IT IS OVER!

This is it, this will be my last and final posting on this blog, so let me first thank each one of you who have read and followed my African ride. Thank you for the many messages of support and encouragement. I can now tell you that they were times when I seriously considered if it was worth going on riding, feeling sick, tired and at the worst pissing blood. But knowing that you guys were out there following me and cheering for me often gave me that extra courage one needs to ignore the pain signals your body sends you and to keep riding. keeping this blog updated was a challenge I enjoyed tremendously and I tried all along to do it as soon as I would reach camp, sometimes starting to write in my dirty cycling shorts in order to share it with you guys while it was "hot". They were many technical challenges too, especially in Sudan and Ethiopia where access to electricity was just as short as to clean water and Tanzania were I sometimes had to walk a few kilometers with my computer in order to find a weak cell phone signal on top of a hill in order to connect to Internet. Another challenge was to keep all these equipment running in the dust and the heat of the Sudanese desert, the humidity of the equator, the shocks of thousands of km of corrugated roads in the truck, the leaks in my tent in Botswana and so on... Eventually it was gonna be a smart virus that would give me the most trouble and destroy my computer....  Anyway as a token of consolation, my blog won the honorary price of "best TDA 2010 blog", a nice confirmation that our efforts to keep this blog going despite the many challenges have been appreciated.

I have done it, I have made it EFI to Cape Town, 12 000 km on my bicycle without ever getting on the truck or missing a single inch. Out of the 60 who started in Cairo,12 of us have achieved this. It is something, I am particularly really proud of, especially given the fact that I am the oldest EFI of the group and given all the physical troubles I went through, it makes this performance even more enjoyable afterwards. I am also the first French citizen ever to join the EFI club since the creation of the Tour D Afrique 8 years ago.

I am not going to bore you with long and  philosophical conclusions about this tour, it is impossible anyway to wrap it up in just a few words, but here are a few impressions I would like to share with you.

Tour d Afrique makes you look older but feel younger, it is also very stressful. It is like a 4 months long marathon. You need a holiday after this and a lazy one. Jumping back into a "normal" life is my next challenge. I started immediately yesterday afternoon by throwing away the one and only set of clothes I have been wearing since January and dressed myself from toes to top at one of the waterfront shops.  I also went for a hair cut and shaved. The images of all the places we went through are now starting to roll in my mind and for the first time this morning I started talking about this race using past verbs.

Africa is an amazing continent, it is poor, disorganised, corrupted, but yet so friendly, so full of delicious surprises and again as I have stressed so often in this blog, people have very little but they still share it. Africa loves singing, Africa loves dancing, Africa lives on the hope of better days and it often gives you the impression that it accepts its faith a bit too easily, "God willing" as you hear so often. Riding across Africa is not easy, there are still plenty of barriers against cyclists: a bicycle is still far too often seen as the method of transport for the poor and African drivers have very little respect for cyclists, making it difficult for us. I had to jump off the road at numerous occasions to save my life. The real danger in Africa is not the last few free roaming lions or poisonous snakes as many still believe, but simply bad drivers.

I was forced to witness the rapid expansion of China in the continent, building roads and infrastructures in most places we passed. I was also surprised by the strong influence of South Africa, especially south of the Equator. South African companies are opening retail outlets all over. I am more optimistic about that one than about the Chinese presence...

Africa did not disappoint me, it scared me, it made me laugh, it gave me joy, it made me dream, it also taught me new things about life and even about myself.

To conclude, here are a few logistical numbers,

Number of kilometers ridden on my bike 12 035 (including extra kilometers when getting lost)

Number of punctures: 10 (from which 6 took place the same day in Tanzania)

Total budget for this trip: about 15 000 euro

Total of bribes paid: 1 (5 dollars to a chef in Malawi to skip the one hour queue at a restaurant and get my T-bone within 5 minutes, it is amazing what an hungry stomach can make you do...)

Weight lost: 10 kg (out of 72) at the worst in Ethiopia. I have now regained most of it

Number of Cokes (and Pepsi) drunk. estimated 250 to 300

Most water drunk during one ride: 12 liters (worst day in Sudan)

Fall of my bicycle: only once in Dinder park Sudan, not bad for such a long trip.

Stolen things: 0 yes, nothing was stolen from me during this trip!

Toughest country: Ethiopia

Most exotic country: Ethiopia

Best T-bone: Namibia (Felix Unite camp)

Most exotic food: Sudan and Ethiopia

Highest temperature during a ride: 45 degrees Celsius (Sudan)

Lowest temperature during a ride: 7 degrees Celsius (South Africa, Springbok)

Cheapest meal: Ethiopia (2 dollars including drinks)

Best fruit juices: Ethiopia

Friendliest people: Malawi

Biggest danger: Traffic riding into Nairobi

The question most asked to us: "Where are you go?" (Every Ethiopian kid)

Longest day: 207 km in Botswana, but longest saddle time was 10 hours in Ethiopia

Best money ever invested: 50 cents for a bucket of fresh water in Zambia to wash myself

Most beautiful part of the trip: Tanzania, between Arusha and Iringa, 700 km of pure beauty!

Worst day of the tour: a 130 km long stage in Ethiopia that took us to an altitude of 3100 meters and where I was sick as a dog with fever, stomach bug and bladder infection.

Highlights of the tour. An Ethiopian nurse giving me her lunch in Addis and seeing Table mountain appearing in the horizon had both water filling my eyes.

12 000 km on my bicycle and 120 days since I took a similar shot in front of the pyramids...

Finally, we are gonna get our lives back..

The locker 9 club tired but happy...

Last group photo with the beautiful Table mountain in the background

The male race winners from left to right, Stuart (1st) Tim (3rd) and Jethro (2nd)

The female race winners from left to right Juliana (2nd), Gisi (1st) and Jen (3rd)

Me passing the finish banner. I bought it for 2100 USD at the found raising auction dinner that evening, adding 21 bicycles to the 120 already donated. I reached a whooping total of 141 bikes, an all time record for the TDA charity...

The official arrival ceremony at the Waterfront included speeches, medals and flag carriers for each country represented. It felt like the Olympics...      

                               Me receiving my EFI medal from the deputy mayor of Cape Town

                         Hardy and myself in the VIP tent celebrating our hard earned EFI medals

      The members of the famous locker 9 brotherhood as they look in normal life at the gala dinner party.
      From left to right, Éric, me, David, Gabriele, Jos and Peter

RIDING IN NAMIBIA...

I have seen more German tourists than Namibians over the past 5 riding days…. Namibia is so empty, it feels really strange riding hour after hour through such emptiness only crossing some flashy 4 x 4s with German tourists waiving frantically at us…

On a bicycle you really have time to appreciate how vast and how empty this country is. It is a great experience and I have to say, I am loving it. After super populated Ethiopia and Malawi, Namibia offers a brake to the soul and leaves you with a sensation of calm and peace.
Namibian beauty can be appreciated only if you have time to stop, put your bike down and sit on side of the dirt road. There is plenty of life here, insects, lizards, birds but also plenty of big game like Orix , Ostriches, Springboks etc, etc… when you stop for a few minutes and look at what is surrounding you, it feels like you have been reduced in size, even the perfect blue sky looks bigger… Oh, yeah… I forgot to mention that we have had good weather now for 3 days and the sun is back…
We have done big days riding 410 km on dirt in 3 days…. Hard but nice and nobody was complaining as the beauty of the landscapes we were passing matched the technical challenges of mastering sand pitches and rolling gravels…
One thing has changed though, since the return of clear skies, it has been freezing at nights. We are now back where we started. It is even colder than in the Sahara… We have to ride out of camp geared with warm cycling clothes and have to stop 2 hours later to strip them off as the temperature soars.
So, here we are with only 8 riding days left and exactly 1000 km to go, the great countdown has now started. In 2 days we will be at the South African border where we will enjoy the last rest day of this amazing adventure. To get there we are going to ride along the Fish River inside the famous Fish River canyon which is only second in size to the Grand Canyon… so guys, stay tuned as they say on CNN and expect some amazing shots to come!

                                                            David anxious to have his gears fixed

                                                        On board the small Cessna we hired

                                                The mountains take a different look from the air

                                                                   The famous dune 45

                                                                       Endless dunes

                                                                      The Atlantic Ocean

                                            From left to right, Jos, David, me, Gabrielle and Eric

                                        Riding on Namibian dirt roads is tough but so pleasant

                                                               Ruben, Jason and Paddy
                           
                           We cover huge distances each day on these gravel roads (up to 173 km)

                                   It is freezing cold in the mornings here and riders are using warm
                       clothing for the first hours of the ride, some are quite exotic like this one from Dave…

                                 Tonight we sleep in the middle of nowhere again in a place called
                                  Seeheim, and this is it... Seeheim is just a few houses and a train
                                  station…. The big house is the Seeheim hotel

TOUGH RIDES IN NAMIBIA...

Namibia is normally hot and dry at this time of the year, but for the

70 TDA riders who have battled cold headwinds and heavy rains since we

left Windhoek it has been a bit of a shock. Namibia is tougher than I
expected. We are doing the longest section on dirt of the tour with
almost 1000 km of uninterrupted gravel roads. Namibia is not flat
either, so when you mix, rain, sand and headwind on steep up hills,
the cycling gets pretty hard… To make things even more challenging,
the tour organization has planned very long sections here with riding
days up to 173 km long. Such distances on tarred are already painful,
but on dirt, they turn into something close to masochism….
But we have plenty to look forward, firstly this is some of the most
exotic and surreal cycling landscapes I have ever traversed, secondly,
Cape Town is now really close… As I am writing this, we have 11
riding days left and about 1500 km to go. (half on dirt)
Namibian landscapes are so unique and so different from what we have
seen over this long journey. Even if the cycling is tough, it is with
a sense of excitement that most of us are feeling as we get on our
bikes at the early hours of the morning. The morning light on these
colorful desert backgrounds is just magic. I have never seen so many
riders stopping for taking pictures, even the racers in front have now
understood how privileged we are to cross such places on a bicycle and
many of them were stopping for pictures yesterday.
The thunderstorms we went through over the past 3 days added some
dramatic dark blue colors to the sky making the whole landscape even
more dramatic. I must have spent more than 2 hours taking pictures
yesterday alone.
The clear skies have returned to compliment our rest day in Sesriem ,
a tiny place that reminds me of the “Bagdad café” movie. One petrol
station, one camping and a lodge in the middle of the desert. A
beautiful and calm little oasis lost between the red sand dunes and
the mountains. The visitors are mostly South African and German
tourists equipped to the teeth with flashy 4x4 vehicles. We don’t
really fit into that category of people and I find it hard to
communicate with these very pale and fat people. I have cycled over 10
000 km to get here and I simply cannot identify myself with a tourist
that has flown to Johannesburg and rented a 4 wheel drive car there. I
just feel that an entire world is separating me from these people.
They also seem a bit scared about this big loud group of cyclists and
only a few of them are actually making an effort to ask us some
questions about our trip.
Here is a first warning about things to come, in less than 2 weeks we
are all going back to our normal lives and some of it already scares
me a bit. How do you explain what we have just lived, how do you ever
look at overloaded supermarket shelves again without having a thought
at how we struggled to get hold of simple products like toilet paper
or toothpaste. How will it feel to see people eating twice what their
daily food requirement is when our obsession has been to match our own
calories deficit for the past 4 months? What do you respond to the
“How was it?” question????.....
On the other hand, I am really looking forward for not digging a hole
in the ground to have a crap and packing up my wet tent in the dark at
5 h00 am. I only have to pack my stupid locker 11 more times and that
is definitely something to look forward to. This locker queuing and
packing is one of the most irritating part of this trip. I hate it and
so does every rider…
My computer has been infected with a virus. This has resulted in a lot
of complications for me, especially for keeping this blog running. I
have helped so many people with Internet connection, lending my
computer. Unfortunately, somebody has managed to infect it with a USB
stick. Luckily, just about each TDA rider started the tour with one
working laptop. By now, many have been either stolen or have broken
down due to the horrific conditions we have gone through, from heat,
sand and dust to humidity and plenty of physical abuse especially when
the trucks went over corrugated roads for hundreds and hundreds of
km's. David’s computer has survived every above mentioned threat so
far, and that’s where from I am now doing this update.
The next 5 days are seriously hard and all efforts are going to be
needed to remain EFI. Namibia is an easy place to lose EFI. The gravel
roads are in good condition, so you tend to ride relatively fast, but
there are many things to watch for. Most dips have thick soft sand in
which it is easy to make a mistake and fall. One bad wipe is enough to
hurt yourself and it is therefore important to remain focused until
the end. On such long days, with the fatigue adding to the routine you
tend to make more mistakes as you are nearing the end of your riding
stage.
I am not sure about when I will be doing the next posting, but most
likely from the South African border where we will be enjoying the
last rest day of this tour on May 9.

 

                               David and I with a dramatic sky at the back. We are heading for it...

                                                          Who said Namibia was flat?

FINALLY IN WINDHOEK

This posting was suppose to be before the previous one, but due to some funny and not so funny problems with Jaana's computer everything were lost for a while... So we are happily back online with full of photos again...


We all arrived safely and exhausted in the Namibian capital after a very long last day of the Vic Falls to Windhoek stage. Nobody expected this day to be so hard, and the reason was... very strong headwind... Headwind is the nightmare of cyclists, and on a straight 160 km long stretch of road it can make a ride miserable. Furthermore we had some good hills climbing into the capital. Windhoek is situated at an altitude of 1600 meters and surrounded by mountains 2400 m high. So there was no other way than climb over a 1900 meter pass before heading down to the city. The wind reduced our speed to ridiculous average below 20 km per hour adding saddle time to our tired legs and bruised bums. This road was straight just like the rest of that 1700 km long section. Straight, straight and straighter, the odd curves are only a few degrees and rare... So once you are in a headwind, you stay in that headwind for the whole day without getting any brakes... This entire section has been very leg consuming. It is the first time I finish a section so exhausted. The cycling has been fast (except for today) and highly intensive. There were no coke stops, no stops in general as we just traversed empty land filled with thick bush resulting in long and uninterrupted high cadence cycling sessions, day after day. Our legs are now completely finished and this rest day is more than a blessing.... The bad weather also added a difficulty factor as we faced rain, storms and lightening 12 days out of the 14 of that section. Most tents were flooded and the storms we had at camps every night reduced our recovery time as you battle against the leaks in your tent instead of sleeping.

Everybody arrived at the finish line looking completely empty of any energy. But as you know by now, at TDA, once you reach camp, you still have plenty to do. In this particular case, we had to change our tires back to knoblies as we are going to go back on dirt roads after the rest day. I also changed my chain and my cassette. If you put on a new cassette, you need to start up with a new chain as well. So I wanted to have my bike ready for action and not spend any of my rest day time doing bike mechanics. This meant that it was quite late when I finally got to my hotel and enjoy access to all modern facilities such as a flush toilet and a shower... The good news was that Jaana had flown from Johannesburg to meet me for the rest day in Windhoek. It was only 2 weeks since Victoria falls when we last rejoined after being 13 weeks apart, but it felt like a long time ago. We live at such a high cadence at TDA that time is overtaken by the packed adrenaline action we go through every second of this trip. I wonder what will happen once we reach the end of this tour, how will each participant adjust to "normal life" again... At the moment, I am certainly feeling like an adrenaline junkie...
The end... Yeah, well it's never been so close now and yet plenty of adventures to come over the last 14 riding days. We are still going to cross Namibia from north to south on exiting dirt roads, going through natural wonders such as the Fish River Canyon, second deepest in the world after the grand canyon. But time wise, the big countdown has started... 2 weeks left and we will be in Cape Town!!! Wao... Table mountain is on the horizon... When I was looking at my map of Africa last night, it suddenly hit me, we are now really close. Of course for the sectional riders joining us for this last leg of the trip, it is an enormous challenge and they seemed pretty tensed about this "big journey" they are just joining... I spoke with a few of them last night and they were just as nervous as we were in Cairo... he he... and we, coming from Cairo feel "almost home"...
Well, at TDA one must never underestimate the task, each day can turn into something very physically and mentally challenging. There are 14 stages left and personally I intend to remain focused until the finish line in Cape Town. On a bicycle, just a simple fall can mean the end of your race. It is important not make a mistake, especially that far into the race. It would be a real pity to lose my EFI status now after all what I have gone through to stay EFI. One wipe and I could lose it, so the pressure is definitely on. My task is now to finish this race EFI. I am happy to say that despite being very tired, I feel very strong on the bike and my legs are definitely gonna take me to Cape Town. I have also finally started to pick up some weight now that I have access to more and better food.
I am looking forward getting back on dirt roads, it is where I am the strongest and enjoy my riding the most. The coming 900 km is gonna be pure dirt, so I should be satisfied with that. The landscapes of the Namibian desert are absolutely magnificent, so expect some cool pictures to be posted over the next days!

                             The truck is already there waiting for riders to arrive at the camping side

                                     Gerald is tired but happy to meet me and now he just need to
                        do the maintenance for his bike before going to a warm shower in a nice hotel

                                                                       everybody's tyres

                                                                  The photo talk for it self

                                                      Eric helping Gerald with his chain...

                                            After a shower a draft beer in the hotel...mmmmm.....

RISOTTO AND RAIN...

I am not inspired by Botswana. There is very little to report on, except that we are all bored out of our minds and that our legs are sore from the long distances we are now doing each day. To add to the morosity, we have had awful weather conditions ever since we entered Botswana. I can't remember seeing so much rain in my life. It has been pouring with rain days and nights. Thunderstorm after thunderstorm. Needless to mention that our tents are all soaking wet, that our clothes are soaking wet, that the trucks and lockers are full of mud and that everybody is pretty much pissed off with camping. Camping is not fun in such conditions, but it is even worst after long riding days when you are smelly, tired and would pay anything to access a hot shower.... Instead, you get to pitch your tent under the rain in a muddy field.... Sleeping inside this leaking and smelly piece of fabric is getting on every rider's nerves. By now, most tents have been put up and down so many times that they are not completely waterproof any more. Oh, and did I mention that it is freezing cold? Yes, 2 weeks ago we couldn't sleep because it was so hot, and now it is full scale winter here. This weather is not nice, believe me.


So we fight back in whatever way we can. To lift up the spirits, Gabriele decided to cook a risotto for the whole camp. Jos and I offered our help as assistants and we managed to produce a very good risotto for 80 people in the middle of the Botswana bush with basic cooking equipment. We also had some great locker 9 gatherings between rain showers and enjoyed some magnificent Swiss Italian salamis, home produced by the family of Tsiciano, Gabriele's brothers friend who joined us at Vic Falls for this section. I must add that the 36 months matured parmesan cheese he and Ricardo brought along with the salamis was the culinary highlight of this trip!

Today was stage 79 and a feared one as it was the longest of the tour, a mere 209 km. It went much better than we had all expected. If it had not been for the rain and some head wind towards the end of the stage, we would have clocked in record averages. By now, we are used to long distances. This was actually easy since there was no climbing. The legs are a bit stiff, but that is because we have done so many kilometers over the last 8 riding days (about 1200 km). If nothing else, we are definitely building powerful legs... The good news is that we are finally done with Botswana and have just entered Namibia this afternoon. We are now 2 riding days away from Windhoek where we will be given a 24 hour break to rest those tired legs. Before that, 2 more big stages to cover the 300 km that separate us from the capital.

                                                   Entering our 9th country, Namibia

                              Huge thunderstorms have been making our cycling (and camping) life
                              miserable over the past few days. This was the sky we faced today

                                     Finally we reach the Namibian border post after the longest
                                     day of the tour, 209 km

                            
                                     Tony and Simon at a rare coke stop in Botswana in a typical
                                      one horse town where we managed to buy some cold drinks
                                      from a shebeen (illegal home bar). This drunk local kept on
                                      telling us he had also done Cairo to Cape and that he knew
                                      personaly John Cecil Rhodes...

                                                                        My helmet....

                                    The owner of the shebeen was also drunk like most of the
                                    customers sitting outside under a tree. He gave us the keys
                                    and let us help ourselves in his freezer

                                    The first sign mentioning South Africa! It took us 101 days to
                                     reach this one. We are still over 2000 km away, but it is a nice
                                     booster for moral anyway.

                                                                  The dinner queue
                            
                                                The risotto was served by the maestro himself....

                                 This is even more rare than spotting a leopard.... Jos doing dishes...

                                          Gabriele starting to cook the rice for the risotto

                                    The riding info for the next five days... Plenty of kilometers...

                                    Grand Chef Gabriel in action tasting the bouillon for the risotto

                                  Today, James the TDA chef has been relagated to assistant.
                              Here he is preparing the mushrooms that will be used in the risotto

                        It is a miserable life at camp when it keeps on raining, and it is cold as well

                                                         Gert bathing in a cooking pot

                                 Sherita and James preparing food under difficult conditions.
                              The rain was so strong that it came through every possible corner

                                                            Gert cleaning pots for the kitchen.