding. Then Dindir came along and was 140km of bad road, hot conditions and infuriating convoys. For the people that finished, it was elating. I was tired, physically shattered and worn out, but I'd finished the day and still had EFI. There were hugs, hand shaking and back slapping. People that had fallen, been swept kilometres from the finish or couldn't face the conditions with scant chance of success had nothing to boost their spirits. I can completely understand why some got straight on the truck the next day. But it makes me respect so very much the people that didn't finish the day, that didn't have that post-ride elation, but still got on their bikes the next day, and the day after that.

I think that a large part of how I view people that crack and get back on the truck is brought about by a fear that maybe, deep down, I'll turn out to be one of those people. Knowing that you've held something in such disdain makes it hard to do. It can cut both ways though.

Gisi finishing the climb in the second half of the day.


Stuart looking happy to have finished the climb.

The view from the top of the climb.
Dan's Camping Tip: Inside out tent taking down is awesome. And you can probably do it.

Day Six - Bush Camp to Hilltop Camp

Distance: 99.27km
Ride time: 6:02
Climb: 770m

Today was a pretty good day. Lunch was at the halfway point (distance wise) of the tour. Marked with a line of PVM drink power. Apt.

Lunch was pretty special. Instead of the normal fare, we had a feast. Cheese (two types!) and crackers. Branson pickles. Pineapple chunks. Cashews and raisins. Passion fruit. Avocado. Marmite. Tomato. Cucumber. Great, great stuff. I am kicking myself that I didn't take a photo, but I was too busy enjoying it.

After lunch and the halfway point, we basically climbed all the way to camp. WIth a real kicker towards the end. I made this a bit more challenging by snapping the shifter cable for my rear derailleur. I rode for a while in the tallest gear at the back, but eventually I cracked and jury rigged it back up so that I was about a third of the way up the cluster. Riding in my granny at the front on the climbs and rough sections meant I was crossing the chain a fair bit and producing a horrible noise, but I didn't want to fool with the system either. When I got to the steep climb at the end, I had to risk it and shift into an easier gear.

About two thirds of the way up the climb, I happened to look out to my right and saw the view. Before then, I hadn't realised how high we'd climbed from the dam. It was neat to see how far away the dam was, and how far below. Definitely a satisfying way to end the day. Oh yeah, we rode over a dam today. African countries are pretty picky about their dams, important bridges and military installations, so we were told not to take photos. No doubt someone has got some good ones though.

The view down into the dam.


The view back towards the dam a long time later.


Dan's Camping Tip: If you take a nap on your Thermarest under the truck and leave your bags uncovered, drape and arm out from under. That way when it starts raining, you'll know to get up and move your bags somewhere that they won't get wet. Also, when you get out of the truck, remember that the door is probably open, so don't stand up and smash your back into it.

Day Five - Dodoma to Bush Camp

Distance: 95.3km

Ride time: 4:28

Climb: 191m

Definitely a cyclocross dirt day today. Just a bit of sand and some small corrugations. Apart from that, it was pretty smooth sailing. Not even any real hills to slow us down. I kind of feel like the other shoe has to drop soon. This is meant to be a rough, challenging section and apart from the day after the mando day, it hasn't been too bad. Pretty bad, but not too bad.

Even though the road was better, there were still plenty of opportunities to cut across on the little bike paths. After lunch, I got onto a pretty long diversion. It was nice and fast but I started to get a bit worried when I couldn't see the road anymore. I didn't turn around. I figured that I'd enjoy riding up the path as much as I was riding down it. I kind of knew where the road was so I headed in that direction until I got to a village with a road that headed towards the main road.

Other riders had a harder time finding the road again. There was a massive time difference between the first ten or so riders and the next riders. Some also had a lot of punctures. I guess that it is all part of the tour. There would have been worse places to get lost. Taking a wrong turn in Ethiopia could have taken you down a huge hill that you would have had to ride all the way back up.

It is hard to describe how pleasant the singletrack is though. It is so smooth and effortless compared to the road. Stop pedalling on the road and the best case is you slow right down. Worst case is you lose momentum, hit some soft sand and fall or careen across the road. Stop pedalling on the singletrack and you coast along. Maybe you get lucky and there are some little bumps that you can pump to keep speed. Plus, riding a touring bike with tank tyres on singletrack is a very singular experience (hah, see my witty pun?). It feels kind of like being on a Tron lightcycle. Hunched down over the drops and twisting around obstacles. It is so absorbing, that I stop thinking about how much further I have to go, where I am or what I am doing. A nice change.

The view before dropping down the last hill to the camping plain.

Dan's Camping Tip: If you think it is going to rain (and it probably will in wet season Tanzania) don't pitch your tent in the grassy depression. Smart money is that rain will probably run down there.

Day Four - Field Camp to Dodoma

Distance: 109km

Ride time: 5:02

Climb: 520m

Best shuffled song: The Last Song by the Foo Fighters

Fourth day of dirt. As Marcel put it, today was more a cyclocross dirt day than a mountain bike dirt day. For me this great. Most of the day was pretty relaxing. Good hard packed dirt on the main road. A couple of fun sidetracks to be found.

A still feel like I am not quite over being sick. I am definitely not feeling any of the symptoms that I had before, so I can eat food and sleep now. But I haven't got back much bike fitness. Every day, I feel a bit better, and can push for a bit longer in the morning. Taking it a bit easy in the morning would seem like the sensible thing to do, but I kind of worry that I would just get used to riding slower all the time. I'd rather suffer a bit in the middle part of the ride (the last part is always awesome) and work on getting a bit fast again. That's my plan anyway. The other guy that got ESS is taking the opposite approach - ramping up slowing - so we can compare recoveries. He has a lot further to climb back up than me though. He is dangerously skinny from the sickness and then his summit attempt on Kilimanjaro.

No mangoes for lunch today. The new Indaba guy, G, took the trouble to shout out "No mangoes at lunch today mate" as he went by in the lunch truck. I guess that eating 6 mangoes in one go makes quite an impression.

Training for RAAM Eric and I went looking for some fresh fruit in Dodoma. We tried a couple of places, but the mangoes weren't anything on the mangoes from yesterday. Eric ended up getting some little mangoes and avocados. He is counting of getting a lot of calories from avocados. Seems smart. As well as fresh fruit, we got some Tanzanian style fast food. I ordered a hotdog by pointing at the sausages then saying "bun". The guy was nodding his head and saying "yes, bun" so I thought that we were both on the same page. Turns out not. I just got a couple of sausages on a place. They were actually pretty good though. I followed up by ordering some chips. This turned out to be a mistake. The guy had run out of charcoal for his grill, so he had to send out for some. By the time that arrived, and he'd fried (not deep fried) the chips, I kind of felt like all my prime relaxing time had been spent.

Dan's Camping Tip: When you are checking into your hotel, make sure that you get a room with air-conditioning. Fans can't battle equatorial humidity.

Day Three - Secondary School to Field Camp

Distance: 98.7km

Ride time: 8:25 (includes a lunchtime nap)

Climb: 1026

Best shuffled song: Master of Puppets by Metallica

Today was another dirt day. My game plan for the day was to make a picnic. And I executed perfectly. I was taking it pretty easy and on track for a six hour day. Then at lunch, I heard that the bike rack on the dinner truck (the truck with my tent and everything else) had broken the bike rack and would be late into camp. I figured that I might as well sit around the lunch stop and eat mangoes for a while. Better than sitting around camp with nothing to wear and nothing to do. After I ate a bunch of mangoes and looked for some buried treasure, I felt a bit tired and figured that I might as well have a nap as well.

Sleeping sprawled across three camping stools is easier than it sounds.

An hour or so later, I felt like I should actually get going.

The other highlight of the day was finding singletrack to ride on. Parallel (sorta) to the main road is a footpath / bikepath. Not only is it easier going than the often corrugated and sandy road, but it is way more fun. Twisty, narrow track with bushes and flowering plants growing right up to the edge is pretty fun to ride along. One descent was particularly cool. Narrow track across open slick rock and gravel. Super fast. Way better than thumping down the road, smashing into rocks and grinding through sand. It was so good that I ended up spending a bit of time back tracking looking for entrances to more tracks.

Some of the riders have very little experience riding off road. As in, limited to the amount of off road that we've done on the TDA. I'm no great shakes on the dirt, but for these guys it must be even harder. They have to ride for a much longer time (no naps and mangoes for them) and have less confidence on the descents. At the end of a long day, it is easy to misjudge something, even something as innocuous as some sand, and end up falling over. I managed to do just that. For me it is more funny than scary. If I'd done it at high speed and put a rock into my ribs it would have been a lot less funny though. Anyway. My whole point here is that some of the riders ended up having to play it safe and walk down some of the descents. That must have sucked. They made it to camp though in one piece though, so yeah.

When I got to camp the people that I normally (used to?) ride with told me that they were getting worried when I hadn't turned up and were thinking about sending back a bike with spare parts. It is good that some people are watching my back. I'd better not make a habit of lunch naps, or they might get too used to me being late. Then I'd really be missing those spare parts. Camp rumour is so rife at the moment that one guy had heard that I was deathly ill and that is why I had to take a nap.

One of the expedition riders, Jeff, somehow got hooked up with a local and took the "cut-off". According to him, it was an hour long descent of single track. Instead of going up and over the hill that we rode up, he traversed across the ridge line, going through villages, dry river beds and canyons. Sounded pretty awesome - and the local dropped him right at one of the TDA trucks, so he was dead on target. Jeff said that the local was in a real hurry. He was going to be riding until 6 o'clock that night to get where he was going. It amazes me that someone that keen to get wherever it is that they were going had no faster way of getting there. Not in a bad way, just a puzzled way. Maybe the spirit of commuters is worldwide.

Oh. Ali (our Kenyan and Tanzanian fixer) and Sharita were filming and taking photos at the descent down the big hill of the day. The climb itself had been pretty fun. Plenty of almost technical riding that required picking a nice line and working up little rock ledges. But a lot of spinning as well. It was only a 200m 4km climb but that, plus having to absorb the bumps from the rocks on the way down, meant that I was pretty tired. I did not cut a very dashing figure - so don't be holding out for an "EXTREMEZ HARDCORE CORNERING" video on the TDA website any time soon.

Only four more days of dirt until we get to Iringa and then it is pavement (no doubt of varying quality) until Namibia. I'm not sure where Namibia is exactly, but I hope it is a long way away. We get to Dodoma, the administrative capital of Tanzania, tomorrow. I hope that I'll be able to get a hotel room for the night.

Pineapple update: No pineapples to be found within walking distance of camp last night. Six mangoes at lunch today more than made up for it.

Dan's Camping Tip: Bring a tent peg mallet. You will be camping on hard ground. Nothing is more futile looking than a tired man trying to hammer a peg into a rock hard ground. Except the peg springing right back out thirty seconds later.

Day Two - Lakeview Camp to Secondary School

Distance: 119.7km

Ride time: 6:37

Climb: 1201m

Best shuffled song: Brain too rattled to remember.

Mando day. The idea of these days is that they are so hard or representative of the riding in the country that your time for them must be counted towards your race time. You can't drop the time as one of your three grace days. The winner of the stage also get a 30 minute time bonus.

These have been a pretty mixed bag so far. Some, like the Blue Nile Gorge and the constant climb day in Ethiopia, have been awesome. Challenging riding and plenty of things to look at. Others, like the lava rock day in Marsabit, have been really, really hard and taken a lot out of me.

Today's mango day was one of the easiest but also pretty uninspiring. All but ~5km was unpaved. A mixture between road construction, corrugated, rutted roads and pretty nice dirt road. Plenty of variation in road surface, but with a definite preponderance of third world dirt. I guess that all the construction work means that this section will be paved by next year, just like our last 20km yesterday had been paved as well.

The best part of the ride today was definitely the dirt climbs after lunch. Some of the pinches were 15%. Nice way to spend lunchtime. Also good was negotiating the small tracks on the side of the rutted roads. Made for a terrible average speed, but way more fun than smashing over another set of corrugations.

I've put up my tent, baby wiped, peeled a bunch of garlic and eaten soup. Now all I have to do is walk to the nearest village and see if they will sell me a pineapple. Pineapple is the king of fruits.

Some of the views during the day - definitely in big sky country out here.

Dan's Camping Tip: If you leave your lantern on in your tent, try not to also leave your inner unzipped. Especially when you are in the Tropics. Spiders, strange bugs and massive flies are not what you want to be dealing with last thing at night.