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Sunrise on day 27
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Our first Baobab sighting in Africa
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| Its going to be another hot day today |
The blog posts are still coming through thick and fast, albeit a bit behind time-wise. But hey, the best stories are always those from the past, and worth remembering, so I hope you will forgive me. |
Wednesday: Those riders who suffered from heat exhaustion and heat stroke yesterday, didn't ride today, just as well, as it was just as hot as it was yesterday.
We left camp and only after a short 3km ride, rode into the artisinal gold mining area of Albada, stopped a bakkie full of people to ask about the mining, fortunately it was a bunch of Exploration Geologists. Managed to get a short explanation about the local geology and mode of gold mineralization, albeit in broken English. Then pushed on, as Judith had ridden off into the sunrise.
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Judith pointing out the exploration trenches in the hill side
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Michael and the Group of Exploration Geologists
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Judith had her first puncture of the tour, although it was only a slow leak we decided to replace the tube for her, with a little help from our friends of course.
Found it extremely hot again, and had to stop every 4 to 5 km to rest in the shade of a tree, if there was one available.
I was nauseous by the time we got to lunch, couldn't eat so stopped cycling and climbed into lunch truck. Judith's batteries were also flat, so she joined me. A good decision as we would never have made it in the intense Sudanese heat (and this is their Winter heat!!)
But not before we got into trouble again, a kilometer before lunch, I took Judith, Trixie and Dr. Helen (The day's sweep rider) deep into a Village looking for cold cokes. Found a great place to stop (it even had music) and we proceeded to make new friends and have a general conversation with the locals.
Unfortunately TDA Management couldn't get through to Helen on her Satellite phone, and they thought that we were lost, and they had no idea exactly where. They then asked the lunch truck personnel to try and find us, so by the time we got to the lunch truck, they had already packed up and were about to come and look for us.
We were not popular with the lunch truck guys or afternoon sweep rider... when they then had to unpack the truck and set everything up again to feed us. Nor did we score any brownie points with TDA Management either. But hey, all's well that ends well.
Rode back to camp in the truck and stopped at another coke stop approx. 6Km from camp, bought more soft drinks - our thirst is just so relentless. I have drunk more coke/fizzy drinks these last three weeks than I have drunk in the last three years! Even Judith lies in the tent craving coke in the evenings (don't tell the children).
Arrived at camp and had our usual donkey wash, sat around relaxing until briefing & dinner, then only set up our tent in the twilight toward the end of the day (much cooler then).
Tomorrow is the last day before the Ethiopian Border, and the road surface is supposed to be paved. Most riders changed back to slick tires from their MTB tires. We haven't, hopefully it wasn't the wrong decision - tomorrow will tell.
Cheers,
Mike T
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Sudanese rural brick fields
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Coke Stop deep in the Village
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| Sudanese Blacksmith with metal forge |
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| Blacksmith with very rudimentary tools |
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| Land Rover - Opening up Africa for others to follow |
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| Philip getting ready for his donkey wash |
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| The Donkey wash suppliers waiting to sell water to the riders |
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Riders chilling in the shade out of the hot sun
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| Briefing - Tomorrows last ride in the Sudan |
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Chef Errol busy with dinner
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Chef Muli busy with the vegetarians dinner
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True love is taking her out for dinner
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Supper and tire changing time again
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| Very relaxed dinners... |
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| Niklas waiting for the heat to subside so that he can put up his tent |
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Africa home of the majestic Baobab tree
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Another Sudanese sunset
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