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.....

NAMIBIA

There was a sense of excitement this morning as we left Windhoek. We were starting the eight and last section of this gigantic adventure across Africa. At the end of this section.... Cape Town..... But before we get to see Table mountain, we need to sweat a bit more... And sweating we did today.... Namibia reminded us that we are now back in dryer and warmer territory, but what a difference from Botswana! We got on dirt just a few kilometers after leaving the capital and started climbing right away on a curvy sandy road surrounded by dry bushes and beautiful mountains in the background. We climbed to a 2050 m pass before riding rolling hills and long straight stretches of dirt road filled with gravel and patches of soft sand.


Dirt roads in Namibia are in a much better shape than anywhere we have been previously on this trip. Here they maintain the gravel roads and grade them regularly, so they are actually relatively easy compared to the one we experienced in Southern Sudan or Northern, Kenya and Tanzania.
The difficulties today did not come from the road but from my bike... I changed my chain in a hurry on arrival in Windhoek and did not notice that I put a chain for an 8 speed bike. My cassette has 9 speed which means that the size of the chain is a tiny bit narrower than on a 8 speed bike. As we left Windhoek, I noticed that my gears did not shift properly. A few kilometers further, they started to shift by themselves and eventually, I could only use one gear at the back. This meant that my only way to tackle the climbs today was to use the front derailleur and to stand up when it got too steep.... This is OK for a few kilometers, but we had 115 km to go and plenty of climbs including a serious pass.
Eventually, about 10 km after lunch my chain broke. I carry quick links for such incidents, but unfortunately they were too narrow for this chain, so we had to go for plan B. Eric helped me to fix the chain by using the chain itself. For this, you have to brake another link and force the pin back into position once you join the two parts of a now shorter chain. After two unsuccessful attempts we managed to fix it and I could ride to the finish.
This did not fix my gear shifting problems though and all I could do was to stand on my legs and push harder when climbing. As problems usually come in series, Jos had a flat and a strong headwind picked up during the last 30 km of the stage. All these delays resulted in us cycling through the hottest part of the day and we were a bunch of unhappy cyclists when we finally reached the camp site.
Luckily, the campsite was really nice combined with a lodge, it was well stocked with cold beers and we even had rooms booked by Tony who was sick today and got here early using the dinner truck.
Having a room instead of putting up your tent makes such a difference, especially after a long day like this. You can get straight to the shower and relax on the bed just minutes after finishing your cycling day, rather than having to get to the truck, pick up your camping gears, walk with you tents and other necessary equipment to a remote corner of the camp and having to clear the ground, look for shade, avoid the ants and so on.... Instead within minutes, you are fresh, clean and can enjoy a cold beer. So you can imagine that there is a big rush at each TDA camp site to get to book rooms where there are some available. Each rider is trying to use a faster rider connection to book a room for him or her, so your best bet is either to find out where we are going next and book by phone in advance or to ask somebody on the truck to book a room for you. But as we progress further in this tour, more and more riders know the tricks so it is really getting harder and harder to get rooms anywhere we go. By now, everybody is so fed up with camping that the room competition is almost harder than the riding itself...

                                       Eric managed to fix my broken chain after a few attemps.
                                    I managed to reach camp with this fix and put a new chain on.
                                                This time I made sure I had the right size...

                                        Lunch in a beautiful setting, it felt like a Sunday picnic...

                                             Road signs.... We are definitely back in civilsation
                            
                                                The lunch truck waiting for hungry cyclists

                                                                  Beautiful Namibia

                                                                              Katja

                                                                             Aren

                                            Namibia has 2 habitants per square kilometer,
                                                    so here is what it means in real life....

                                             Endless empty fields with beautiful mountains in
                                                        the background, that is Namibia...

                                I had to take two photos as the riders were already too far appart.
                          Two more of the 12 posing at the 10 000 km with me: Simon and Frans

                                       We enjoyed beeing back on dirt with some windy roads
                                             after riding 2 weeks in straight and flat Botswana

12 TDA participants have managed to ride Every Inch since Cairo to this point where we pass 10 000 km.... Here are 7 of them, from left to right Sunhil, Hardy, me, Rod, Stuart, Juliana and Dan. The 3 missing for the photo are Gizi Jason and Jethro who are also EFI. Frans ans Simon came a bit later and we did a separate photo

                                                                      Beautiful Namibia...

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.

BOTSWANA

Botswana is flat.... It is the complete opposite of Ethiopia. It is flat and empty, no people. The road are straight and just disappear in the far distance. The country is a giant game park crossed by a few roads and you can ride your bicycle for hours without meeting anybody on the road, a complete novelty to us after crossing heavily populated regions of Africa. There are plenty of wild animals here if you judge by the amount of elephant droppings on the road. Some riders were lucky and saw elephants crossing the road in front of them. We had one yesterday trumpeting at us, probably to warn others that humans were near by, but we could not see him in the thick bush that bordered the road.

Getting in Botswana was good fun as we used the famous Kazungula ferry to cross the Zambezi river. The Kazungula ferry is nothing more than a metal barge that can transport one truck at a time across the Zambezi. It takes about 10 minutes, and is good fun given the very basic condition of the barge making its way slowly across these crocodile infested waters... It is also a famous since it is the only place in the world where 4 countries meet. In the middle of the river, Zambia, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe all come together.

Once you enter Botswana, you start with cleaning your shoes and tires, by dipping them into a big pool of dirty water that contains some chemicals strong enough to kill the germs of the foot and mouth disease. Then, it is straight ahead for kilometers and kilometers. Pretty boring, and worst, it is even windy... The distances we are covering here are impressive, even in TDA terms. On most days in Botswana we are riding between 160 and 200 km. I am now writing this posting from Main and we have already covered 700 km in 5 days.

So, this means that we are back in peloton riding which I am enjoying, I have to say. By now, we are a lot more experienced in group riding and I am amazed at how efficient peloton riding is. Single riders have no chance against a well organised peloton. It is also the best defence against the wind. We take turns of 5 km each in front and by doing so, we have been able to reach average speeds well above 30 km per hour even in head winds. Not bad. This efficiency has meant that we have had to find ways to kill time as we have been making it to camp early. So yesterday for example, we decided to have a stop at 103 km (out of 185) and spent 3 hours at a beautiful lodge where we stuffed ourselves with delicious cheese burgers and relaxed in their magnificent swimming pool.

That is one thing Botswana is not short off, lodges... They specialize in high end lodges with the most exclusive levels of service. So, we were very glad that Planet Baobab let day visitors to enjoy their magnificent infrastructures. After spending 3 hours in this small paradise, we decided to hit the road again and cover the last 82 km. Unfortunately, we had a remake of our day 2 experience. (the day I almost lost my EFI due to a long stop for a comfortable lunch at a Red Sea resort and had to face a sand storm).

While Jos, Andre and myself were having our cheese burgers by the pool, the weather had turned nasty and the strong tail wind we had enjoyed during the morning had now turned into a headwind with a worrying thick black line growing on the horizon. Within an hour and a half we hit this black line.... It was like entering the gates of hell. In a typical African thunderstorm style, we hit a curtain of rain... It was pouring so heavily that it hurt like it was hailing. Lightening started to crack over our heads and the wind was so strong that we were almost thrown off our bicycles. The temperature had dropped by at least 20 degrees and it was so dark, it felt like night had taken over.

You could not see anything and there was nowhere to hide. We were in the middle of an open endless field with short bush and grass. Lightening was now banging right over our heads ans it felt like our last moments had arrived...Suddenly on the left hand side of the road, a small miracle.... One of the TDA vehicle was there! I had forgotten that last night at the rider meeting they had mentioned that due to the very long distance of the stage, they would have one vehicle parked at kilometer 150 for refreshments. We jumped inside and once we realised we were safe, we could not stop laughing at this experience. It was raining so hard that even the Land Cruiser of the TDA was leaking water from every corner. In less than 15 minutes, the rain stopped and as if nothing had happened the sun reappeared. We got back on our bicycles and pushed even harder now that we had lost a good 15 minutes. By the time we made it to camp, we were dry, except for our cycling shoes. Wao, what a storm and we had ridden straight into it.

Timing was actually perfect, we had ridden the 185 km at an average speed slightly above 30 km per hour, enjoyed a 3 hours break at a magnificent lodge, eaten cheese burgers and made it to camp before dark. The storm riding was gonna be yet another one of these moment that you never forget.

That evening at camp, we set a bigger than average locker 9 club meeting, inviting a few special guests of honor and enjoyed a 2,5 kg piece of Swiss cheese matured 36 months in cellar and specially delivered by Gabriel's brother who have joined us for this section of the tour...We make a point of inviting a different guest of honor almost each evening. In this way we get to know each rider in a different way than just on the bike. Tonight we invited Lanie. Lanie is amazing. She is the oldest woman rider, she is of Chinese origin, but lives in Canada. At the beginning of this tour, everybody smiled politely at her. She was the only rider who did not use cleats on her shoes and seemed very unprepared and unfit. But Lanie proved to be a tough cookie as they say in the US. She just got stronger and stronger. She is now not only finishing each and every stage but cycles at such a consistent pace that if you stop too long for a coke, Lanie already passes you. Impressed by her tenacity and very quiet approach to life, we decided that tonight Lanie was gonna be the guest of honor of the locker 9 brotherhood. She was delighted and probably touched by the gesture, I had never had a chance to speak with her for more than a minute, so it was nice to hear more about her.

The atmosphere was colonial, the air was hot and humid, and the South African red wine went down our throats like mother's milk... A beautiful red sky added a hint of African flavour to this magical experience. TDA is very much what you make out of it and we are making sure we get the maximum, we race on the day and we enjoy beautiful Swiss cheese and South African wine in the evening. We are gentlemen racers, probably like the early tour de France riders who would stop in a local bar for lunch, have a glass of wine and get back on their bikes.... What a great times these must have been... Well, since we are not racing seriously, we can afford to spend 3 hours at a road side lodge and drink wine each night... And, by the way, make no mistake, tomorrow morning at 6h00 we will be on the road pushing a good pace, sharing the work riding in an organised peloton and having fun racing.

The coming week is a tough one. This is the one when we do over 900 km in 5 days... Yes.... Each stage will be minimum 160 km and one is 207 km, the longest of the tour.Of course we are now very fit and it does not seem too difficult, but it is still a lot of hours on the saddle and much depends on the wind.207 km in a headwind can become a day of hell...
It is incredible how the past 3 months have trained us to long distance riding. I remember suffering of cramps and general fatigue after 90 km on day one. Yesterday at kilometer 160, I was pushing my relay turn at 35 km per hour feeling absolutely fine and not even breathing heavily... That is the difference, we might be tired, but we are so much fitter and flat Botswana is a good place to evaluate this progress.Before this tour, I would have never been able to push such speeds even on much shorter distances.

 

                                                           Hot dogs for lunch! Yeah!
                           
                                    In Botswana, we have to clean our shoe soles and our bike
                                    tires in these giant dips against the foot and mouth disease

                                        Another very basic bush camp in the middle of nowhere.
                                        Elephants were spotted just 100 meters from camp...

                                                           Sundown on the Chobe river

                            Late afternoon boat cruise on the Chobe river for the TDA participants

                        The Chobe river flows into the Zambezi, just a few kilometers downstream

                          
                                    TDA riders stepping off the Kasangula ferry into Botswana

                           The Kasangula ferry is the only way to cross the Zambezi river between
                           Botswana and Zambia. There is a huge queue of trucks especially since
                           Zimbabwe introduced very heavy prices for using its roads

                             The most simple form of transport on these crocodile infested waters...

                                            One of the TDA trucks joining us on the crossing

                                  Me during the 15 minutes long crossing at the point where the 4
                                  countries meet. Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia and Botswana

                                       The biggest note the world has ever seen, a 100 trillion
                                       Zimbabwean dollars... It is worth a few cents...

                                                                  A nice spot for lunch

                     Botswana is completely flat and the roads straight for hundreds of kilometers
                     with windy conditions. Peloton riding is essential

                                The famous "Locker 9 club meetings" are becoming highly popular,
                                especially at bush camps where there is nothing else to do. Here
                                we are sampling some 36 month old Swiss cheese brought by
                                Gabriel's brother who joined us for the current section. We might
                                be in the middle of nowhere, but we are able to lift our spirits with such delicacies...

                             We had 185 km to ride today and at kilometer 103, this opportunity
                             of jumping into the pool of this road side lodge could not be turned
                             down. Eventually 3 hours later, Jos, Andre and myself carried on and
                             did the last 82 km in a record braking time despite a huge thunderstorm
                             unleashing hell on us

                                 Planet Baobab is the name of this wonderful lodge where we also
                                 enjoyed plenty of cold drinks and delicious cheese burgers...

                                 This giant Antbear is a landmark here in Botswana along the road
                                 between Nata and Maun