Dongola to Khartoum - Riding Days

Day 16 - 141km

From Dongola onwards we are responsible for clocking in and clocking out each day with a little "e-button" that we all wear around our necks. The timing system had some glitches for the first two weeks so we all set off at the same time each day. Now you just clock in and go the computer calculates your time when you clock out at the end of the day. This means that the slower riders can start of earlier and try to get to camp earlier and the racers can take some extra time in the morning. It spreads out the groups of riders but if you want to ride with people you need to organize when you leave to make sure that you can stay together. If your group leaves without you it is really hard to catch up. I have found some riders that like ride at the same or similar pace and the system works for now.....we'll see how that changes when we hit the mountains in Ethiopia.

So Day 16 - I started out with Laura (my regular riding partner) and English Tony at around 7:30am heading out of Dongola on one road to our desert camp 141km away. We stopped along the way to take photos of camels and enjoyed the ride to camp. The mornings are very pleasant - around 17 degrees and the lunch truck is usually about halfway along the route. I love arriving at the lunch truck - time for a pee break, more chamois cream in the shorts, a sandwich and water refill. The afternoon's are a whole different story. By 11am the temperature just starts rising. The sun moves above you and your skin feels like it is on fire. We try to kick it out all morning so get to the lunch truck early so that we can set off again before it gets too hot. On Day 16 Laura and I were not exactly on that schedule and we found ourselves about 60km from camp at noon and it was getting really hot. Laura put some Michael Jackson on and let the music inspire her. I enjoyed the quiet (no music for me on the bike - I am not sure it is very safe and I want to take in everything - with my eyes and ears). I mentioned this earlier in a blog - I am amazed that anything thrives in the deserts of Sudan....and actually not much does. From my bike I could see animals dead in the sand and for kilometre after kilometre there was nothing but sand. You might pass a camel herder or two and what looks like little houses and a few water pot stops but not much else. Occasionally you will see a person walking along the road and you just wonder to yourself - "where the hell is that person going?" They rarely carry anything - no bags or water.....amazing! By the time Laura and I reached the camp it was almost 2pm and my bike computer was reading 42 degrees on the bike - it was even hotter standing still. Even in the heat I managed to eat a bowl of hot soup (I needed to replace the salt in my body) and two cups of hot tea and sugar. We joked about cold beer (Sudan is a dry country) and quickly turned our thoughts to dinner instead as it is just plain torture to imagine an ice cold pint! Laura had great legs on this day so I let her take 3rd on the stage and clock in just ahead of me. She is technically not a racer but that Little Belgian is quite and athlete and I try to encourage her to kick it out from time to time just because she can do it.

We have three days in this desert - around 150km each......long, hot days......

Day 17 - 142km (or there abouts....I am taking a little guess - could be a km more or less)

Even the racers are wising up and heading out as soon as breakfast is done and our dish kits are packing away on the trucks. The riders have been fearing three days at 150km in the heat so some of the expedition riders are getting out closer to 7am and the racers are hitting the road around 7:30am. We all agreed that it is best to warm up and then hit it in the morning - again to avoid spending too much time in the afternoon sun. I always feel great in the morning. I love the mornings in Sudan - the roads have less traffic and the desert looks so beautiful in the morning light. The ride on Day 17 was very similar to Day 16 - sand, camels, sand and sun. The mental game on this tour so far is to stay focused when it gets hot on the long, relatively straight roads where nothing changes.....just sand and more sand. We rode a little smarter on Day 17 - faster pace in the morning and then a quick lunch and on the bikes again with camp in mind in the afternoon. We rolled into the camp closer to 12:15pm. It was still 41 degrees on the road but at least we weren't spending another hour or two out on the asphalt. The camp was called The Dead Camel Camp (see earlier blog photo and above) - the camel apparently dropped dead right there and we camped nearby. It is interesting arriving into camp so earlier - more and more people are getting in faster and often they don't know what to do for the 4-5 hours until dinner.....and really there's nothing to do. We spend our time trying to find shade by the trucks and that's it. It is too hot to do much else. Personally, I don't find it hard at all to just sit. You quickly realize that people are coming from very busy lives (me too!) and are just to having lots to do - rarely with an hour, let alone 5 hours to do absolutely nothing. I sometimes find it hard to just be sitting in a big group with nothing to do so after dinner I have been taking a chair out to my tent in the desert - I put on my ipod, writing my journal and watch the sun set in the desert. Once it is dark I turn my eyes to the sky - I have never seen nighttime skies like the ones in Sudan. The stars are spectacular! I joked with the group that I was out in the desert hosting my very own Desert Disco - I put together a cheesy ball dance play list and jammed out under the stars! (Mark, Cameron, Juner, Phil and Jen - think Buddies under the stars!). I have really been enjoying the desert camps.

Day 18 - 155km

I knew that this would be a long so I planned to get out early with Laura, Tony and some of the boys......but the plan was foiled by my period.....yes you heard me right! I promised to blog about menstration on this trip because it was a focus for all women on the TDA before we started this adventure and no one really talks about it but it is something all women deal with and it is complicates things in ways the guys never have to think about on this kind of trip. Let me start by saying that it was "recommended" by the nurse on the tour a mere three months before the start of the trip and all women consider ceasing their menstrual cycle for the duration of the tour - well that is easier said than done and not always a good idea because taking the pill for a full four or five months puts you at risk of breakthrough bleeding among other things. I discussed it with my doctor and she thought it was a bad idea - in fact a couple of women who decided to take the pill have been experiencing breakthrough bleeding (one for three weeks now!). So the group left me to deal and there I was in the desert ..... digging through my locker for tampons and wondering exactly how it would all work with the sand and all the fun stuff that come with your period. Well the short story is you just deal. It is not much fun but that's life.....you try to stay prepared - Camelbak with tampons and baby wipes and lots and lots of hand sanitizer. The challenge is to find privacy - a toilet is a luxury sometimes and your tent becomes your best friend in the evening. The women on the tour don't say it often but sometimes we are envious of the men - I am sure that they have their own issues (we are just not sure what they are yet!). I am not going to complain because I knew this would be something I just had to deal with - however I do insist on mentioning it because many of us are dealing periods and it is amazing in this day and age that people still don't talk much about it. There - menstration blog #1 = done! Ha ha!

Back to the ride....after my group left I jumped on one of racer trains and rode a fast 37km pace line back to my own group. I dropped off to cruise at an easier 34km per hour knowing that it would be a long 155km in the desert. It was a pleasant surprise in the afternoon when a tailwind took us into camp making it an easier day than expected. I rode the afternoon with Tony and Laura. Tony wasn't feeling very well so I was happy to do most of the pulling and we decided not to work too hard - why work when you have the wind helping you along? I have decided to conserve my energy whenever I can so that I have something for the next day.....just in case.

Day 19 - 106km (20km individual time trial & end of stage - 46km to lunch and 40km convey to Khartoum)

20km time trial - the start clock was moved to the road and we clocked in individaully and there was someone timing us at the 20km. The 20km time trial is a flat out race for the full 20km with no drafting. It is just you and your bike and may the fast individual (men and women grouped separately) win. Since I decided to nurse my achilles and take it easy on some days I have fallen well behind the other two female racers ahead of me in the standings. I thought that the time trial would be a good opportunity to see just how fast I am compared to the women individually - outside of the pace lines and groups of racers. I am pleased to say (as per the earlier blog) that I won the time trial and got my first stage win. It was lots of fun and it felt so good to get my heartrate up and race!

46km to lunch - I met up with Laura, Tony and a Swiss rider for the slow cruise to lunch. We stopped along the way for tea and took our time to lunch. The 40km police escorted convoy to lunch was hot, hot, hot. 15km per hour at the hottest time of the day......we arrived at a basic campsite but were happy to get to our rest day site. I pitched my tent and showered.....SO GOOD! I will be sure to wash my hair again before we go because the next rest day won't be for 7 days.

Day 20 - Rest Day in Khartoum......here I am in the little mall - free internet etc. We are heading out tomorrow for two more days of riding paved roads and then we will change up our tires and head into the Dinder National Park. This is very, very exciting because no one is ever allowed to ride bikes through this park and in fact the park. This is a first for the Tour d' Afrique (TDA got a special invitation from the Sudan Ministry of Tourism) and we are all looking forward to the change of scenery. The word on the street (and guide books) is that this national park has baboons, lions and giraffs......wow! I will write if I spot any wildlife. I have no idea how I will handle the off road riding but I have to do it sometime!

I hope to write from Gondar, Ethiopia on my next rest day in just over a week's time. Until next time.......

Jx