Global worming is a bad thing

I thought another EFI day would be too repetitive for the title of this one. I did make another EFI day, but it was the toughest one yet. With some time I may actually put this up there as my toughest athletic feet so far in my life. Wow, where to start. Well I left camp at 20 to 8. We have a new system where you can leave anytime after breakfast and I tried to take as much advantage of that as I could. Some people got out in front of me, but my hope was to get wormed up then find a group to ride with. After about 20 k and the fast racers blowing by me I ran into Steph on the side of the road with her bike upside down and a huddle around her of other riders. Seems like she had another flat. I waited a while she managed the tire repair then took off knowing she would catch up. Me and her rode the rest of the way into lunch where we met up with Sam and Paddy and Annalise (Australian) and we left together.
Lunch was at 75 km and by the time we left it was above 30 degC. We stopped at a coke stop 20 k down the rode which we got to going about 21 kph. The 7 up when down great, but the temp was still rising. I finally got to camp at about 4 pm after 7+ hours of peddling and the temp had peeked near 40. It was hot, the heat was nearly unbearable and many times I thought about stopping and getting on the very full bus and at 98 to 105 km I did not think I would make it, but then we found the first clay pot.
These clay pots are made by god, or if not they seem to be. They are in the middle of the dessert and have water in them. Ice cold water. Somehow the hot water gets evaporated out through the clay and cold water remains. We doused our heads, arms, legs, socks and anything else we could think of. They were amazing and the only reason I made it to camp. We stopped at 3 more of these in the last 40 km and all but one were full of cold water.
In camp I was done and wiped out but as I pulled in with the clapping from the fast racers I summond the strength to run the 100 meters or so from the road to the truck to scan in and maybe save a minute on the time. A big bowl of soup and some water and I was good as new. Well not good as new, but at least I didn’t want to die anymore. I made it to the medical clinic at 5:05. This apparently was a big problem because clinic hours were from 4-5 pm. I did get a bandaid replacement for the road rash I got a few days ago, but I was told what the hours were and I guess in future I will not be seen outside of those hours. No worries I grabbed my own stuff and can now dress my wound at my convenience. I have a felling I wont make it to camp by 5 pm tomorrow anyway if I manage to EFI it. It is slightly longer than today and I don’t think it will get any cooler.
I will get some pictures up tomorrow maybe, today I am too tired, but I will try and get a picture of the road rash, it is pretty impressive.
We then had dinner which was a slightly spicy stew with rice which tasted so good I had to have seconds even though I was full on the firsts. Maybe it will help me sleep through the night without hunger pains. I guess it is hard to tell exactly how many calories I am taking in and how many I am burning but I think I have to be operating at a deficit. My short barely fit on the rest day so I will have to find a friend to make them smaller at the next rest day.
So yea, that was today. I really like being able to update this everyday and will try to keep it going with some pictures specially for Linds.
Hope everyone is great, goodnight
Ricky
P.S. I will try to be online every day from about 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm Sudan time if anyone wants to talk on MSN or skype.

Good news world, Rick is connected

Hey all, well the price is slightly higher than I wanted and my laptop seems to be trying to eat through my 2 GB as fast as possible but I bought an internet dongle thing and if we have a cell phone signal I should be able to upload the blog every night. I am excited to be a little more connected, but a little worried that it will change how I operate. I guess I will just try to limit what I do with it, and I know I wont be streaming the super bowl or anything like that.

So, back to what’s happening. Last night was fun, I went back into to town at 8 pm and uploaded the blogs that I think everyone read already. There was a line up so I decided to get some more dinner. I had this great beef with an amazing spicy yoghurt sauce and then 2 glasses of ginger tea. I have decided that Ginger is an amazing thing, and it should go in all drinks, I really hope that the Ginger trend continues all the way down Africa. After we ate we went to the internet place and uploaded the blogs, cruised around facebook a bit and checked ESPN. I think all I really need on the internet anymore is facebook and email to send in my blog, ESPN is a luxury, but it is nice to know who is playing in the super bowl even if I won’t be watching it.

We walked back to our camp at the zoo at 12:30 AM and apparently were the last 3 people out. There was lots of barking dogs that were a little concerning so we grabbed some rocks in case we ran into a pack of dogs that we didn’t want to see. Luckily we never saw any vicious dogs and the only 3 we saw walked quite a bit in front of us in the road. Camp was locked up when we arrived so we had to hop the wall to get in.

We got in and I slept pretty well until the sky filled with the preying chants to Allah. I think the 5 am prayer should be a personal choice and not a mandatory wake up for everyone and it makes me really enjoy the dessert camps where there are no loud speakers around except for out 6:45 wake up calls.

This morning I went for a breakfast of Ginger coffee and fruit and then went for a walk around the market. Found some sherwama (beef on a bun) with some vegetables and spicy sauce and then came back to clean up the bike. I got the bike all cleaned and I think I did a pretty good job. Some people took there chains off the bikes, but I couldn’t figure out how to get mine off so I cleaned it in place. Maybe it wasn’t the best but it worked for me.

Came back to camp and got my internet thingy along with Gerrard and now hopefully I will be able to update a little bit more often.

I will quickly write my thaughts on Sudan and then head for some food. I love it here. It is so nice, everyone one on the street says welcome and hello. Similes everywhere. It is amazing. Good prices for everything, not haggling, just honest people who want you to enjoy there town. Maybe it is just a small town, maybe it is the whole country, but so far I really like this place.

Hope everyone is doing well

Thanks for all the comments

Ricky

New Pictures are up

Sorry they are not in cronological order, but the new batch of pictures is at the bottom. Still loving the trip, hopefully the new pictures are better and more representative.
I will sign in tomorrow to read your comments, after that it will be 5 days to Kartoum for a rest day before heading into Dinder National Park for the first time ever a bicycle tour has ever gone through the park. We are truly in for a great treat!

A great blog from a fellow more connected rider who takes great pictures

http://africanride.blogspot.com/2010/01/amazing-sudan.html?showComment=1264690991399#comment-c7904153152345665141

The crash

Jan 29
How do you turn what is supposed to be an easy 123 km day into a terrible day? Well you get into a 2 line peloton coming out of camp and when you are in second position you touch wheels with the person in the front and go down b ringing down 4 other people behind you. Wow did I feel bad. Loads of road rash, Sam on his but, Wane on his quad, lower leg and some pretty bad bruising and Adam on his leg a bit. Adam’s bike was a little messed up too, I think he finished the day without rear brakes. Me, well the road rash is pretty bad, but my confidence was shattered. Everyone is super nice about it and completely understanding, but I feel like shit about it. I guess the lessons learned would be to not follow quite so close and also to always have your hands ready on the breaks and not on the airo bars where you have no control. Luckily no one was seriously hurt but it was a real trip to know that under slightly different circumstances I may have caused someone’s trip to end with a broken arm or leg, or even for someone to loose there EFI because they couldn’t ride.

After the crash everyone stopped and Steph did some triage medical to get us all to lunch in smaller groups. I hung at the back of a 5 person group for a bit then decided to go a bit faster and rode the last 15 k into lunch alone. After lunch I left alone expecting the lull I normally get after lunch but it never really came so I met up with Dan (American from outside of Reno) and promised not to take him out if we could ride together. We rode the shorter than expected 40 ish km to camp which made for a total of about 109 km today. Still quite a bit after the 2 straight 150 km days, but I was lucky enough to get in about 1 pm.

Priorities in camp were clear, first shower, second laundry. It is our first rest day since Luxor, even though we had the 2 non cycling days on the boat I had quite the collection of dirty clothes. We were told that we would have to do our laundry ourselves so I decided to jump on the boat and get in line for a tub. It was quite the experience to hand wash my clothes. First off, my clothes were really dirty, like insanely wash 3 things and the water would be brownish gray and I would dump it out and start again. It also took about 2 hours to wash it, and another hour rinse it. 3 cycling jerseys, 3 pairs of shorts, 2 cotton t shirts, 3 pairs of boxers and 5 pairs of socks, 3 hour process. Insane, but hey, I learned something new today. I was instructed that the most important thing is to get all the soap out so I hope I did a good enough job rinsing so I don’t have bubbles coming out my shorts as I sweat down the road.

After that was done and the tent was up I headed into town to get some food. Had a great meal of cheese, bread, falafel and half a chicken for the equivalent of 5 US$. I was impressed. After that we found the internet café but it didn’t have word on the computers so I had to come back to the camp and turn everything into notepad.

Speaking of camp we are in the Dongola Zoo. No cages or anything, but some big grassy spots and some concrete statues of animals. It is actually one of the nicest camp site I have ever had. Maybe not the most scenic, with people watching over the walls while we showered with a garden hose, but great soft ground to put your tent up. Not enough trees for shade in the morning, but who needs to sleep in on a rest day anyway.

Ok that is all for now, I think I will try and head back and post this and the last couple of blogs tonight so I can read the comments tomorrow.

As always hope everyone is doing great and loving life. Justin thanks for the message, glad you are liking the place. Stranger whose name I forgot that wanted to link to my site go for it, but please remember that the ride is to raise money for the LiveSTRONG charity and maybe you or your clients would like to donate by clicking on the livestrong logo on the top right of the main page of this site. And to all my family thank you so much for reading and the comments. It makes every rest day exciting to be able to read what people think. Steph, I remember that skate in the cold and eating the beaver tails it was a lot of fun!

Talk to everyone later

Rick

Back to back 150 km ish EFI days

Jan 28 Wow, a month ago if someone had told be I would ride 300 km in 2 days I would call them crazy. It wasn’t that long ago when Mike and I went out for a 25 k ride and I was almost puking by the end of it, and now I just did back to back 150 km days. Crazy, absolutely crazy. I got to Lunch at 78 km in under 3 hours riding in a group with Steph, Erin and Rubin. They did more of the pulling than I did, but I still took a turn or 2 at the front. After lunch was a different story. I hit my usual wall after lunch at battled through for about an hour and a half slowly. After some hills and some better feeling I got faster again but by that point I was alone for the afternoon. Time to think about things and time to look around. I stopped a few times to meet some locals. One time to give a grapefruit to 2 women and a little girl that struck me as I rode by just sitting against the shady side of the house. The second visit was where a bus had gotten stuck and a Sudanese girl stopped me to ask why so many bicycles were riding by. She was going to High school in the UK so her English was great and we talked a bit before I headed off. Made it to camp before 3 pm and went for a swim in the nile, then set up for the night. Dinner was cuscus for the first time and a beef stew. I had 2 helpings and then continued drinking water. It was 36 today and even with all the water and sports drink I drank on the bike, I figured 4 more bottles in camp would do me well. Might wake up some to go pee, but it sure beets dehydration. Tomorrow is a 123 km ish ride to Dongla and then a rest day. Feels a little early with the ferry ride, but it will be nice to do some laundry and clean the bike at my leisure.

There is a camp fire tonight to burn the burnables so I am heading over now. Thought I would be too tired to write later.

Ricky

Longest ride yet, another EFI day

Jan 27

This has to be a quick one. 148 km done today, left at 8 AM got into camp at 3 pm, quick lunch stop. Felt sluggish for a little bit after lunch, but made back to normal cruising speed after about 20 km. Average was 24.3 kph. Rode the morning with Sam and Paddy again, afternoon alone. Very hot in Sudan, but great scenery, mostly rock outcrops. Need to do some packing and get some sleep, I have another 150 k day tomorrow, hope I can make it, 2 long EFI days in a row would be fun.

More tomorrow, and I need to write about the dinner our first night in Sudan, great food and the best Ginger tea ever, really have to go now

Bye all

Ricky

Boat to Nowhere

Jan 26

Wow, what an amazing day and night. We had a lazy start at the bakery for some breakfast pastries and then the coffee shop for some Turkish coffee. Everything was great but the chocolate pastries turned out to be date, oh well still went down well. After that we packed up camp and headed off at 9 AM. We had a short climb then rode over the new and old Aswan dams. Made melong for a kayak looking down at the class 2 and 3s.

Then came the drama. We got to the ferry port terminal and were let inside the gates. It was like a zoo only I don’t know if we were on the inside or the outside of the cage. All the bags went through the scanner then the bikes and bags were carried my ourselves down the road to the ferry. Bikes on first against the rails then back for the bags. I picked a center spot between 3 exaught fans along with Paddy (Irish) Dave and Erin (New Yorkers) and Steph (Victoria). They slept 4 abreast and I stayed against the wall of boxes that was built by someone who seemed quite important. We had to defend our space a but, but by night everyone knew it was ours and stayed clear.

It was amazing to sleep under the stares with them passing by like a movie in front of my face until my eyes closed for the night.

This morning we got the wake up call over the blow horn (SUN IS COMING SUN COMING SUN COME NOW!!!! Abu Simble in 1 hour. True to the message the sun came and then we passed Abu Simble. It was a great scene from the water. With a temple of that scale the water framed it perfectly, making it way more impressive to see from the lake.

All of that brings us to now where the locals are packing up there Egyptian goods and we are sitting on the deck writing out our experiences so far.

I wish I had a better grasp of the English language so I could flow on poetically about this experience, but unfortunately it will have to live in my mind and through the pictures I hope to post sometime. I guess just picture the biggest box fort you ever made as a kid and multiply it by a million, put it on a floating ferry and surround it by 80 bicycles, 80 white people and 150 Sudanese and you can begin to imagine the the shit show…. It was great. A different type of boat ride to anything I have done before and a far cry from the red deer and the Rio Grande.

I hope everyone is doing well at home and enjoying there life where ever they are. I really enjoy reading the comments whenever I get internet, it is great to know people are reading what I am writing, and I promise I am trying to get better at the writing.

I am really starting to get excited about the life I have going on out here on the race and the things to come. One Country down, 9 to go, Sudan you are on Notice.

Later

Rick

Made it to Dongola

Internet place does not have word on the computers so I will reformat in camp tonight at get the updates out tomorrow or later on tonight depending on how long this place is open.

Made it to Aswan

2 EFI days in arrow, both over 100 km and both days riding in packs. Wish I had done some serious training before, but right now I am feeling ok. Did 116 km today, rode in a group all day averaging 24.7 kph. Thought it was pretty good. I am still working on going in a straight line and follow someone’s wheel which mostly relegates me to the back. That is ok though, it give me the chance to slow down and speed up as I like and not be so focused on the destination and be able to enjoy the journey.

Todays ride was enjoyable. It was a more relaxed morning than normal because our trucks when to leave for the ferry last night so they would hopefully meet us in Sudan when we arrive the day after tomorrow. We will spend the night here in Aswan in our tents with only a small bag of stuff with us then load those bags into a rented 10 tonn truck and ride 17 km to the docks. We depart camp at 9 AM and ride in convoy to the docks where we load onto the people only ferry at noon ish. Sometime between then and dark the ferry will be filled with people, good, chickens, goats, and whatever else Sudanese people come to Egypt to by and we will head off. We will spend the night and most of the next day on the ferry, then get off with our bikes, hopefully put our bags on another rented truck and ride 5 km to camp where our trucks will arrive at some point through the night we hope. If not we will continue riding as planned and the trucks will catch up when they can.

There are many anxous people with lots of questions, but I am trying to just go with the flow and see what happens. I think the ferry will be an amazing experience especially with the younger people staying on deck. It will be quite cold at night but I am sure we will survive.

Aswan is much busier than I expected, lots of cruise ships and people in the downtown area. We went to the market and picked up some food for the ferry ride. 4 of us all went in together and got some pita bread, crackers, tuna, nutella and some Egyptian cheese. Hopefully it will tide us over. I still have a few Egyptian pounds on me to cover dinner and breakfast. Hopefully I can find some falafel somewhere around where we are staying.

Ok, think that is all I have for now, hope everyone out there is doing well. Thanks for all the comments. Chris I found the shorts when everyone else had cleard there stuff out so no problems there, saddle is fine, but my ass is hurting, no sores yet though so I am better than most. Mike, once again the kickstand brought compliments today with 2 people saying they wish they had thought of that.. Samantha, no idea who you are, but thanks for reading, hopefully I can keep entertaining you and your friends.

Goodnight everyone, hopefully I will be able to update from Sudan, but if not I will keep writing and update when I can.

Later

Ricky