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.

Day Five - Lava Rock Camp to Marsabit

Distance: 86.76km
Ride time: 7:34 (yes, really)
Climb: 927m

Best part: Keeping EFI.
Worst part: Still have EFI - will have to keep riding everyday.

Hooray for Mando days. This was definitely the hardest day of the tour so far. Plenty of rocks, sand and corrugations.

The first 30 odd kilometres up to lunch weren't too bad. It was possible to get a bit of rhythm and momentum. After lunch though, we started to head up hill. This meant that there was no respite from the road surface. I ended up having to stop every 5km to drink and eat - the surface was mostly too rough to try to eat on the bike. On the upside, this meant that I could take plenty of photos.

The scenery was pretty spectacular. In the morning, we were pushing across a plain towards some hills. The further we went, the less desert like it was. Once we got across the plain and into the hills, everything was green. Definitely neat. I dunno if it was neat enough to spend seven and a half hours on a bike though.

The ride today was so hard and unrewarding that it isn't something that I would ever ride it by choice. I would be much more inclined to ride Dindir again. I'm not sure what made this day harder than Dindir, but it definitely was. Part of it was that the road often had four or more channels were the trucks have been. So it is often quite tempting to see if one of the other channels is easier to ride in. Doing this means either: getting off and pushing your bike over; or, trying to ride over the pile of loose rock that separates the channels. The loose rocks have claimed a lot of skin from people's elbows and knees - mine included. Mostly, this is because I still haven't reduced the amount of force required to snap out of my pedals. I often end up teetering for a second, frantically trying to unclip before falling over. Then I am lying on my side, still clipped into my bike. Then I thrash around for a while until I get unclipped and upright. Dignity. Dignity above all else.

Today was also a good day for truck riding. People were putting their bikes on the trucks the night before. One guy said that he felt fine with it, because he'd ridden for the previous two whole days (I guess riding the truck before that) and so he "had nothing to prove." I dunno if any day, or any two days on this tour would be that hard. Today still wouldn't have been any fun, but I wouldn't have been carrying a body full of niggles and whatnot from the last 40 days of riding. But, whatever floats those guys boats I guess. Everyone says that the trucks aren't that fun to ride anyway. Today they weren't going that much faster than I was on my bike. Plus they must be full of the stench of failure.

We are spending our rest day in Marsabit camped in a Catholic Camping Ground. Because I still have a pretty bad cold, I got a room for the two nights. It is a pretty nice room for the 1000 shillings I am paying. Bed, sink, desk and electricity. There is also a glow in the dark jesus and an alpha and omega above the door. Becaue I was still sick with a cold and wiped out after the long day, I went to sleep at 7 o'clock. It was pretty relaxing to wake up at 5am and see the rain coming down outside, being warm and dry.

Dan's Camping Tip: Once you are out of Ethiopia and no longer constrained by the perimeter, you don't have to camp 2 feet away from people anymore.

Gerald's Africa Tip: Eat first. Then look at the kitchen.

The Mr Dan's Awesome Drink Recipe

After a couple of months of research and development, I am pretty close to perfecting my after ride and evening drink. Originally, it was just Ovaltine with some Baby Grow Now formula. The new recipe is:

2 tbsp of Ovaltine
6 tbsp of fortified milk powder (ideally this should be some Ethiopian brand)
3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp instant coffee
100ml boiling water
500ml milk

1. Put all these scoops in a bidon (that's a water bottle to people less professional cyclist than me).
2. Add boiling water.
3. Put the lid back on your bidon and shake it around to dissolve all the granules of the various bits and bobs. BE CAREFUL: boiling water in an enclosed space and shaking can be bad.
4. Take the lid off. You should have a smooth liquid.
5. Add the milk. Put the lid on and shake it again.

You should now have a deliciously chocolately, coffee drink.

Day Four - Sololo Camp to Lava Rock Camp

Distance: 84.5km
Ride time: 4:59

Best part: Boy Scouts' Coke Stop.
Worst part: Falling over. Again.

So, we have finally seen the bad stuff for Northern Kenya. It's bad, but it's not Dindir bad. The lava rocks are just like any other rocks. The first half of the day was actually pretty ok - corrugations and sand and occasional patches of rocks.

After the climb to lunch, we basically spent the next 40km descending. It sure didn't feel like that though. With the rocks out in full force and a bit of a head wind, it was hard going.

The best bit of the day was the coke stop just after lunch. Because I only had a 1000 stirling note, they didn't have enough change if I only bought the two drinks. This was pretty awesome though, because it meant that I had to buy a third coke. This was a great later on, because 10km before the end of the ride Gizzy and I cracked it out, sat in the shade underneath a tree and had a break. Ideal for a lazy day on the bikes.

The view from the first coke stop.


Dan's Camping Tip: If you see and kill a scorpion in the night, keep your shoes inside your tent over night. And keep your tent zipped up.

Day Three - Moyale Wildlife Services Camp to Sololo Camp

Distance: 77.62km
Ride time: 3:15
Climb: 141m (No longer in Ethiopia)

Best thing: First half was all downhill. Plenty of scope for big dogging it.
Worst thing: False impression of how hard rest of ride to Nairobi will be.

Best song of the day: Jib Ride by Haik Naltchayan

So, the first day of the off road section was a pretty gentle introduction. Only a couple of real corrugated sections and no real climbs. According to the rider briefing tonight, we'll see the first of the bad stuff tomorrow after lunch.

The very first section was so easy that I felt inclined to photo people as they went by. Here is Gisi saying that she isn't enjoying it.



I was kind of joking in camp that we would be at lunch in two hours and done before noon. If it had been a truly bad dirt road, this would have been ridiculous. As it turns out, I was pretty much on the money for me. For the faster guys, it was an even quicker day. Even the slower guys on mountain bikes are starting to work out that they can push the boat out on the dirt sections - small compensation for the 11,000km of paved road though.

One guy was asking whether he should be landing the jumps on the back wheel or not. I was pretty confused about why he was asking - was he thinking about doing more mtbing when he got back, and had confused me for someone that might know? Turns out that on the concreted depressions he was getting an inch or two of air. This is probably not enough air for him to be worrying much about technique. More than I was on my steel tank though.

Talking about which, now that I have my 2" tires on, my bike looks pretty ridiculous. It still rolls along pretty well, but I don't think that I would like to ride it on anything remotely technical. It stops like an oil tanker and turns like, well, an oil tanker or something else that doesn't turn very well. Maybe a Land Sea Dreadnought.

Apart from the obvious differences of riding a mountain bike off road, some little things about my bike are getting more obvious. When I stand on a loose climb, my weight moves waaaay more forwards then on a mountain bike. I kind of wish that I had gotten my act together early enough to get a suspension fork for the Surly. I think that it would make a huge difference on these sections. I kind of like turning up on a fully rigid though. Like a badge of pride / stupidity.

Not much else to say about the day today. Pretty relaxed, plenty of hills and stuff to see. The hills here aren't the soft rounded deals like in Ethiopia, apparently we are in the rift system now so we are seeing a lot of uplift type stuff. If I can get my act together, I'll take a photo for all the rock type people back home.

A bunch of people on the ride today saw baboons, rebels and little dik-diks and what not. I just saw hills. Tomorrow we might see giraffes though, which would be pretty cool.

Sunset at camp. We are in big sky country now, that's for sure.

Dan's Camping Tip: Make sure that you don't have anything on the bite valve of your camel bak when it is in your tent. Unless you want a wading pool to sleep in.

Day Two - Farm Camp to Wildlife Services Camp

Distance: 79.94km
Ride time: 2:53km

Best thing: Learning how to peel and cube a mango.
Worst thing: Nothing really.

Best shuffled song: Illusionary Lines by the Hilltop Hoods

"From now on you won't be ferengis. You will be muzungas" - Sharita

And with that, we set out to cross the border between Ethiopia and
Kenya. It seems pretty strange that we are done with Ethiopia. It's
been such a crazy country. It seems like so much stuff has happened
here compared to Sudan. The hills. The burger sickness. Hating the
kids and the whole country. Learning to deal with the bad bits and
enjoy the good bits. The awesome mando day, full of hills and rain and
awesomeness.

I don't know. In some ways, I am sad to see the hills go - I was
really starting to enjoy climbing, albeit at my slow, fat man pace. On
the other hand, I won't miss the rocks being thrown and the constant
crowding around the perimeter line. I guess it is what it is. If you
can get over the bad bits, there is some great riding to be had, and
some great things to see.

Sharita, one of the joint tour directors, rode through here solo and
unsupported. After the mayhem at our camps, I can't imagine how she
did it. I asked one of the Indaba guys, and they just said "You
haven't seen Sharita when she is angry, have you?" Sounds like the
judicious unleashing of anger is part of the trick, but I don't see
how that could work for weeks at a time. Would it still be fun? Even
if you are just pretending to be angry?

The ride to the border was so short today that it is barely worth
mentioning. The neatest thing about it was the few climbs up towards a
heavy, leaden sky. It always seemed on the verge of raining but never
did.

Two big events in camp though. Firstly, the truck that we left behind
in Gondor has arrived with its new engine. Janet was pretty happy to
see Ferdi, who stayed behind in Gondor with the trucks, and I imagine
that the Indaba and TDA staff might be a little battle damaged
tomorrow morning. We are going to keep the replacement christmas tree
truck as well as the just back dinner truck. The reason for this is
that the fixed truck no longer has a bike rack on the top, so it can
carry fewer people and bikes, and now that we are in Northern Kenya we
are going to need that space.

Which segues nicely into the other big event: tomorrow we are hitting
the worst roads of the tour. Rock, corrugations and sand. When people
were complaining about Dinder, one of the TDA people is rumoured to
have muttered "What are they going to do when we get to Kenya?" I
suppose that we are going to find out. So around camp everyone is
changing to their beefiest tires and doing all the bike maintenance
that they have been putting off.

Exciting times, that's for sure.

Oh yeah, and we are now in Kenya.

Peeling a mango if actually pretty easy. And mango salsa as part of a
breakfast burrito for dinner, in Kenya, is pretty awesome.

Dan's Camping Tip: Don't spend 2 weeks wondering why water sometimes
drips water from your tent poles into your inner before looking at
your fly and realising it has velcro straps to stop exactly that
happening. Briefly: know your gear.

Day One - Yabello to Farm Camp

Distance: 127.1km
Ride time: 4:45
Climb: 912m

Best thing: Hacking apart the frozen meat blocks.
Worst thing: No truck with luggage.

After staying up to 1am listening to people watching the gold medal
hockey game in the hotel's bar, I was pretty tired, so decided to take
it slow and see how I went. The rider briefing said that there was a
30km climb out of lunch up to the town of Mega, so I was pretty
reluctant to push it in the morning.

Well, it turned out that the 30km climb was actually around 15km of
around a 5% grade. So pretty cruisy really. And once I got to the top,
there was an awesome view down through a cleft in the hills, over Mega
and towards the border. There was also a cool ruined fort or
something. The strange thing is, even on going slow days, I can't bear
to stop for five minutes and have a look around or take any photos. I
could also see the rain clouds all over the plain that we were going
to be camping on.

That rain started pretty soon after I got into camp. Bad news. The
christmas tree truck, with all of the racers' luggage on it, had
broken down at lunch and wasn't expected for a while. This meant that
we had no tents to shelter in and only whatever wet weather gear we'd
carried on our camelbaks. Luckily, I brought rain pants and a riding
shell. Unluckily, I'd unzipped the hood for the shell back in
Australia and left it in the boot of my car, so I got a pretty wet
head sitting in the rain. Ok, that wasn't unlucky, it was stupid. Some
people brought no wet weather gear though so they got cold and
sheltered in the truck.

Most days, I get in early enough from the ride to help out with the
kitchen. This is normally pretty boring - washing carrots or peeling
garlic. Today started off that way as well. Peeling carrots. But,
after the carrots there was meat prep to do. This would have been
pretty boring as well, but the meat blocks hadn't thawed yet, so I got
to spend half and hour wrestling with steaks, strips of fat and chunks
of bone. It is kind of satisfying to be tearing that apart with your
bare hands, then look down and just see cubes of meat.

Dan's Camping Tip: Always know where these things are before you go to
sleep: your shoes; your headlamp; your toilet paper / baby wipes; and,
your toilet paper / baby wipes burning lighter.