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.

Day One - Arusha to Lakeview Camp

Distance: 105.56km
Ride time: 3:48
Climb: 545

Best shuffled song: You Were the Last High by The Dandy Wharhols (honourable mention to Shake That by Eminem)

Today really started yesterday for me. I had to arrange my taxi to get from the hotel to the campground early in the morning. The front desk pointed me towards the doorman who hooked me up with a taxi driver. He wanted 10k to go down to the camp. This is about twice as much as it should be. He reckoned it was because it would be early in the morning so he had to charge extra. I told him: "That's cool, you can sleep in tomorrow and not make any money." My lightning wit won me the haggling battle.

When I turned up at camp, there was a bit of a problem. I no longer had a bike helmet. I wasn't sure whether I'd left it at the hotel or if it had gone walkabout at the campsite. I looked around pretty good but couldn't see it anywhere. Luckily, our route for the day was going to take us back past the hotel, so I would be able to check my room on the way back out. I got a humorously small loaner helmet from the truck and headed off for the day. I powered up to the hotel but my room was empty. I was definitely starting to get a bit annoyed. Having to get a replacement helmet sent across was going to take a lot of time and effort. Not a good way to start the day.

The first few kilometres out of town were pretty hectic. A lot of dodging around traffic and pedestrians. Made a bit harder by the ubiquity of potholes (ubiquity is a $50 word). Being a safety conscious person, I managed to get a shot of Joss and Gerald on my way by. You can't really see Gerald because Joss is completely eclipsing him. In a convoy, this would have been a bit stressful. Riding solo, it just makes it entertaining. I guess until you smash into the side of a cement truck pulling out in front of you.


After town, we had an awesome set of rolling hills out to about the 40km mark. These hills were perfectly made for being smashed up. I didn't drop much below 35 for most of it. So much fun I forgot all about the helmet. On one of the slight downhills, I went by a local rider at 42km/h. I was on the drops, so I could still see their shadow right behind me. Since I was enjoying riding solo, I came up a little out of the saddle and put everything I could into it so that I could drop them out of my draft. It worked. For about five seconds their shadow dropped back. Then they caught me back up. I finally stole a quick glance over my shoulder and found out it wasn't the local rider after all. It was Gerry, one of the sectional riders, using me a domestique to catch back up with Viv, his partner. Much less demoralising than being drafted by a guy in long pants riding a clapped out clunker.

I was feeling so good, when I caught up with Stuart and Gisi I went right on by and kept going. After 40km, the hills became a little more sustained (not much more, as you can see from the total climb for the day) and I had to start changing gears. Still I felt pretty good getting into lunch. I was a bit worried about the rest of the ride. Our brief had been for 20km of dirt at the end of the day. Not something to look forwards to eagerly on a fully rigid bike. I got to 80km and started working out average speeds and when I could get to camp. Then 85km came up and no dirt. 90, 95 and 100 all rolled around with no dirt. It seems that the construction in this section had all been finished. In the end we only had 800m or so of dirt from the road down to the campsite.

All day, the views were awesome. We are going through really green farmlands set against some distant hills. I know I saw this about almost everything, but it reminds me of riding down Yass Road towards the Brindabellas. More crops and less cattle though. And there is no river at the bottom that you can swim in. Also, houses are made out of wood and thatch here. Apart from that though, its a dead ringer.

Gerry, Jethro and Viv powering up the hill while I am taking photos.

The views were worth it though.
While I was waiting for a bucket shower, Paul came up to me with a surprise. Someone had put my helmet in some box in the truck. I have no idea why it was there. It was sweet to get it back.

Gerald has bought a new shirt from a gas station. The front reads "Well spotted I am a Mzungu". The back has "And no, I don't have any: money; pens; chocolate". I think that you'd have to have walked or cycled across Kenya and Tanzania to really appreciate this shirt.

Dan's Camping Tip (guest written by Gisi): If you see a tree that has many birds in it - don't put your tent up underneath it.

Repacking

Number of milkshakes: 2
Largest number of Tanzanian Shillings in wallet: 900,000
Time spent by pool without sunscreen: Enough for an embarrassing sunburn on my stomach

Best packing song: This Love by Pantera (yep, some part of my brain is still 14 years old)

Since I have three days off, I figured it was time to check my gear and repack.

So far all I have really accomplished is to initiate the largest gear-splosion ever (Karen: you can't use this word in Scrabble). Well. I did patch a bunch of tubes that I'd hidden away so that I didn't have to look at them.


As you can see, I have a lot of gear. Some of it has definitely not been worth carrying with me. The cans of tuna from Bahir Dar in Ethiopia could probably go. The empty doxycycline bottles that are too nice (what is wrong with me?) to throw away could probably go. Before the tour I got a notebook and nice Ortleib case so that I could take down the directions and language notes. I don't even carry it with me on the bike anymore.

The fancy Keen sandals are a bit of a white elephant. They are too good to wear in the shower, but not really suitable for walking around the bush or desert. I'd bring some cheap thongs (flip-flops if you are not Australian) instead.

Four pairs of gloves is probably overkill. I brought so many because I wanted different gloves with different seam patterns in case I started to suffer. I've worn all those gloves so much back home that I could have played it safe and just brought one long fingered set and one short fingered set. On the upside, I can make like Michael Jackson and wear different coloured gloves. Whatever else happens, I have the glove situation sorted out.

So far, I haven't needed a bike spare that I don't have. Knock on wood. There are some things that kind of worry me a little though. If I bust an SPD pedal, I'd be screwed. If I snap my bars or stem, I'd be screwed (but probably so hurt in the resultant stack I wouldn't care). You can only bring so much stuff though.

What I do wish I brought is the right footprint for my tent. That way I could pack away the inner and keep it dry when it was raining. I also wish I brought along a real tarp instead of a tarp/poncho contraption.

I'd also have packed some more cleaning stuff. Or bought it in Cairo. A stiff shoe brush is definitely good for cleaning some things. On the other hand, an old t-shirt is almost as good if you are prepared to take off the chain and rear wheel. Maybe some degreaser to chuck in a spare bidon and get the chain really clean. Maybe. Snap on chain cleaners are pretty useless if you have a quick link on your chain. Oh yeah - put quick links on your chain. A real, non-wax, lube would be nice as well.

Multi-vitamins are something that I'd bring from home. You can get them in most places over here, but it is extra hassle that you might not want. 120 days worth isn't going to take up much space in your baggage. If you are into fish oil tablets you might have to ween yourself off them. I can't see how you'd make them work in the deserts. Some guys brought powder to mix up recovery drinks. I think this is a close call. Making concoctions out of infant formula and whatever else you can find has its own merits. Depends on if you want to be the inventor of the successor to Mr Dan's Awesome Drink. Some riders have caffeinated gels and so on. I don't think that I could have packed enough of them to be worthwhile. If you are keen on racing and need to win the mando stages for the time bonuses, these might be worthwhile if you can ration them out.

I think that number of gadgets that you bring is pretty personal. I couldn't get by without a laptop to charge my other stuff, organise my photos and hold all my music. Others get by perfectly well without one. My GPS cycle computer has made changing tyre sizes less hassle and lets me know how much of the day's climbing I have done. Some riders have no cycle computer at all. I'd say that most people would bring a good camera. Portable music things are good for me - I like to listen to something last thing at night and certainly while riding. More audiobooks might have been nice to bring.

I would most definitely not bring the Solio solar charger. It takes ages to charge (even in the Sudanese desert) and won't charge my iPhone or iPod. The free usb charger that takes 4 AA batteries is a way better thing to have. If my laptop battery runs out, it has been an excellent failsafe for my phone, gps and iPod. Definitely, absolutely recommended if your stuff can charge from USB. Which reminds me: the more stuff you can charge from USB the better. The only downside is if someone walks off with your USB wall charger and keeps it for themselves.

I've been pretty happy with the quality of all the gear that I brought along. My little Macpac tent has a tiny whole in it, but it has done some pretty hard work. Rocks, sand, trash, wind and rain haven't caned it too badly. It is also big enough for me and all my bags (no bags under the fly in Ethiopia). The off brand thermarest has done solid work.

In terms of riding clothes, I wish I could say buy your stuff early and ride it for a while first to make sure it is comfortable. Instead, I should say: buy some Santini bibs recommended by your shop, try them on once, pack them, then ride them all the time. Even in the depths of ESS bibs weren't a problem. You can get your jersey off and bibs down in a hurry with sufficient motivation. Maybe you will even look cool, striding purposely towards a distant bush, pulling your jersey off over your head and shrugging off your straps. You might have to practise your purposeful stride though. And if your toilet paper is in your jersey pocket, don't leave your jersey half way between bike and bush. Pro tip.

Second Rest Day in Arusha

After a totally lazy first day, I actually had to do something on the second day. No just sitting around, reading magazines and eating bacon. Instead of that, Gizzy, Reiner and I headed out for a day safari to Arusha National Park. This was a lot better than I thought it would be. The whole park is set against Mount Meru, so the scenery seems especially spectacular.

We got to see bunch of animals. Girraffees (go spelling), zebras, warthogs and baboons were pretty much everywhere. It was pretty awesome to see those animals. I guess that I kind of know how people feel when they come to Australia and see kangaroos or sulphur crested cockatoos.

We also saw a bunch of colobus monkeys and blue something or other monkeys. It is odd to see things that look like little people hanging around picking food and fighting. While we were watching one groups group of Colobus monkeys, they suddenly all scampered up the trees to get higher. Then the alpha male started making the eeriest croaking sound. Hearing it, you wouldn't believe how little those guys are. It sounded almost exactly like the noise a Predator makes when it is hunting action heroes. A minute or so later, we heard the same croaking noise from the other side of the road. Our guide's guess was that the two groups had come too close together, and the males were croaking as part of a territorial display. It was a reminder of how strange and different Africa is.

We also saw an albino baboon baby. Pretty neat.

The only disappointment was that the flamingoes had already migrated. Apparently, they migrate when the lakes become too diluted by fresh water. The algae that they feed off doesn't grow so well in the fresher water and they have nothing to eat. It was still neat to go and look at the alkaline lakes where they normally are though.

We also missed out on the hippos. We drove around a bit looking for them, but couldn't find them anywhere. We did spend a bit of time driving around off the roads asking farmers where hippos are. If I were a farmer in Tanzania, I'd want to know where massively dangerous behemoths are. Getting your legs crushed by an angry hippo is one thing, but having it happen by surprise when you are collecting eggs in the morning would be even worse.

Another good thing was that it was massively relaxing being driven around in a car. It has been a pretty long time since I've been in a car for more than twenty minutes or so. It was so relaxing that I kept falling asleep on the way back. I was enjoying sleeping so much that it was kind of a hassle when we kept stopping to look at animals.

Our guide, Iddi, was a good guy. When he found out about my ESS, he took me to a clinic so that I could get some more tests done. For some reason, they call the test the "widow test". Bodes well. Good news is that I don't have malaria or typhoid. I got some stuff for my cramps and a mystery drug. I kind of think that maybe the mystery drug is going to turn me completely inside out. As long as I turn back the right way in time for getting on my bike, I'm fine with that.

Since I am going to be inverted soon, I figure that I might was well eat as much Indian as possible tonight. Will definitely be a nice change from the bananas and bread that I've been eating to control the cramps. By the way - I definitely recommend this as a good thing. I had no problems with my guts while eating those things, and a banana sandwich with salt (no butter unfortunately) is still a deliciously tasty proposition. Some people say that I didn't look too happy eating one of those sandwiches instead of pasta though.

No photos today, because Tanzanianets are a bit unreliable.

PS. Mystery drug seems to have helped.

Day Two - Namanga to Arusha

Distance: 117km
Ride time: Dunno, GPS went flat

Today was another border crossing day. Kenya to Tanzania. Stuart and I wanted to get across the border before there was a big queue, so we skipped breakfast and jumped on the bikes pretty early.

Best laid plans and all that. I dunno if I said, but back when we entered Kenya in Moyale, we were told that Australians didn't need to pay for a visa. Well, in whatever this border town is, they have a different idea. They wouldn't give us an exit stamp until we paid for an entry visa - our entry stamp wasn't enough. This took long enough that there was a big line at the Tanzanian entry office. To show them who had the moral upper ground, I took their pen.

Waiting around wasn't too bad though. Our race time didn't start until we checked in on the Tanzanian side, so we weren't losing ground. Plus, I got to have a nap on the floor of their office while I was waiting.

The ride itself was a bit of mixed bag. The scenery was spectacular. Mount Meru started off as a peak way off on the horizon and turned into a skyline dominating juggernaut. Awesome stuff. The less good stuff was that a lot of construction is going on at the moment, so there was a lot of dirt diversions. After yesterday's wet tar adventures, I was less keen on risking riding on the construction zones.

Out of lunch, there 14km climb across the foothills of Mount Meru. No crazy gradients, just a constant 1 - 4%. This doesn't sound like much, but it can wear you down. Today was also warm enough that I was dripping sweat from my face and elbows. I actually like this feedback that I am working hard.

Arusha itself seems to be a pretty big town. We rode around the CBD (I guess to avoid the worst of the traffic) but even so I saw some tall buildings and even traffic lights. I am so used to the craziness of North Africa, that I busted right through the first set of traffic lights. Apart from that, the ride through (or around) town to camp was the normal gauntlet of minibuses and trucks wanting to run me over. And honking. So much honking.

I didn't hang around the campsite much. Instead I jumped in Ted's shuttle - he seems to acquire stuff like this by magic - and came over to the Arusha Hotel. Since we are at the halfway point of the tour, I am having a holiday. The suite here is pretty nice. Couple of bathrooms, separate study and a sweet flatscreen TV. I even got a cold towel and a couple of glasses of orange juice while I was checking in. There are some advantages to turning up clad in sweating, dusty lycra, splattered in tar and cuts. Plus, a bowl of fruit to eat.

The ride before my GPS went flat.

Day One - Nairobi to ONA Camp at Namanga

Distance: 156km
Ride time: 5:45
Climb: 947m

The first half of today was probably the strongest that I have felt on the bike for a couple of weeks. Having lost a bunch of weight during the sickness (85kg now) but getting over it means that I can push up hills pretty good on the bike.

For about 40km, I thought that I might have a crack at a stage win. I was out in front of the group and feeling strong. Unfortunately, there was some pretty rough pavement and my saddle sores really fired up. After that, I could really only pedal standing up. Still made pretty good time, but I got passed by the one-legged Kenya, Gerry and Marcel in pretty short order. After lunch, Tim caught up with me as well. What I didn't know was that Jethro had also left early and was waaaaaay out in front. Still - it felt good to be strong for a change.

The funniest thing about the ride was the construction zones. There was a diversion road off the side, but it looked pretty sandy and rocky. Instead I opted for riding on the road under construction, like that life saving road back in Northern Kenya. This worked out pretty well for the first bit. A mixture of fresh tar and hard pack dirt meant that I could haul along - outpacing the 4wds and stuff on the diversion road.

The plan only really came unstuck when I saw some tar with water on top of it up ahead. Well, I thought it was tar with water on top. It was actually wet tar. If you haven't been stupid enough to ride on wet tar, I can fill you in. Firstly, you will notice that wet tar is being flung up at you. This will coat your bike (including the drive chain) in tar. Secondly, it is slippery as all get up. I managed to stay upright, but a couple of riders had some falls.

I got into camp pretty early. Instead of getting to sit around the campground drinking cokes and talking crap, I spent hours and hours trying to get the tar off myself and my bike. We sent a guy into town to buy 10l of petrol to clean with. I used a couple myself to clean my drive chain and body.

If anyone from Bike Culture is reading: don't click on this picture - it will only make you sad.

Day Zero - Rest Day in Nairobi

Hmmm. This is day was probably the least that I have seen of any of the capitals. The Indaba camp is out in the burbs where the ex-pats live. This meant that there were pretty sweet shopping centres close by. The transition from scarcity to plenty has been pretty rapid. As recently as Isiolo, we were having trouble buying our snacks and shaving stuff. Here, there is so much, we wouldn't be able to carry it if we bought everything we wanted.

One thing I definitely did want was a new iPod. I destroyed mine back in Addis when I let a jacket drip into my tent. If I want to listen to music on the bike (and I do) I have to juggle the battery life in my iPhone. If I run it down, I don't have an alarm or a way to call for help. An iPod with 40 hours playback time is way better. The local supermarket sold little shuffles, but that would be just as bad I think.

Instead, Rod, Julliana, Steph and I took the trip out to the Yaya Centre. This place sounded like the mecca of shopping centres. It was indeed pretty good. I got a new 160gb class, and Rod got a super cheap 120gb. I hooked him up with a playlist of angry man music and so he is pretty happy. I've rarely seem him around camp without at least one headphone in. They also have proper food here. We went to a cafe for lunch and ate ourselves silly. I even got a couple of chocolate milkshakes (sadly missing since Khartoum) and another homemade spider. Delicious.

Rod and Julianna enjoying food.


My breakfasts. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. So have it twice. Then have another chocolate milkshake.


Apart from that, I did nothing really except sit in a lawn chair and read the economist. It was actually kind of funny. I was telling the people at lunch that I really wanted an inflatable chair to sit on. When we were driving back from the mall, there were a bunch of dudes selling hats on the side of the road. Since we were stuck in traffic, I bought one (my leather hat has definitely seen better days). I was pretty busy haggling and paying, so I didn't pay much attention when the guys in the back of the taxi (I was in the fat man seat once more) said "Look Dan. Inflatable Telly Tubby Chairs!" I kind of thought that they were taking the piss as well. By the time I looked up, we were already actually past the guy selling that sweet Telly Tubby merchandise. Oh well. I probably couldn't move it around on the trucks anyways.

Other news. Our old Indaba crew is no more. Janet, Ferdi, Errol and Peterson are back to the real world. It will be strange without those guys. We see such a small group, any change is pretty disruptive. When sectionals arrive or leave, it is big news.

The Ride So Far

Some quick stats.

I've ridden 5,158km since I landed in Cairo (plus a tiny bit more when my GPS was flat). Total climb has been 31,259m. That is about 5000m more than someone told me was in the whole tour.

Snacks

One thing that I have only mentioned in passing is snacks. This subject is so important in North Africa that it deserves more than a Camping Tip. When you are on a bush camp or desert camp or any camp with less than a market nearby (which is most days before Kenya) the only way to get a sugary snack is to bring it with you. TDA provides heaps of really good food - but none of it is a snack. And if you are big and hungry there can be a long time between your bowls of soup and dinner. The thing to do is to find a good supermarket (not so super outside the capital cities) and buy ten times as much as you think that you can eat. I pretty rarely eat chocolate at home, but over here, all bets are off (Africa == Drunkeness). The picture is what I would consider an adequate supply for a normal six day gap between towns.

Pro tip: form a group of people to swap snacks with. Variety is the spice of life.

Day Five - Mike Savage Safari Camp to Nairobi

Distance: 136.50km
Ride time: 6:37
Climb: 1606m

Non-race day. Yay.

I was kind of surprised to find out that we had 1600m of climb for the day. And that there was a convoy half-way through the day.

To avoid the fast people having to wait for _all_ the slow people to turn up at the convoy start, there were going to be three convoys. The first 15 would head off with Chris, the mechanic, and probably make good time. Each subsequent group would be slower and have to wait longer to get going. That meant that for a non-race day there was a bit of pressure to still make good time up the hills. I wasn't really too keen on this, what with the stomach cramps and all. Instead, I set off pretty early and tried to get a head start. Even so, it was only a couple of hills before Stuart and Gizi caught up to me.

I would have been happy to ride by myself. I think that I could have gone an easy, comfortable pace and still made the first convoy. Gizi figured that we might as well ride as a group though - being a non-race day and all. This meant that I had to ride a bit faster than I felt good at and Stuart and to ride a bit slower. Oh well.

We made it to the lunch stop and convoy start with plenty of time to spare. Enough time to chow down on some really nice honeydew melon and eat a mango. Then I got some Africa cold cokes and we had those. I think that this was my fatal mistake.

By the end of the convoy (only one flat: Jethro, and one broken bike: Marcel) I was feeling pretty terrible. For about five minutes I would feel strong and could power along. Then I'd have cold sweats and stomach cramps for the next 20 minutes. Not ideal for riding up heaps of hills (the outskirts of Nairobi are pretty hilly) and through a lot of traffic.

Apart from the cramps, it was a pretty nice day of riding. We had a sweet section of dual carriageway before lunch that was packed with real rollers. Could fall out of the sky like a fiery meteorite (well it feels like that to me), wait until the speed dropped below 50 then power back up the next hill. Some of them were just the right size to stay in my hardest gear all the way to the top. Others I had to spin a bit. They were all fun though.

Even the cramp inducing, heavily trafficked hills on the outskirts of Nairobi were pretty nice. Plenty of views across the suburbs and hills.

I even saw a car coming down a hill get massively sideways, locking up all four wheels. I'm not sure what they were trying to do, but heaps of the Kenyan drivers are pretty keen overtakers. It wouldn't surprise me if they had just had to emergency brake before they flew through the safety barrier and sailed into space.

Rod's Camping Tip: Bring earplugs. When the party is still going at 2am or the person next to you is letting them rip - you will definitely want them. Pro tip: good airlines will give you free ones on your flight over. Etihad will even give you a nice soft case with your airplane socks, eye mask and ear plugs.

Day Four - Nanyuki to Mike Savage Safari Camp

Distance: 103.58km
Ride time: ~4hrs
Climb: 592m (but descended 1397m)

"Oh my god. Now I understand what we are doing." - Gizi

So today started out as a pretty sweet ride. Rolling hills with a serious downwards trend. I was definitely feeling the effects of a couple of good nights sleep. We started off riding to the equator. Well, to a sign that said it was on the equator. Our GPSs had a different story. Anyway, pictures were taken. If I had my act together, I would post one. I don't though, so just imagine a birdlike stick figure with a giant head covered in half shaved stubble. Standing below a peeling sign proclaiming one to be on the equator.

Back to the riding. Sweet indeed. We were ripping along at an awesome pace. I was feeling super strong on the hills, carrying plenty of speed into the bases and pushing up to the top. Then my chain wrapped itself around my spokes. That's cool, just takes some time to slip the chain off and put it back on. While half the people we just smashed by ride on past. Off again on the chase. Then my chain slips off the front chain ring as I stood to pedal. Foot comes off the pedal and hits the ground. Ouch. Back off the bike. Send Stuart and Gizzy on ahead. Fix bike. Start riding again. Have to take it easy in case chain comes off again. It does.

There was a bit of a climb to lunch, but it was definitely worth it. There was a crate of mangoes waiting to be eaten and I was on a forced slow day, so pretty awesome.

Two delicious mangoes later (I know how to peel and eat them well after helping in the kitchen so much) I was on my way. Still pretty fast day, even taking care of my chain. At one point near the end, I got stuck behind a semi doing around 35km/hr. This was just slightly too slow for me on a -1% grade. I waited for a clear stretch of road then started my over taking move. A semi is much longer than it seems from behind. I got about halfway along and felt myself slipping, so I let out a massive hulk roar, literally yelling as loud as I could and pushed past before the oncoming traffic got too close. That truck ended up being within 200m of me the whole rest of the ride, like something out of Terminator 2.

Camp was super sweet. It was 2km down a dirt road on the banks of the Tana river. It was at a safari camp, so it had amenities, including a bar with Africa cold cokes. The best bit was that we could go white water rafting. I was a bit hesitant at first, because I can't really swim.

Turns out that they have special white helmets for people like me that can't swim, so they know who to fish out first.

The rafting was really, really good. With all the rain that we rode through, the water was really high. We got to do some Grade 4 / 4+ (they rate them themselves though) and mucked around a bit. We kept trying to ride the standing wave at the bottom of one rapid. Gizi got thrown out on the first two attempts, then me on the next. On the final go, we flipped the whole raft and all ended up in the drink. Then we did this thing where we climbed onto a rock next to the rapid and jumped in. Pretty neat. Because our guide spoke really fast English, Gizi didn't really understand what we were doing until it was too late to chicken out. Hence the quote. It was cool though.

The best thing was: at first, falling in seemed like a freaking catastrophe. By the end though (when we flipped out going doing the last big rapid backwards) it just seemed like normal. I guess that I am used to it now.

Day Four - Isiolo to Nanyuki

Distance: 70.58km
Ride time: 4:28 (includes french toast eating time)
Climb: 1417

So. Today was pretty funny. I was still feeling and looking like a very sick thing. I had started Cipro the night before though and I was already feeling heaps better. It is like some sort of magic drug.

I guess I was looking bad enough that Gizzy thought I might loose EFI that day, so she decided to ride along for moral support. If anyone has ever had me give them moral support, you'd have a good idea how Gizzy does it. Basically she rides alongside either laughing at how slow you are going or not letting you stop. At one point into the massive 40km climb, I really wanted to take off my rain jacket because I was too hot. I got to the point of stopping one point unclipped when Gizzy said "I think that we can make a break at the T-junction". That junction was another 6km up the road. When we got there, as well as taking off my jacket I took a drink of electrolyte drink. Gizzy: "What are we going to stop for a picnic here?"

Pretty funny stuff.

Eventually we made it to the top of the climb. I tested the limits of Cipro drinking a whole bunch of different types of juice. Delicious, delicious juice. Not the reconstituted powder juice we could buy before, but proper juice in little cartons. I should say that Ethiopia had good juice though - mango, pineapple and avocado. So thick that you have to eat it with a spoon.

The good news was that I didn't give up on the ride, even when I was going 6km an hour. The even better news was that it was french toast for lunch. The best news was that we were camping at a hotel next to a British Army base. It was a proper hotel that knew how to make food and had electricity (almost all the time). The room was so big, we watched Always Sunny in Philadelphia in style while writing blogs and doing email. Civilisation is grand.

Plus, with Cipro I can eat again - so I had a mixed grill, a homemade coke spider (order vanilla icecream and a coke) and then we had awesome sausage and pasta salad for normal, TDA dinner. Excellent stuff.

Cipro and being ridiculed by a tiny little German definitely got me through the day. Gizzy was so hyper from laughing at me by the end that she was like a little crazy person. Frightening stuff.

Day Three - Highway Camp to Isiolo

Distance: 81.16km
Ride time: 3:44

So, I set out with high hopes for the day. The prospect of only six or seven ks of dirt until sweet pavement practically had my heart racing.

I started out pretty slowly - rolling along looking at stuff. Once we hit the sweet, sweet pavement though, I felt like going faster. I only stopped to look at this thing. It looked like a massive rock ship rotating out of the fog.



The rest of the day was pretty easy. Still feeling weak and pushing my massive tires didn't seem like fun, but it was nice to not be grovelling along. Made it to camp in pretty good time, so I had plenty of time to get a room for the night. I also spent a lot of time trying to get my bike clean. This was harder than it sounds when it is that muddy. Here is a pic of my bike during the muddy day.



It got even muddier than this on the next day. Crazy muddy.

With the sickness, I was pretty unenthusiastic about the whole cleaning bikes and changing tires things. I did a pretty shitty job of it, then just put my bike in the rain. I did put my Duranos on for the upcoming pavement. Then one of the tires blew up. So I called in one of the many tire changes I have done for other people and had them change it for me. Sweet.

The room was pretty good. The electricity came on and off, but the shower and toilet worked. It was probably the best nights sleep I have had all tour as well. Seven straight hours. Sweet. At 2230, they put the music on quietly in the bar. That was all good. But they also put the music on really loudly in the garden, right next to the rooms. I left it until I was good and mad at 2300 then went down to get them to turn it off. Or down. Or something. Long story short, I let loose the anger monster on those guys.

Dan's Camping Tip: Why camp when you can sleep under a mosquito net in a warm dry room.

Day Two - Field Camp to Highway Camp

Distance: 87.65km
Ride time: 7:05
Climb: 625m

This was a pretty grinding day. I woke up after a couple of hours of sleep to find out that it was raining. I decided to wait it out and see if it stopped, but by the time I absolutely, positively had to get up it was raining even harder. Plus, everyone was already up and standing around the truck so they got to watch my inept attempt at a rain takedown of my tent. It was not a resounding success.

Anyway, no breakfast then on the bikes. Sand and corrugations where the order for the day. This wasn't too bad. For the first 300m. Then I hit the real bad roads. The bad roads, constant incline and rain made for a pretty miserable time on the bike. Since we were going uphill, the best place to ride was often the stream of rain water coming down the hill. Needless to say, our bikes are pretty knackered now. I've also got Ethiopian Shitting Sickness, so I was off the bike pretty often. Stripping off the jersey and bibs in the rain and sand is an unforgettable experience.

Eventually I caught up with some riders going as slow as me. This was kind of good, because I got some company riding along at the glacial pace I was going. And it wasn't people that I would normally talk to. First Dana, who has some pretty well thought out plans for post-ride life. Then Steph, who was as angry as usual, but has some good stories.

The riding got a bit better after lunch. The Chinese are busy building the road from Isiolo out to Marsabit. We had about 20km of not quite road, but built up road bed and newish detour roads. This was awesome. Instead of sand and corrugations. We had hard pack with massive puddles. Deep enough to come up to our knees as we rode through. Did I mention that our bikes are screwed?

Finally, after a very long day, we made it to the camp on the side of the new highway. Because of all the rain, it was pretty muddy everywhere. The quick guys had managed to grab a shower with the water collected in the tarp. Slow pokes like me had to make do with washing down using muddy water out of puddles on the road. Being in Africa for this long is a bit like being drunk - you are going to do things and eat things that you normally wouldn't do.

The campground was pretty spectactular. We had views from the escarpment we were on across the plain to the next set of hills. Really cool.

In rider meeting, we were told that we had 25-30km of unpaved (but under construction) road until the pavement. This would have been ok. Then, whlie we were sitting around talking crap, some honkies in a 4wd pulled up to say hello. They told us that there was only six or seven kilometres to go. I didn't want to get my hopes up, but this sounded sweet.

Dan's Camping Tip: When you are doing a rain take down, you don't have to methodically fold up your poles while your tent inner gets soaked on the muddy ground. Unless you are the bumbling comedy relief for the tour. Then go ahead.

Day One - Marsabit to Field Camp

Distance: 95.3km
Ride time: 6:23

So, this ride was pretty nice. I am still slow as all get up. Between the cold and a bunch of niggles, I can't generate much power in my legs. This has been pretty good practice for high cadence riding. Well, higher than my usual stomping mash.

We had a tiny bit of climbing on the wet dirt roads (I forgot to say that it rained pretty heavily the night before) then headed all the way downhill to lunch at 55km.

This wasn't totally straightforwards though. There are still plenty of corrugations (no lava rocks though) and the mud was out of this world. On some of the uphills, I had to scoot along - the mix of wet mud and cow crap
was so slippery that I couldn't spin my way up. In other places, my fat tires didn't have enough frame clearance to shed mud fast enough. I had to get off a bunch of times and push mud out with my fingers to be able to turn the wheels again. I thought that the Gravity 12hour was bad that one year, but this was something else again. If a few big trucks hadn't gone through and squished a lot of the mud out of the way, the road would have been impassable. With a clear path though, it made the riding pretty fun.

It actually felt a bit like proper mountain biking, picking a nice path and maintaining traction. I should say, trying to maintain traction though - at one point I had to made an impromptu dismount off my bike. It was pretty sweet though. Something has loosened my too tight pedals, so I unclipped and jumped sideways off my bike like a freaking ballerina. The sort of thing that I couldn't do if I tried.

Straight out of lunch, I came across a sorry sight. A massive water hole in the road with two bogged trucks. One of them was the normal cattle trucks that we see charging up and down the road, loaded with people in the back. This was being pushed out by an army of Kenyan dudes. The other was the old dinner truck (since replaced) heading back from Gondor to Nairobi. It looked well stuck, the front wheels dangling in water (I guess - water here is nice and muddy) and the fuel tanks resting on a rock. No one pushing that sucker.

Our three trucks made it here ok though. According to Ferdi, the driving was "fun".

I saw the Spanish girls in their impractical, free van on the muddy road. I thought that they had stopped to take photos (of me looking stylish, naturally) but it turns out that they were just broken down. Again. Luckily for them, one of the TDA staffers has developed a bit of a soft spot for them. He rides along behind the van. If there is a hard section to drive, he does it for them. If they break down, he helps out. Pretty cute stuff.

Dan's Camping Tip: If you put your tent up early in a big open space, a corollary of Murpy's Law says that the loudest snorers, smelliest farters and most unrelenting whiners will camp around you.

Day Zero - Rest Day in Marsabit

So, the Catholic Camping Ground was pretty much the best rest day camping spot ever. Instead of surly Ethiopians we had efficient and pleasant nuns (or sisters?) helping us out. One even looked exactly like Whoopie Goldberg.

Like I already said, I got a room at the camping ground. This was awesome. Clean and tidy. No private shower or toilet, but that is pretty much par for the course out here. Electricity on demand is totally awesome though. It means that you can run and charge all your stuff and know that you are going to be able to recharge it for the next riding stint. It also makes Movie Afternoon a lot simpler. Instead of finding a room with seats and power, we already have one. Then it is just a matter of choosing what movie to watch. I swear, it is almost as bad as the olden days at a video store, wandering up and down the aisles for ages. But instead of almost inevitably picking a Jackie Chan movie of often dubious quality, we watched Rock N Rolla. I remembered this being pretty funny before, but it seems to have lost a lot of its charm. The best bit is definitely Super Hans from Peep Show.

But I digress. Movie reviews can wait until I have given up on riding. Back to how awesome the sisters were.

A big part of rest days is normally spent trying to accomplish these things.

1. Eating enough food.
2. Cleaning bikes.
3. Doing laundry.
4. Buying snacks.
5. Doing internet.

The nuns took care of two of these things for us. Instead of the normal charging around town looking for dinners and lunches and breakfasts, those of us that wanted sat down in a big hall and ate a lot of pretty decent Kenyan food. It tasted pretty good and for some reason, food prepared by nuns seems like it must be clean food. For all I know there were dropping it on the floor and picking it back up, but it definitely had an aura of cleanliness. Some people were a bit annoyed (like walk out annoyed) that there wasn't enough food on the first night, but on the second night they did a much better job of making sure that there was enough. Plus, some people on this tour have reached the point were they are mad about everything.

One person though rocked up on the second night and told the nuns that they couldn't eat meat, so could they please cook them some eggs. This person has been eating meat the whole time so yeah.

The nuns also did the laundry for a pretty decent price. I was too knackered after the ride to organise mine though, so I ended up doing it the next day.

So, with the nuns taking care of those things, we didn't have much pressure on us in town. Just had to pick up snacks, and this is way easier in Kenya than in Yabello and Moyale. Instead of packs of glucose biscuits, they have Cadburys chocolate. Pretty sweet. Oh yeah, and choctops. I ate so many choctops.

Besides the boring cleaning bikes, that really only leaves the internet. In Ethiopia (here I go again) this was pretty sucky. Not only was every connection outside Addis molasses slow, but they also try to censor blogger.com over there, so posting was a huge hassle. Here in Kenya, we can by CDMA modems to plug straight into laptops, and happily post and email from the middle of the desert. It is kind of like being back in a real country, like Sudan.