Onwards to Khartoum

So I'm sitting here in a very westernised shopping centre at a little internet place typing away at my blog... seems a little strange compared to the very unwesternised world outside.

We have travelled from Dongola to Khartoum over the last 4 days. I've been lucky enough to spend most of that time on my bike.

The most important thing is that Kim the cook (who lost her passport in Cairo) has managed to get herself out of Cairo and safely to Khartoum. Even though I am not overly supersticious I plan to give her my lucky horseshoe I picked up in Luxor as soon as I see her - she seemed to just have one stroke of bad luck after another poor thing! We are all very glad that we are out of Egypt now that things are a little unstable there.

The cycling has been pleasant although this morning I was sweeping with Elvis and he got a flat tyre. Unfortunately he doesn't have his own pump and his spare inner tube has an unusual valve that wasn't compatible with my pump. This meant that we were sitting on the side of the road patching a tube so we could get going again and then had to work quite hard to catch up to the riders at the back when the wind changed direction just to make life a little more complicated!!!

Riding in convoy is often a painful procedure. I sit at the very back of the convoy so that if there is any medical problems I'll know about them and can try to help. Travelling is often slow, traffic is crazy, and we were grateful to the national sudanese cycling team for helping us out.

Today one of the riders fell off their bike riding across some railway tracks as part of the convoy. She was feeling a bit dizzy and nauseous afterwards so I jumped on the truck with her for the last 20km of the day. I was quite pleased to have an excuse to get out of the sun - the dizziness and nausous feeling soon resolved and the rider is perfectly fine.

I just had my first shower in 9 days so I'm feeling nice and clean!

Hope everyone up in northern queensland stays safe