Claire's Travel Blog

Khartoum

2012-02-02T00:35:00.000-08:00

Well surely you have all noticed that the air around you is smelling a little nicer because I just took my first shower in 11 days! That is a new record because I forgot to have one when I had the chance in Aswan! Babywipes are awesome things but really don't beat a proper shower.

Life here continues to be busy. My next task for the day is to get a rider briefing sorted out for the new sectionals who are joining us.

Logistical dilemmas are never ending - the main one at the moment is what to do with all the tour equipment we had in the new 5 clients lockers?! Somehow we'll make it work.

Got to check out the Resus bays at the Royal Care International Hospital Khartoum yesterday - not for anything serious though. They've got some nice facilities there so I'll have to make a note in the tour bible.

I think I really must write the TDA Medics Handbook this year to put in all the tips of the trade I have learnt... I'm sure it would make life a lot easier for medics to come in future tours!!!

Back in the Sudan :D

2012-01-28T06:24:00.001-08:00

Once again it's been a while and again I apologise.

Work has been busy busy. Especially since we have our own trucks again which met us in Wadi Halfa.

Today I'm in Dongola and have been on many missions.
My medical clinic is finally sorted.
My main emergency response bag is finally sorted
The secondary emergency response bag remains a work in progress.
I had a big win at the chemist today and found some more Adrenaline, and an even bigger win when I got some Suxemethonium and Pancuronium. They didn't have Vecuronium which is what I'm used to using so I'll have to do a bit of reading up on this pancuronium stuff but at least we now have intubating drugs to go with the rest of our intubating equipment!

The other day while climbing off the roof of the lunch truck I managed to rip the crotch of my pants big time. This was a big problem because I only brought one pair of long pants with me!!! Thankfully this is Africa though and in Dongola today I went to the Tailor and got him to sew them back up from me and the pants that have already made it through 2 TDAs are back to being wearable again!!!

There's a big mission going on trying to sort out the space on the trucks. Riders have too much luggage, all the tour equipment and food struggles to fit on. What doesn't fit into peoples lockers must disappear.

I did a big cull of medical equipment. Mostly just packaging rather than the medication itself.

There hasn't been much action in the clinic.

The ferry trip from Aswan to Wadi Halfa was smoother than usual getting on - didn't have so many people to push through at least! One of the clients, Esther, dreaded my hair, which is great because it means that it is much easier to look after while I'm camping for four months and I'm not good at hair maintenance normally anway! It took her many hours and it was the first head she had ever completely dreaded and I am really greatful for her effort!!

Well I'd better get back to it anyhow!!

Ready Set Go!

2012-01-19T08:18:00.000-08:00

Well, I apologise that it's been a while since my last post, but chances of getting online in the desert is somewhat slim, and then when I was in Safaga this site wanted to verify my login in Arabic and I couldn't understand what I was supposed to type in the box!

Life on TDA is never without drama and I must say it's nice to be back at my other home living the life on the road again!

Mostly so far I have been manning the lunch truck for our riders. Our lunch truck driver speaks little English and I speak little Arabic but Zait (the Egyptian lunch truck driver) and I seem to understand each other quite well considering. Yesterday we got ourselves into a bit of a pickle when we got the lunch truck stuck in the sand because of a slight communication error... Thankfully the dinner truck was able to save us.

Today the kids were a little vicious which meant for the second time already this tour we had a cyclist involved with a motor vehicle... thankfully only minor injuries and it wasn't necessary to go to hospital in the Egyptian Ambulance who tends to follow us along as we ride (as well as about 10 police cars, and the fire truck).

I am really looking forward to getting back into the Sudan to see our own trucks again!

Back at Changi again - next stop Cairo :D

2012-01-05T23:42:00.000-08:00

The ride from Takeo to Phnom Penh was nearly uneventful. National Highway 2 was a pleasant ride and I didn't feel like I was riding on a highway. If anyone reading this is ever contemplating a similar route I probably recommend Highway 3 over Highway 2 only because it has such a nice wide shoulder and you don't have to be so much on the alert to oncoming traffic as well as keeping eyes in the back of your head for the stuff coming up behind. On highway 2 it's often necessary to ride off the pavement onto the dirt shoulder to allow for bigger faster traffic to pass, although traffic was not heavy.

It wasn't until I rode into PP that I had absolutely no idea what road I was coming in on. I stopped at an intersection off the road but still on the pavement that the motorbikes use. I try to ask the traffic cop where I am on my map. He is asking me to keep moving because I'm apparently blocking the intersection even though I'm not on the road. I don't listen to that part. He points vaguely in the direction that I should take, but I really want to know where I am on the map because I have no idea what road! The traffic was pretty crazy but the basic rules are still the same as most other crazy cities I've cycled in - give way to whatever is in front of you. Anyhow, after taking the super long route I eventually find my way back to the Mad Monkey where they still have my bike box and my camping equipment (phew!).

I repair all the holes and tears in my bike box that happened during transit Brissie to PP with boxing tape and a few reinforcing cardboard pieces. Hopefully it'll get to Cairo ok. At the airport I get into a disagreement with the guy at the check in counter over how much baggage I have. I have 34.3kg of luggage which includes 23kg of boxed bike. I produce my letter but he doesn't listen because I don't have an approval letter from head office. Smart guy. Suddenly I'm wishing that I'm wearing 7 pairs of undies, 3 pairs of cycling knicks (chamois if you don't come from Aus and get confused about what this means!), my one cycling jersey I decided to take with me (my other t-shirts can double to ride my bike in), in addition to what I'm already wearing (which is only one pair of underwear, two pairs of loose fitting shorts, one pair of long pants over the top, 4 t-shirts, my explorer socks, a pair of sports socks, my runners... I think that's all but who can be sure. I was considering tying my sarong around my waist aswell...

Then he suggests I take my massive red duffel bag as carry on. I have not one but 3 planes to get on though so I'm not really happy with this plan because I think it's a bit big and the cabin staff might get narky at me, even if I could get away with it for the PP to Singapore stretch.

Eventually he tells me if I take 4-5kg out of my red duffel bag it will be under 30kg which is ok (even though I only have a 20kg ticket, normally they are ok with that until you go over the magic 30 number). So I take out my tent and my sleeping bag in the middle of the airport and remove my tent pegs and put them back in my red duffel just in case the security guys at any of the checks think I might stab someone with one of them.

So now I have 5 pieces of hand luggage to keep an eye on BUT NO EXCESS BAGGAGE FEES! and I'm very thankful to those little mini carry on luggage trolleys they have at Changi airport. I keep peering over it and counting and making sure I still have all five pieces - tent, sleeping bag, hydro pack, helmet, and kite (ok so this bit is a luxury but I just couldn't leave it behind!!). I still have another 2 planes to get on so hopefully I don't have any more issues to deal with!!

The Takeo Orphanage

2012-01-05T18:01:00.000-08:00

Immediately as I walk out of the internet place after my last entry I meet a Cambodian girl, Kanha. Kanha is a 19 year old orphan girl who now helps teach English at this little orphanage in Takeo. She asks me if I would like to visit the orphanage she lives at. Of course I jump at the chance. It's a small distance away and Kanha has her bicycle with her and suggests I ride with her - so I jump on the back and ride side saddle like the Khmer do until we get to the guesthouse I'm staying at and I pick up my own bike.

I meet all the kids at the orphanage - they are currently aged 11-18 years old. There is currently about 30 orphans but at times there are more like 100. I introduce myself and they are impressed at all of the distances I have been riding!

The big focus is on learning English so that these kids will have a chance at getting a decent job. They also get taught about maintaining good eye contact at all times. They all do their own laundry, and they have a cooking roster, so each day 3 kids will work together and cook dinner for everyone. There is a small two story building, and the boys sleep downstairs, and the girls upstairs. They have a communal wardrobe (boys and girls separate). Mattresses and a mosquito net go up at night time, and during the day they get packed away to create more space.

They have 3 separate classrooms, but the roof really needs repairing as there's lot's of holes and I imagine it would disrupt learning in the wet!

I meet Big Al who is a Phillipino guy who runs the place basically by himself. He says he could do with a hand and is on the lookout for volunteers and I promise to spread the word and apologise that I have to leave Takeo the following morning. I honestly would have loved to spend a few days there helping out but I needed to get to Phnom Penh to catch a plane!

I can eat noodles with chopsticks!

2012-01-04T00:35:00.000-08:00

So it's been a few days since I've posted anything here - my apologies but the internet connection speed in the town of Kep was a true test of my patience so I decided to occupy myself otherwise - exploring the crab market and the beaches around town instead! And of course put my feet up for a bit and read some book.

The ride from Sihanoukville to Kep was not nearly as challenging as the other way around. I think it was partially because I ate a tonne of food on the dive boat, and also because I got all the hills over and done with first thing in the morning before the heat picked up too much!

I don't mean to brag but I'm turning into some kind of chopstick eating noodle pro! Still got a few more chances to practice though to polish up this new skill!

Todays ride was particularly beautiful. I only spent 5km on the highway, the other roughly 120km I spend riding the back roads. I meet a guy who gives me a private tour of his pagoda. There are a lot of pagodas here but it was only the first one I have been to see. I think it is easy to over do the pagoda seeing sometimes! He asked me if I'd seen any of these other pagodas (probably famous if you're into pagodas) and seemed really disappointed when I hadn't.

I also met a boy who spoke really good english (almost fluent). He said he'd been learning it for 3 years now at both private and public schools. I found another lady who was selling fried banana, and also some really really good sticky rice with rhubarb in the middle, wrapped up in vine leaves. Yummo.

And now I'm in the town of Takeo! Yep I finally found it! Tomorrow I ride 80km back to PP on National Highway 2 (fingers crossed!). The word is that NH2 is bicycle friendly with a nice wide shoulder so I'll suss it out for myself and see how it goes! I have a nice clean room and an ensuite bathroom all to myself for the fine price of $5USD. I'd be in my tent for that amount of money at home!

How to drink champagne underwater

2012-01-01T04:54:00.000-08:00

It's been a lovely 2 days off the bike. I have had my feet up relaxing on a boat the entire time (apart from the 5 dives we managed to fit in when I was underwater!)

For any divers reading this the visibility was pretty poor (like between 1-4m) but the sponges were cool, and the fishies were nice, and diving is cool anyway and just fits in so well when you feel like taking a few days off the bike that the low vis didn't really matter that much. I am now a certified Advanced Open Water Diver!!! And scored a free t-shirt (which is great because I only had the three I was wearing at the airport).

Buuuut... we did have one dilemma - what do you do when you're planning a night dive starting in 2011 and finishing in 2012 and need to have a new years toast??? The guys at Scuba Nation Cambodia have it all figured out!!! Here's how it works - all you need is a pot from the kitchen, a bottle of champagne, and a piece of oxygen tubing from the divers first aid box!!!
1. kneel on the ocean floor
2. turn the pot upside down and fill it with air using your occy (you might need to take a bit of extra lead so that you don't float up too much too!!!)
3. pop the bottle of champagne in the air pocket created by the pot
4. insert oxygen tubing
5. use the tubing like a straw take your regulator out of your mouth and have a drink!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE :)

Tomorrows plan is to retrace the 110km back to Kampot then continue a further 10-20km I think (need to check the map before I go to sleep) to the little town of Kep. Meant to be a lovely spot. Will write more then.

Lots of stories from Kampot to Sihanoukville

2011-12-30T03:04:00.000-08:00

I have so many stories from today I really don't know where to begin!

I began my day cycling at 7:30am. At 9:15 I decided it was time for my breakfast stop in a cute little village I found. I found a lady who made me some noodles with some chicken in soup. Yum yum. Nice and salty. Only problem was that the only utensils I had to eat it with were chopsticks. I can eat rice with chopsticks, no dramas, but noodles?! Now that's a mission and a half. Half the town came and ate breakfast with me I think just so that they could have a laugh at the white girl trying to eat noodles with her chopsticks!!! Finally someone produced a fork for me and that made my life much easier. I love this country - I can't speak much Khmer at all but I go to pay for my noodles - I have no idea how much they cost and it's obvious I don't understand a word of Khmer- but I give the lady a 10000Riel note (equivalent to 2.5USD) and she gives me back 8500 Riel. I somehow don't think she was ripping me off, and every time I go to pay for something & have no idea how much it costs I use the same method and exactly the same thing happens!!! It's great. I wish more places in the world were like this.

So I'm pedalling along and finally I see some more foreign cyclists, stopped on the side of the road (flat tyre). I ride over to them just because they're the first other long distance cyclists I have seen. They are loaded up much more than I am. When I talk to them I find out that they are two german doctors cycling from Germany to Singapore. I was impressed. (Don't worry Mum, I'm not going to try it!).

46km along my route to Sihanoukville I loose my shoulder (on the road I mean, I still have both the ones attached to my arms). It's a bugger because the traffic although is not really that heavy, it's not exactly light either. This means I pedal most of that distance in the dirt next to the road. I don't like it. It's getting on in the day, the sun is high, and suddenly I hit some hills! On the first hill I start to feel slightly dizzy, then slightly nauseous. And then I think that it's now 2pm and I haven't peed yet. Sweat pores out of everywhere possible. I look down at my water bottles and they're getting empty and I wonder why is there no person right here waiting to sell me some more??? The lack of lockout on my fork also doesn't help. It's not long before I'm off my bike, walking it up the hill, jumping back on again riding some more, off again walking... and then I meet Ben. Thank goodness at that exact moment I'm back on my bike again looking all hard core haha! Ben is a muscly French guy on a bike going in the opposite direction to me. He has only 9 days in Cambodia too. His plan is to get to the big intersection 30kms away. After I have a chat to Ben, I find the lady selling the water!!! Phew that feels better. The coke helped a lot too.

Sihanoukville is a huge place and I finally get to the dive place I'm booked in at... but I sure did take the long way. I meet a guy on a motorbike who eventually says he'll show me the way to Serendipity beach. I follow him, but I'm tired and he has a motorbike and I'm only on a push bike. Then he wants to hold my hand while we ride so we can get there faster but I pass on the offer. Never quite sure what that might lead to, as well as the fact that I'm worried about the safety component. I'm really good with safety. Helmet is on (even though the doctors from Germany I met didn't have helmets, and neither did Ben or any other Cambodian on a bicycle I have seen). Mine's saved my head before so definitely worth wearing!

Anyhow, I make it to the dive shop check in there, get the gear that I'm borrowing sorted and make sure it's all the right size. Then it's time to find accommodation for the night. Sihanoukville is huge, and definitely a tourist town, overpopulated for New Years. The place next door is all full up and then I learn that most of town is all full up. Gerard at the dive shop gives his friend Thida a phone call and she has a bed usually occupied by her niece who is currently away on holiday. Very handy!!! I can stay there again the following night when I get back from diving. She is very lovely, and has some lovely staff at the bar in the front of the cafe. And even though it is over priced tourist food (compared to local food on the street which I have been otherwise eating) I like eating there anyway just because they are so friendly!!! I also ask if there is somewhere nearby that will do laundry for me and one of the girls takes it for me, no worries. In exchange Thida says she needs me to help her text her husband who is currently in England, wanting to know if she needs any kitchen supplies. She doesn't know what lots of the words are and needs some help so that he will understand what she needs!!! She's very thankful for my help.

Anyhow, I'm off diving tomorrow and the next day so probably won't post again for a few days!

Cover your knees!

2011-12-28T18:44:00.000-08:00

So I made it to Phnom Penh airport with no dramas. On the plane I'm sitting next to a lovely Cambodian lady who doesn't speak any English. She is very giggly and considering neither of us have any idea what the other person is saying, we manage to hold a conversation that consists mainly of giggling! I like this place already!

I get to the airport and change some dollars into Riel. Airports usually have bad rates, but it's already 6pm, and I want to get riding first thing in the morning, beat the heat, so I change some anyway.

Then it's time to find some transport to the backpackers I'm checked in at! No dramas there either. I find a man who has a 3 wheel motorbike thing (which they call Tuk-Tuks here- doesn't look anything like an African Tuk Tuk though!). Me and my bike manage to squeeze in ok. No dramas, just a little squishy. I get to the backpackers and unpack my bike - it travelled well. There's a few tears in the cardboard - as is the usual story with bikes in boxes on aeroplanes.

In the morning, the lady at the backpackers gives me a map of Phnom Penh so I can figure out how to get from there to National Highway 2 which should take me directly to the town of Takeo where I had been planning to stay the night - 80km away - a pleasant distance with the panniers!

I find the right highway ok. Somewhere I get to a big round about. There's no signposts so I assume that the highway must go straight ahead. I pedal along and the road becomes less and less highway like as I ride. I wonder if I'm on the right track and consider that it's time for a coke stop. I ask the lady (who doesn't speak English)
"Takeo?" pointing in the direction that I'm heading. She looks at me blankly.
"Kampot?" I try again saying the name of a bigger place that I'm spending the next night.
"Yes, yes Kampot" she agrees with me. And it sounds like she understands. It never ceases to amaze me how much you can understand from each other when you don't even speak the same language! She points down to my knees, and I realise that even though I'm wearing baggy shorts over the top of my lycra cycling shorts I must be exposing too much skin. Will have to ride with long pants on tomorrow.

I get to another big intersection and it's a road that looks a lot more like a highway than the one I have been riding along. I take a left like I'm pretty sure the coke lady told me too. Just in case I ask the policeman who i see near the intersection. He also agrees that Kampot is straight ahead.

And then I finally see the sign. National Highway 3. That was not part of the plan!!! I look at my map and it's actually a more direct route to Kampot than the way through Takeo. Because it's still early I think in my head that maybe I can do a super cycling day and get myself to Kampot! 9 hours later I had ridden the 170km from Phnom Penh to Kampot. I find a cheap hotel, flop on the bed, take a shower, then go for a wander in search of internet and food. The deep fried banana cooked by the lady on the side of the road is really yummy.

Because of all this I am a day ahead of schedule and have the whole day to explore Kampot!
I think I'm going to the markets, then to the waterfall not far out of town.

Tomorrows plan is 105km to Sihanoukville.

You're never on your own for long...

2011-12-26T20:03:00.000-08:00

So I'm standing around Changi Airport at the moment wearing 3 t-shirts simultaneously, two pairs of shorts, one pair of long pants, two pairs of socks, and my sneakers. I'm carrying three jackets with me aswell because it's a little hot to have them on me right now. I'm a tad uncomfy!

BUT... I can't complain too much because I managed to get out of paying my excess baggage fees!!! WHOOOT!!!! Everytime I fly I seem to get swamped but luckily the lady at singapore airlines today had some Christmas Spirit left in her and didn't even mention it (and I had a special little letter all typed out for her too!) Or maybe she was too distracted trying to figure out how to print my Silk Air boarding pass for my connecting flight... anyhow, I had my lovely letter explaining why she shouldn't charge me for my bike on hand and ready just in case and didn't even need to use it!

So I'm on my way to Phnom Penh at the moment with an 11 hour stop over at Singapore, At least Changi Airport is not the most unpleasant of airports to hang out at. They do free tours of the city for people with long transfer times which I decided to go on.

Just while I'm checking in to the tour desk I hear someone calling my name. I look up and it's Francesca (a girl who I used to work with at Homes West last year). She's on her way from Perth home to the Phillipines for a wedding. It's great to have some one to hang out with. I also meet another girl (I don't know her name yet) who is also off to Cambodia for some cycling. She's doing a 19 day organised tour though and it's her first ever bike tour so I'm feeling really excited for her! So I have some friends to hang out here with which makes the time go faster. Because I left the airport I get some new stamps in my passport too (which still excites me!)

Ok so to update you all with the current plan (in case you don't know already):

I'm off to do a bit of bike touring in Cambodia - riding a circuit from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville (just my own thing). Do 2 days of diving and also do my advanced open water course while I'm at it, and then ride back again, before I head back to Cairo for TDA 2012. No return ticket just yet because I don't quite know for certain what I'm going to be up to next.

Feeling pretty excited right now. I was feeling a little unexcited initially because I was actually just starting to settle back into Real Life as a Real Person in the Real World (and finally managing to enjoy myself at the same time!) and then it was time to pack up the car, move all my stuff back to Brisbane (thanks for the storage space Mum and Dad!), do Christmas - which was lovely to be able to spend the time with all the family again (I'm really sorry I just missed you guys Janey and Jim) before jumping on an aeroplane.

It's amazing how fast I can convert back into travel mode again though! It's exciting. I'm always paranoid of forgetting something important when I'm hanging around airports, but I have my passport and my credit card and with those two things I should be able to manage if I've forgotten anything vital!

Well, hope this message finds everyone reading it well after having a lovely Christmas. I'll be in touch writing stories right here for anyone interested :) xo

Mackay to Airlie Beach and back again

2011-11-10T22:14:00.000-08:00

There is 152km between Mackay and Airlie Beach and for me it's the first time I have ridden with the panniers on. I pack somewhat light - (change of clothes, second pair of cycling knicks for the way home, sleeping bag, swimmers and towel, toothbrush... and of course my snorkelling face mask - very important!), get on my bike and go for a ride. My housemate reckons I'm crazy.

One thing about cycling in Australia to be wary of at this time of year are the magpies. I got into a major kefuffle with one not so long ago... these birds really do not like cyclists. On the way to Airlie I get swooped once. Past experiences though have made me wise and I'm peddling along with a heap of 3ocm zip ties coming out at various angles out of my helmet. The perfect magpie repelling device!

50km into the ride and the wind picks up... it's a crosswind - sometimes a crosstail wind but definitely more noticable when it's a crrossheadwind! I begin to question why I'm doing this again? Something reminds me strongly of work in Africa on TDA. Only there's no other cyclists, no vehicle support, just me and my bike.

Plenty of sunscreen applied regularly through out the day but 10 hours in the tropical QLD sun means my sexy cycling tan is well and truly returned!!!

I spend 2 nights and one whole day in Airlie beach chilling out - sailing and diving - before jumping back on the bike and peddling the 152km back home. I put my feet up for a few hours, drink up, and then toddle off to work (night duty is calling)!

Time for an update!!!

2011-09-06T22:46:00.000-07:00

I haven't written an update for a while and alot has been happening.

So I have found myself in a pretty awesome position. I'm currently just sitting here on holiday, between jobs in Perth. I have been on a road trip up the West Coast as far as Monkey Mia and caught up with an old friend Iain in the process. There's some beautiful places up there.

I have realised something I'm not sure a lot of other nurses know. There is a serious nursing shortage out there. Rural areas - it's the place to be. Forget the city. I have managed to resign my position at TPCH and get a short term contract for the exact dates that suit me in Mackay. Not a bad thing eh. All you nurses out there - I reckon you should all start spending a little time in the ED... the skills you learn you can take with you to any other nursing job and they will be very highly regarded!!!

Next week I leave Western Australia to spend a little time in the Snowy Mountains to do a short course in Expedition Medicine. I'm really looking forward to the course because even though it has an alpine focus, I'm sure I'll learn a lot of skills I can use and who knows what it might lead me to doing in the not so distant future!!! Mostly though I'm doing it because it sounds like some serious fun (and it has the added bonus of enabling me to keep the CPE hours up!)

When that finishes I have job lined up in Mackay Emergency Department. Seems like a friendly enough place and I'm looking forward to getting out of the hustle and bustle of Brisbane. Mackay is a rapidly growing centre with people constantly coming and going - sounds like they're pretty short staff and I'm sure i'll learn a lot of things working in the ED over there.

I finish up my contract on the 4th of December - just enough time to catch up with another old friend up in North Queensland and have some (more) fun. We're thinking it might end up being a dive holiday but nothings concrete just yet. Might end up being another road trip or a hike, we'll see what happens!

Home for Christmas and then somewhere around midnight on boxing day a plane is whisking me and my bike over to Cambodia for a few days... on the way back to Egypt to do it all again!!! If you're wondering why it's simply because it's a little more interesting and much more fun than the alternative which involves hanging out at the hospital all day!!!

Hello Real World

2011-05-29T05:59:00.000-07:00

Hello real world! I'm home - and somewhat missing Africa! It always does take a little while to adjust to the return to the real world. At least this time I was expecting it.

The hustle and bustle of the shopping centre, the traffic that stops at red lights, and then starts moving magically when the light goes green. The sun comes up and goes down again - but mostly it goes unnoticed. I can turn the "sun" on and off with the flick of a switch inside! Society holds many expectations - most of which I'm simply just not ready for!!!

I notice lots of old burnt out faces at work. I notice lots of new fresh faces. Lots of work mates have moved on. A bit has changed - there's a construction site right outside the front door. The people that were the "newbies" before I left are now oldies. Workplace politics are unchanged. This is the thing that frustrates me the most.

Outside of work, many friends are out of town, but there's a few still around, some have gone and come back just like me. Some will be gone for a good bit longer yet. Thank goodness for Skype and mobile phones!

The things I miss about Africa are much the same as last time I left. I miss the TDA family of friends, I miss seeing the sun rise and set every day, I miss the open air, the wide open spaces. I miss being a dirtbag. I even miss my tent a little. Combining the cost to replace the zipper and the pole added to excess baggage fees... it simply wasn't going to be worth it. So time for a new tent I guess!!!

Capetown

2011-05-15T07:25:00.000-07:00

So here I am safe and sound, finally in Capetown.

Of course the last 6 days haven't been without any dramas. A few days before we arrive we have a TDA disaster. One of our big support trucks brakes fail, the truck rolls. I don't know how the two staff members on board manage to get out of there unharmed. I think Disco Jesus saved them. Goodbye green truck. That's our second day this tour when things could have ended up seriously bad but somehow they didn't. Once again Sharita (a.k.a BB, or Fearless Leader) does an awesome job sorting out the disaster. We get everything off the trucks. Bicycles are damaged but the main thing is everyone is safe. Thankfully there were no clients on board the truck.

Disco Jesus came from Marsabit - he was a glow in the dark plastic Jesus originally hanging from a cross. One drunken night he gets removed from his cross and Mathias burns his arm so he can bend it downwards - he looks like he's dancing. He used to live above Ferdi's bed on the truck but the belief is that he saved Ferdi and Elvis. Unfortunately he was lost during the drama.

The next lot of dramas don't arrive until the convoy into Capetown. A rider falls and lands heavily. After the awards ceremony she's taken to the hospital for x-rays. Meanwhile another rider is climbing down the ladder out of the truck - the ladder slips and the rider lands awkwardly. Two clients with broken bones in the final day.

So here in Capetown how am I feeling??? The answer: Very Tired.
I don't think I've ever worked this hard in my life.
I also don't think I've ever had so much fun in my life.

It's the perfect way to end a journey.

6 days left

2011-05-08T11:00:00.000-07:00

So I'm currently sitting at a campsite called Felix Unite where the Fish River meets the Orange River close to the border of Namibia/South Africa.

There's 6 days left.

It feels weird.

Somehow I'm looking forward and dreading going home simultaneously which is a very strange feeling. I wish I had a little more time to go and road trip with the troopers in South Africa but it's back to Brisbane I fly in 8 days time.

We've had an awesome time, but the team is tired. Half the team is on strike. 4 months is a long time - everyone is feeling it. I will miss the fresh air, the open spaces, the dramas. But mostly I will miss the people and the friendships - my TDA family.

I look forward to a life where I can go to work and go home again. I look forward to having my own room, my own space again. I look forward to seeing my real family again (the one that's known me for a little more than 4 months)... and I look forward to perhaps returning back here again next year if they'll take me!

Kasane-Ghanzi

2011-05-08T10:41:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated this blog since I was in Kasane and I apologise but I have not had a chance near a computer since then.

From Kasane I figured out how to get myself on a local bus to Ghanzi. It was surprisingly not to complicated. I first got a cab from camp early in the morning to the bus stop (left at 5am) then caught the bus to a place called Nata. From Nata a connecting bus goes off to Maun. I was expecting to spend a night in Maun but I didn't want to be there at the same time as everyone because it is only a tiny place and I knew I would bump into TDA people which would defeat the purpose of having a break! My plan was to hide in the first hotel I saw for a night but when I get to Maun there's another bus going to Ghanzi within another couple of hours so I hang out at the bus depot for a little longer. I manage to cover 1000km in a day on local transport. The only problem I had along the way was taking my tent down in Kasane - my tent pole had decided to fuse itself together and was refusing to collapse fully. Definitely not the end of the world - it just meant that I was on the bus with my extended tent pole - as if I wasn't attracting enough attention being the only whitie on the bus already!!!

I pitch my tent at the same campground TDA will be arriving at in a few days. It's completely empty - there's just me and my friend Olliver the Ostrich. The Ostrich is very friendly and he helps me put my tent back up. Some of the security guards come and have a quick chat to me but they don't speak very good English. They are also friends with Olliver Ostrich and show me he won't bite if he gets touched. So I stroke his back. Funny old bird!

The next day I spend wandering around downtown Ghanzi. I manage to check out the entire down town in a morning - including walking in and out of every shop. I buy a new t-shirt and new 3/4 pants because I felt like having some non dirt-bag clothes with me!

The rest of the afternoon I spend with my head buried in my book... and talking to Olliver. I have never ever looked so forward to going back to work in my life.

My second day in Ghanzi - I sleep in, have a shower, walk up to the kitchen get some coffee, read my book for a bit - listening very carefully for the trucks to arrive. I walk up to the lady at reception to pay my camping bill and find Sharita sitting there at reception. She gives me a big hug and a rundown on all the dramas that have been going on.

The trucks come in and there's more "welcome back" hugs - I am surprised at how much I have missed everyone. And surprised how much being back with everyone feels like family. And surprised at how I am feeling so much better and fresher after the break!

What it's like to be a medic on TDA

2011-04-20T01:42:00.000-07:00

What is it like to work on TDA??? I get the impression that a lot of people would think it would be some kind of awesome working holiday. And awesome it is - holiday it is not.

We work hard. There's always stuff that needs doing. As the medic I run a medical clinic between 4-5pm every second day (Mathias the other medic does every other day). In addition to this I'm technically on call every night. If there's an emergency - my tent is the yellow one with the orange flagging tape on it. I am yet to be woken.

Then there's the general tour support. We go through an 8 day cycle of duties. Mine looks something like this:
Day 1: Lunch
Day 2: breakfast and sanitation
Day 3: Morning sweep
Day 4: Web and Waste
Day 5: Lunch
Day 6: off
Day 7: morning sweep
Day 8: kitchen duty

Here's what's included with all these duties:

Lunch: The main duty involved is running the lunch stop. Usually I'm up and packed up half an hour before breakfast starts. Triple check that you have everything you need - most of this you should be on top of the night bef0re. The food for the day is chosen in consultation with Kim our cook. You also need to make sure you have the lunch satellite phone in case of emergency and there's no cell phone reception, the lunch attendance clipboard, enough bread and food.
Once this is done help out with breakfast as required (topping up the cereal, thermoses, make more powdered milk for the coffee etc etc).
The lunch truck leaves when breakfast ends (sometimes when it starts if the road is dodgy and the trucks go slower than the riders).
When you get to lunch you help set up - put up the tarp for shade, pull out the tables, start chopping tomatoes and cucumbers, whatever protein is included with lunch e.g. luncheon meat, tuna, cheese, hommus)
Then as the riders come through you check them off on the attendance list, and keep the food, the energy drink, the water jerry can all topped up.
It's a big job but you have the "lunch sweep" person and Pajero the lunch truck driver there to give you a hand.
When lunch is over you truck to camp. Usually I'm on clinic in the afternoon between 4-5.

Breakfast and Sanitation: So with this awesome duty you are the first to wake up. You need to have all your stuff packed up an hour before breakfast starts. Then you help with getting the coffee on, setting up for breakfast, getting the porridge going, getting the chopping boards out, the bread and spreads on the table. While breakfast is happening you help keep everything topped up (bread, spreads, hot water, milk). You help break camp in the morning, wash up stuff etc.
Then you ride the truck to camp. If you're somewhere civilised with toilets then this is a great thing. Otherwise you help Steve the truck driver dig some holes in the ground and put up the toilet tents. Then it's your job to make sure the holes don't start overflowing and if they do - you have to organise for some new holes to be dug, close in the old ones and move the tents. thankfully we've got the system downpacked now and we don't need to move the tents anymore. After this you generally go into the kitchen and help with all the chopping and preparing for the nights dinner.

Morning sweep: So morning sweep is one of my favourite duties. It's usually a more relaxed start to the day. Riding gear goes on, tent comes down, into the kitchen, help with breakfast as required. You're the last one to leave camp on your bike. And it's your job to arrive last to lunch. So depending on how you feel you can either ride fast and stop alot, or just ride slow. I usually just ride however fast I feel like riding until I can see the last riders then I'll stop at the next coke stop, take some photos do whatever I can to not catch them, depending on who it is. Most riders do not like being "swept" so I try to stay far back enough so they don't feel like I'm doing this. Some riders like having a chat though to and there are some cool clients out there who are awesome to talk to. Once you're at lunch you help pack up lunch with whoever's on lunch, and the lunch truck driver. sometimes whoever's on lunch sweep will also help out. Then it's usually on the truck to camp, but sometimes I keep riding, once again depending on how I feel, if I have clinic in the afternoon and if I think I can make it to clinic in the afternoon. Usually 80km is enough for one day. Once at camp help in the kitchen is always appreciated in between the arrival of the lunch truck and the beginning of clinic. Then it's time for dinner.

Web and Waste: Another one of my favourites. Main duties include taking down the toilet tents, riding your bike for at least half the day so you can get some photos of riders, and then writing the blog update in the evening. Once again when you're done doing all these essential things help in the kitchen never goes astray.

Off: Sounds like an awesome day but the reality is that there's no such thing as a day off on TDA! There'll always be someone asking you medical questions, chances are someone will be unwell or on holidays and need their duty for the day covered for them. Technically you're allowed to ride your bike all day. You don't really need to help out but no one will complain if you do!

Kitchen Duty: One thing about these cyclists is that they eat five times as much as a normal person. You try chopping 15kg of onions, carrots, tomatoes, capsicums.... the list doesn't end. Have i mentioned help is always appreciated in the kitchen??? You help break camp in the morning, wash up the breakfast stuff, pack up the trucks. Ride the truck to camp. Into the kitchen. there's some days you're lucky if you leave the kitchen for 10 minutes. other days when it's relatively well controlled and you might be able to escape for an hour.

Generally somewhere betweeen 4:30-5 is a good time to wake up you're lucky if you're in bed by 2030.

If anyone is unwell enough to need a clinic then it's my job to take them there and someone else will cover whatever else I'm supposed to be doing.

So why is this job so awesome you ask??? Well... what other job allows you to travel across africa on a bicycle??? when else do you get to see the sun rise and set every single day??? where else do your colleagues start to become more like your family??? But mostly it's the unexpected things that'll happen along the way. I reckon if TDA was to become a reality TV show there'd be enough dramas to keep the entire world entertained!!!

Holidays

2011-04-17T23:47:00.000-07:00

My tent is left standing as everyone else packed there's up. People rode away on their bicycles, the trucks drove away from camp leaving me left behind, all alone. For a moment I thought I was going to start crying - which is a weird thing considering I usually don't cry, I love my personal space, I'm ready for a holiday and I'm pretty ok at being on my own. The boys (Mathias, Cristiano, Ferdi, Steve and Gabe) all gave me a big hug before they left. I realise suddenly that I love these guys - they are all like brothers to me. Us staff are like one big family. Part of the working for TDA deal is that for the reasons of better work dynamics and for your own personal sanity, all staff get to take a break from the group for a week - obviously not all at the same time. So my place is here in Kasane, Botswana - an awesome little spot. Lots of I'm not planning on doing too much for the next week. Might read for a bit, write some postcards, check out the elephants and baboons that wander around camp. I can't remember when the last time I just stopped and put my feet up was. More than a year ago I think.

Cholera.... or Malaria???

2011-04-05T02:29:00.000-07:00

I am hiding in a little internet cafe in Lilongwe, Malawi.

Not so long ago we were camped at Chitimba beach which is right on the lake. Another awesome little spot. But we found out after we got there that there was a cholera outbreak in the village not far from the camp. There had been 2 deaths in the last 2 weeks. As long as people are good with their hand hygiene, and eat well cooked food we decide it shouldn't really be a big issue.

The next day 3 people are sick with diarrhea - usually I wouldn't be too concerned because people get diarrhea here in Africa all the time, it's part of Africa, it's part of the deal with excessively tiring out your body through excessive amounts of cycling. Because of the cholera outbreak though I decide that they probably should be taken to a medical facility to a doctor that hopefully knows a little more about cholera than I do. A cholera outbreak at camp would be enough to shut down the tour for a couple of weeks. Another 3 people come along aswell who have also not been feeling too well recently either.

The doctor is not concerned about cholera. Apparently a cholera bowel motion looks like a flakey rice water and it doesn't stop coming (if you were interested... sorry I'm aware that not everyone reading this works in the medical field so perhaps many of you are not that interested).

He's more concerned that we need to rule out malaria. So he does a full blood count and a blood film and... 3 cyclists get diagnosed with malaria.

Anyhow, I have only seen malaria once before. But the Indaba staff and some of the other guys I've met who make it a habit of doing lots of tour guiding through malarious areas have all never seen 3 such healthy cases of malaria, and question the diagnosis.

The two options would be
a) to treat it as malaria with some Coartem
b) to go and find another medical facility and repeat the test
We can't ignore a diagnosis like this, and I would like to think that the doctor knows more about Malaria than we do. Time is poor, it's too late for a repeat test tonight, the tour waits for no one. So I choose option a) and if they don't actually have malaria then it's not going to kill them if they have the treatment.

My impression is that because they were taking prophylactic tablets for malaria that they will not get anywhere near as sick as someone who doesn't take any prophylaxis so the doctors diagnosis is quite possible.

For all you families out there that read everyones blogs please do not be at all alarmed. All three of these people are perfectly fine, and have now recovered, and never even got off their bicycles because we got onto the diagnosis early and they were never really that sick in the first place.

Resting up in Arusha

2011-03-18T01:21:00.000-07:00

So we are on our last of 3 days of rest in Arusha. Riders take off on Safaris, but for me Mt Meru looks like an attractive spot.

Kendra's ribs are healing up and although she hasn't been up to riding her bike yet, she also likes the look of Mt Meru. We're chopping up the tomatoes and cucumbers together at the lunch spot and we hatch a plan. Up and down Mt Meru in 2 days (normally a 3 day trip).

Kari and Jorg decide they want to come along aswell. We arrive in Arusha, organise some food, grab some dinner, pack our bags. First thing in the morning we're ready to head off on our hike.

The first day we hike up to the second hut (this takes a lot of convincing for the ranger that has to accompany us). It's a gorgeous spot. Down the bottom we see giraffes, zebras, warthogs, buffallo. A little higher we find some colobus monkeys. The vegetation gradually changes the higher we ascend.

We walk above the clouds.

Day 2 our plan is to wake at 3am and continue on to the summit, and then descend the entire way the next day.

3am arrives. Rain rain rain - go away!!! The rain is not the end of the world but because there is also thunder and lightning about we decide that perhaps ascending is not the best idea. Instead we sleep for another hour and a half. Then we hatch a plan to summit Little Meru instead (the smaller of the two peaks), and descend back and check out some more animals. We still ascended and descended 2000m... not a bad effort!!!

I love giraffes - I don't know how any animal can be so disproportionately elegant. Even when they run they do it elegantly - I think I could sit and watch a giraffe for hours!!!

Isiolo hospital

2011-03-18T00:00:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since my last post and a lot has happened... a few weeks ago now some of our clients encounted a nasty experience with shifters. For us as staff it sure wasn't an easy day ensuring everyone made it to camp safely.

So the day of the attack I was riding morning sweep - this means I'm last to ride, I have one of the three satellite phones in my backpack aswell as a first aid kit. There's another satellite phone at the lunch truck, and another in the runabout vehicle which is often ahead at camp.

I'm riding along, frustrated because I have dodgy back wheel (hubs wearing out, spokes are having issues, and I have somehow managed to bend the rim aswell) - i killed one of my slick tyres so now I am riding with a knobbly tyre on the pavement.

Up ahead of me I see James riding back towards me. Something must be wrong.

"Claire do you have the sat phone on you? You need to call Sharita" His words are rushed, he's out of breath. I calm him down and get more details. He tells me there's been a robbery up ahead, people have heard gunshots over the other side of the hill and people are scared for their own safety about continuing over the hill.

I am confused - I don't know how people hearing gunshots over the hill equate to a robbery. I pull out the sat phone and give the boss a call. She says that there is a military base up ahead and maybe it is just training.

James tells me people are waiting on the otherside of the hill, so I keep riding onwards until I catch up with the last 10 cyclists.

Then I learn that at least 3 cyclists have been held up at gunpoint. Shots were fired. No one has many details. I give the boss another call - she's already at the police station getting some police escorts in our car and military guys and heading back towards us.

One of our dinner trucks which had broken down catches up with us. Gabe jumps out and tells me someone has been shot. We don't know who. We know they have been taken to the nearest medical centre but no idea of their condition. I make another call to the boss.

We make a plan - the riders and bicycles are bundled onto the truck. The stage is over. No one will lose their EFI because of today. We make it to the next village where more riders have stopped.

6 riders have robbed - they have had mostly food and water stolen, but also some USD and cameras aswell.

The sat phone is ringing and it's Paul - he wants to know what's going on but everyone's trying to talk to me at the same time and I'm still trying to find out what's going on. I tell Paul I will call him back and he's very unimpressed.

Patrick tells me I must go and see Kendra. I give the sat phone to Gabe and tell him he must firstly call Sharita (who was requesting 5 minutely updates) and then call Paul at the lunch truck and let him know what's going on.

"Kendra has been shot?" I ask him.

"no it's just a rock they think" he tells me. "but she's been coughing up blood"

So Patrick takes me to see Kendra (Kendra has given me permission to share this story).

I am very relieved to see her sitting up and smiling and looking perfectly well. She has a small puncture wound on her chest. She tells me someone threw a rock at her straight in the chest, another person threw a spear which thankfully flew over her shoulder, a few moments later someone fired a rifle. The first thing I do is send Patrick back to Gabe to ask him to phone Sharita and tell her that no one has been shot and everyone is stable.

Kendra has some bruising, but mostly I'm concerned about the fact that she has coughed up a very small amount of blood shortly afterwards which would indicate some kind of lung trauma. She is thankfully in a stable condition. Another rider is also at the little medical clinic with a small amount of blood trickling from her ear - the wound from the butt of a rifle which she had pushed up against the side of her face.

Sharita eventually pulls up with the landcruiser and a few military guys. We organise for the remaining riders to be bundled into vehicles and taken to camp. Some of the riders that have already made it to lunch continue riding. Everyone has been accounted for.

We take Kendra to Isiolo hospital (really just wanting a chest x-ray) and check out the local Emergency department. It's a little cleaner looking than Moyale hospital at least. But still - some of the basic things we take for granted back home (like having oxygen and suctioning equipment on standby at the end of each bed) are still missing.

The person who sells the x-ray tickets is on their lunch break (which goes for two hours) so we hang out at the hospital for a while. Eventually we get the x-ray, and thankfully there's nothing serious on there (maybe a broken rib, but no major lung trauma).

At the end of the day I think everyone knew that we were lucky that no one was more seriously injured.

Moyale Hospital

2011-03-06T23:00:00.000-08:00

The other day I had the privilege of escorting a sick Mzungu (Swahili for white man) to the nearest hospital as we felt he required pathological testing that we weren't able to diagnose from the mobile TDA nurse and paramedic run clinic/lunch truck. I'm not going to share anymore details about his illness here as I have an ethical obligation to patient confidentiality but I will state that he is back to his normal self and there is absolutely no need for anyone to be concerned.

The sick Mzungu scored a 4 hour hospital admission to Moyale Hospital and the African health care system really hit me hard. I had an awareness that the health system was poor, but it's not until I saw it up close with my own eyes that it really made an impact.

There are two other men sharing the same room as the Mzungu. One speaks pretty good English and I learn the he has Malaria. He looks to be roughly the same age as me. The other is much younger - 14 maybe. He is very sick. I try and find out what's wrong with him and the man with Malaria tells me he has a sore throat and hasn't been able to eat for 3 weeks - but I know there must be more to it than that. He has IV fluids running. No one seems to care about taking a set of vital signs. His lungs sound terrible - he has a death rattle. His body is emaciated. Around him are his family who sit him up so he can breathe better. He vomits into a bucket, passes urine into the same bucket. There aren't many nurses. His family take the bucket away and wash it out.

The hospital is not very clean, everything is old, the assessment equipment is very basic. I'd be surprised to find a cardiac monitor, a defibrillator, a blood gas machine or any of these basic essentials that you would expect to find in a hospital at home. There's people sick with Malaria, yet no mosquito nets.

As I ride my bike through the countryside I notice that the people aren't old. 40 is considered old for the people that live in these parts of the world.

I clamp the Mzungus IV fluids myself when the bag empties because there is no one else around. He's doing ok and I think we can do a better job looking after him on the lunch truck after all. Time to push for a discharge.

Arba Minch

2011-02-27T01:46:00.000-08:00

Hi there from Arba Minch!!!

Well more interesting times arise as the wound infections start. We've done a few intravenous infusions out of the back of the lunch truck to try and get them better. Fingers crossed they keep getting better.

I have been for a morning walk around every single pharmacy that is open in Arba Minch trying to restock the antibiotics. The ciprofloxacin and the cloxacillin is easy enough to find... trying to get some oral clindamycin for those people that are allergic to penicillin is a different story however! I think I've been to every pharmacy and haven't been able to find anything. I ask for an antibiotic for someone with a wound infection who is allergic to penicillin - the man digs out the cloxacillin. "No - Penicillin allergy" I reinforce - so he finds some Augmentin (which also contains penicillin). I point out that amoxycillin is a penicillin too.
"Yes but this antibiotic is very good for wound infection" he says/
Not getting anywhere today.

Instead I find a heap of nice young local men who are waiting for me to finish my internet time because they really want to take me out tonight because they have a big celebration. It's the night before they start their fasting time - this means they aren't allowed to eat any proteins, they're not allowed to drink, and they're not allowed to have sex during this time. I tell them no - but it's never that easy.

Sweeping in Ethiopia

2011-02-22T03:33:00.000-08:00

I love Ethiopia. I especially like riding sweep in this country. Many riders don't like to be "swept" - I like to try and respect this. This means I try and hang back as soon as I catch up to the last rider if they look like they're doing okay. It means there's lots of time for awesome photographs. Lots of time for Pepsi and coffee, and it means lots of time for me to practice my Amharic with the local kids. I'm a bit limited to "what's your name" and "how are you" but I'm sure I'll learn a bit more as time goes on.

I was sweeping up a hill the other day and I met a group of 4 kids, one of which was holding out a baby goat. Of course I have to stop, and take a photo. Then they let me hold the goat too. It would have only been a few days old. A rider had already bought a goat and wanted to take it along with us on the lunch truck - but for infection control reasons the rules are "no goats on the lunch truck" - so I gave my little one back to the boy and continued on my way.

Surprisingly I don't get many rocks while I'm riding sweep - i think it's because I have the energy and time to talk to lots of the kids, try to greet them in Amharic, and remain pretty cheerful.

Medically we're still keeping busy... a bit of minor surgery in the back of the lunch truck, the wound infections start coming in, the gastro for the time being has been keeping at bay.

Rest Day :)

2011-02-12T23:03:00.000-08:00

I am currently sitting at a little internet place in Gondar, Ethiopia. We have 2 rest days here and I feel like I have earnt them.

It has been a busy week medically. Tired bodies, increased heat, gravel roads make a recipe for more work! There's been lots of riders with heat stroke as they cycle through temperatures up to 49 degrees out in the sun. It doesn't matter how many times I remind people to keep drinking, adequate hydration is always going to be a hard battle. The explosive diarrhea has started, and there's been plenty of gravel rash to patch up.

Blessing the lunch truck driver has been having issues with his visa coming into Ethiopia so he's still stuck in Khartoum - which means Mathias is driving the lunch truck at the moment.

Yesterday, even though it was a "rest day" we were working for most of the day. We took the lunch truck to get fuel and to get properly cleaned. The trucks take a beating over here so we have to look after them. We visited the local hospital trying to get my suturing forceps sterilised which I had to use the other day... The theatre nurse exchanged mine for a sterile pair but then she was asking if we had a box to put them in... which would defeats the purpose of them being sterile in the first place. We came to the conclusion that perhaps the clinic/lunch truck is perhaps cleaner than Gondar University Hospital. We tried to pick up some supplies from the pharmacy here, and managed to find most of what we needed. There's no decent dressings here, but we've still got quite a bit of stock anyway. I was also trying to find a spacer chamber for any more acute asthma attacks that might arise on the way as I gave the existing one to a client already. We have one in the Emergency bag still anyway but it would be useful to have a second one on the lunch truck aswell. They don't know what a spacer is here though even when I drew a picture. Maybe in Addis.

The rest of the day we spent cleaning the inside of the lunch truck which was pretty dusty and disgusting after the unpaved section in Sudan. Then it was time for clinic... and finally time to party!

Miles goes back home to Istanbul today which is good for him, but sad for us because he is an awesome person to have around.

Story of the Lost Children

2011-02-02T22:38:00.000-08:00

The other day I was riding afternoon sweep when I come across Kristian and Ram stopped by
the side of the road. With them are two very small Sudanese children - the boy aged maybe 5, the girl only 3.

These kids are in the middle of the desert, it's hot outside, and there is no signs of any civilisation or signs of life in sight.

Kristian and Ram are both very concerned about the wellbeing of the two children. I suggest we continue on our way. We can't take these two children with us to Cape Town! A vehicle passes about every 15 minutes. The kids do not look too unwell, dehydrated or sick, and I believe that once we are gone, the Sudanese people will look after these children.

Ram and Kristian don't like my plan so I discuss with Sharita (the boss) what we should do. She suggests we keep moving and says she will go back and check on them, but Ram and Kristian still don't want to leave them.

I eventually flag down a vehicle and a man gets out of it. I explain using a lot of gestures (because I don't speak much arabic, and he doesn't speak English) that the children are lost and we are concerned about them. He thanks us and starts walking with them away from the road and into the desert.

I am sure these people must have places, homes, hidden from our eyes where they live. Often we will see a person in the middle of nowhere just walking, or sitting next to the road - just usually not quite this small!!!

Onwards to Khartoum

2011-02-02T05:53:00.000-08:00

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

Greetings from Dongola

2011-01-29T02:45:00.000-08:00

It's been a few days now and I don't know what to write or where to start.

The boat ride accross lake Nasser was always going to be pretty eventful so it was not really surprising when I found myself making 7 trips on and off the boat (which has a very small entry door and lots of people trying to carry food, microwaves, refrigerators, and anything else possible on and off to load themselves onto the boat). After a lot of pushing and shoving getting my gear, my bike, all the medical equipment, some of the other staff equipment on board I was starting to get the hang of it.

It was a bit of a squishy nights sleep on board the boat, but after filling out much paperwork we were finally able to disembark and enter the Sudan.

I was chatting to rider Ruth the other day asking her how she was finding it.
"It's almost like we've landed on the moon" she tells me. I know what she means. There are no trees, just lots and lots of desert. And a few rocks in the landscape.

Medically everyone is doing ok - nothing new. No trips to the hospital yet (apparently we're doing much better than last year when 4 riders had to be taken to Dongola hospital to get their eye infections, abscesses etc etc checked out).

Today is a rest day - but not for us staff. Mathias and I work and clean up the lunch truck (also our 'Clinic'). There's plenty of paperwork to be done - writing up an electronic copy of all our medical notes, going through the medical inventory again now that we are with our trucks - we have a lot more medical equipment.

It's great having the trucks, the Indaba staff to help us out, everything just runs so much more smoothly in the Sudan - it is still one of my favourite countries in Africa.

Love to all - thanks for fixing up my car insurance mum and dad x0

Fun Times

2011-01-23T01:22:00.000-08:00

I had a particularly good day yesterday as we travelled from Luxor to Idfu. I was on Lunch duty which means it's my job to help prepare lunch for everyone and then I get to ride sweep in the afternoon after we're all packed up!

So we find an awesome little place for lunch - a felafel man right next to a police check point, and Miles manages to convince the man to start cooking lots of felafel so the riders can have some for lunch. We're well prepared well ahead of time so I go and start talking to some of the local kids. I meet a man who I think is their dad as and I manage to score a free donkey ride. The kids want me to meet their mum as well and in the meantime it's clear that the man thinks that I should marry him (none of them speak any english but you can communicate a lot using gestures). The wives of the man also appear to think it's a good idea too. Time to retreat back to the safety of the lunch truck. It's only my third proposal so far.

The riders trickle in and out and there is a phone call of our first medical incident on tour. Thankfully the rider is now completely fine and back on the bike already today.

I ride with Elvis at the back of everyone where we can chat away enjoy the scenery, finally we arrive at camp.

One of the Egyptian truck drivers gives me a stick of sugar cane to gnaw on. Yum.

Then I go into town and try to find some drugs for the boss who is sick (not critically). I walk into three pharmacies before I find what I need. The man speaks good English and it is only a cheap drug so he gives it to me for free as a gift.

It's moments like these that really change your impressions of a place. Last time i visited Idfu it was a place filled with uncontrollable children - now it is a place of giving pharmacists!

When I walk back to camp I find a lucky horseshoe. I'm not particularly supersticious but I pick it up and keep it anyway. 65 Riders, 12000km... from moments earlier in the day I know we're going to need all the luck we can get.

Luxor Rest Day

2011-01-21T07:12:00.000-08:00

Today is our first "rest day" in Luxor.

There is of course plenty of work to be done. Not much for us medics but the others all have plenty so I help out with the logistics of passport gathering, and figuring out the paperwork we need to do before we go to Sudan. It's a time consuming process.

At lunch we go and eat one of the two favourite egyptian dishes. It's like pasta and rice mixed together, tomato sauce, lentils and fried onion. Tastes good. The other options throughout most of Egypt is felafel and fool (bean thing). We've been eating plenty of both.

Adele and I take a wander through the local markets and we both buy a scarf and have fun haggling with the man that sells scarves to get a good price (even though he thinks his starting price is a good price!) The scarf will be good to keep warm in the dessert, and to double as a sarong later when it get's warmer.

Then I'm back to work running the afternoon clinic for riders. It's all just more of the same - ankles, knees, saddle sores. I've been seeing plenty of bums lately.

`behind the scenes

2011-01-20T08:13:00.000-08:00

A lot has happened since my last post. There are many stories and I don't know where to begin.

One of the clients asked me the other day - "you guys haven't had any problems yet have you?" James (the chef) and I burst out laughing.

"define what you mean by problem" is our response.

Nothing is easy, nothing is straight forward. It seems like we have had nothing but problem after problem. None have been too difficult for us to overcome.

Before we even start I am frustrated because it takes me 2 hours just to print out everyone's medical information.

Day one it was a mission to get the lunch ready on time for the first riders, a mission to check off all their names as they roll into camp in large groups when we're all still learning their names.

On day 2 I travel straight to camp with Sharita (the boss) to set up camp. We stop to fill up water at a fire station. We don't speak much arabic but it is clear that the man doesn't want us to fill up our water there. So we ring our in country support guy Rizik who talks to the man on the phone and eventually the man lets us fill up on drinking water. We continue on to camp and when we get there the pump on the tank has broken and we can't get the water out. Eventually Martin the bike mechanic rocks up to camp and fixes the pump, puts it back in the water but then the water got contaminated with all rust and grease that was on the pump. There goes our drinking water!!!!

The next day I am helping James with the cooking and as we're chopping up all the cauliflower we discover a tonne of afids all inside it.

Getting the Egyptian support crew to wash their hands before they go near the food is a big challenge.

Riding the first day convoy out of Cairo was a complete disaster with two flat tyres, people stopping to take photos, stopping for pee break during a convoy just not understanding the importance of not letting the convoy get broken up.

Medically there's plenty of sore knees, sore ankles, saddle sores to take care of. At the moment though the main concerns are the one client who's eyes has me pickled, and another client who is a bit feverish with diarrhea which I have encouraged to start her own antibiotics, paracetamol so fingers crossed it will be under control soon!

Greetings to all from Luxor xx

READY SET GO

2011-01-14T06:39:00.000-08:00

I have been flat out over the past few days doing pre trip preparation, stocking up on medical supplies etc etc. I think we've been to at least 5 big chemists in Cairo, checked out the local ambulance service, dug deep for malaria tablets in this city.

Nothing is straight forward. You ask for one thing, something else is produced which is supposed to do the same thing but I don't know the drug so I'm reluctant to use stuff I don't know! The electric blood pressure machine we have is innacurate so we have to find a new one.

Decent painkillers are just about impossible to get our hands on.

Chasing people to get their details is frustatingly more complicated than it should be.

At the moment I'm trying to print out a few copies of everyones medical info but even that is impossible at the moment.

Despite all this, I'm having an awesome time, we've had the chance to visit some real local places, meet some genuinely awesome locals, eat good local food.

Looking forward to getting started with the ride tomorrow

Sending my deepest sympathies to everyone back home - good luck with the big clean up and I'm sorry I'm not there to help out. xx

Aladin

2011-01-09T22:51:00.001-08:00

So not long after I finished writing my blog update I go for a walk to try and find my camping mug.

While I'm walking I bump into a young man who introduces himself to me. His name is Aladin. He wants to know where I'm going.
"just for a walk" I tell him. Not really wanting any more marriage proposals from these Egyptian men.

He keeps chatting to me and because I feel like being polite I chat back. He is a Bedouin man, not from Cairo so that is a bit more interesting than the average Cairo man who wants to take me to his perfume shop. He's from somewhere just beyond the White Desert. He is not a guide, tells me he doesn't want my money, he just wants to practice his English.

Eventually I tell him that I need to find a mug because I forgot to bring my mug from home. And he is actually quite helpful and we go to four or five different shops until we find a perfect sized mug made from stainless steal. Perfect for camping. And only costs me 5 egyptian pounds (= about 1 AUD/1USD - love travelling when the dollar is so strong!)

Then of course he wants to have a cup of tea with me. I don't want to though (because tea with egyptian men never turns out to be just tea!) so I make some lame excuse about being very tired and needing to go back to where I'm staying. He wants to meet up again later but I apologise and tell him that maybe when he's in Australia and needs to find a mug I'll help him do that. I escaped successfully and hid in my room for a bit just because I get frustrated with all the men in this country.

The Sudanese Embassy

2011-01-09T01:29:00.000-08:00

Well the big plan for today was to get my Sudanese Visa all organised but it hasn't quite gone to plan. Last time it was done in a day, this time it appears it might take 2.

It's a bit of a mission to get a Sudanese visa in the first place - especially in Cairo. There's a complicated process. Here's how it works:

Step 1 - Line up in the line that says "PASPORTS" (nb: spelt with only 1 s)
Step 2 - Answer the mans questions about why you are going to Sudan. "I need to ride my bike to Capetown and to do this I need to ride through Sudan" I tell him.
Step 3 - fill in the form the man gives you and take it over to the photocopy man who will copy that and your passport and your entry visa for Egypt
Step 4 - take these forms back to the "PASPORTS" line and line up again in the line
Step 5 - Get the PASPORTS man to squiggle something in arabic in red pen on the form
Step 6 - Go line up in the "Cashier' line and give the lady 100USD
Step 7 - Take the receipt back to the PASPORTS man (you need to line up in the line again)
Step 8 - Come back at 1000am the next day and line up into the PASPORTS line

Fingers crossed I'll be able to pick it up tomorrow without any issues and it will all be processed when I go back tomorrow at 1000am.

I met a sudanese man who has a brother who lives in Perth. I tell him my sister lives in Perth too. He wants to take me around the corner for tea but I have never gone and had tea with an arabic man that didn't end up in either a marriage proposal, or him trying to make me pay a minimum of 50 egyptian pounds to buy some of his perfume. Only it's actually called "essence" rather than perfume I learnt yesterday (when I found myself having a cup of tea with a random Egyptian man I met on my walk who got offended when I tried to call it perfume!).

So I tell the man I have to get my visa first.

Enroute to Cairo

2011-01-07T05:23:00.001-08:00

Farout it's been a busy last few weeks with Christmas shenanigans, work, spending quality time with friends and family, moving house, and getting all ready to head away on my mission to cycle across africa for the second time (because doing it once is simply not enough!)

Managed to get away with a few moments of worry when the fire alarm went off at Brisbane International Airport and made everyone go stand outside for a few minutes until they decided it was only a falsey and the firies had reset the alarm.

As I step onto the escalator after saying goodbye to mum and dad (and thanks for the lift!) there's a few moments of nervousness where I feel a bit unsure, a bit lonely and a bit frightened. But it's nothing compared to the first time I travelled by myself over to Vietnam, and nothing compared to when I took off to Cairo in 2009. By the time I reach the bottom of the escalator I've taken a few deep breaths and the unsureness, the loneliness, the frightened feeling evaporates and gets replaced with extreme excitement!

I managed to get away pretty much on time and am now currently hanging out at Changi Airport, Singapore.

I have a 4 hour stopover here and then it's on to Dubai briefly to refuel and then finally to Cairo. I have organised for the man at the Australian Hostel Cairo to come and meet me and pick up me and my bike. Cairo typically shuts down on Fridays and Saturdays which is the weekend over there so I should be able to go and catch up on a few minutes of shut eye, head out for a wander, then go and sleep a bit more!!!

The only thing I realise I've forgotten to bring at the moment is my mess kit but I'm not too concerned as I should have time to figure something out when I get to Cairo without any issues!

3 weeks to go!

2010-12-17T05:11:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've updated this blog and alot has happened since my last entry.

I moved to Hobart and worked there for 10 months, got a little restless/homesick after spending such a long time in one spot so moved back to Brisbane. 2 weeks later I decided it was time for more great adventures so I updated my CV and sent it in to TDA. That was more than half a year ago.

In 3 more weeks (7th of Jan 2011) I will be jumping on a plane and heading back to Africa to do it all again - this time working as the tour medic. I am excited about the new challenges this will bring and excited about going back to the TDA lifestyle where you ride your bike all day, camp everynight, and live out of a truck. Doesn't matter what you look like, doesn't matter if you smell a little - no one else has had a shower recently either!

Leave without pay has been approved from work so I will *hopefully* have a job to come back to at the end of May. People at work ask me where I am going and I don't know how many people I have told about TDA and I think a lot of them think I'm pretty crazy but I tell them I've done it before and as long as you keep your head on strong that will help with the long days in the saddle. The medic part and tour support is all new and exciting though.

The Army Reserves are happy for me to start working with them when I return at the end of May too so that will be something new and exciting waiting for me to get back.

Time to sleep now, off for waterskiing/wakeskating in the morning if the weather behaves :)

3 weeks later

2009-05-29T15:43:00.000-07:00

Its been 2 weeks since I got to Capetown and I think it's time to update this blog again.

Now I'm home, everyone is pleased to see me and asks me "how was your trip". It's a simple question - yet the answer is complex. The words "good" and "fantastic" even "awesome" come out of my mouth - and even though I'm not lying, I know these words don't come close to being accurate. How can riding your bike over massive corrugation in 50 degree heat possibly be "good"? It's not - its hard work!!! There were times when my legs were tired, my bum was sore, times where we went up to 9 days in between proper showers.

But the people we meet, the experiences shared, the feeling of satisfaction as we conquered a tough day in the saddle… these are what make the trip what it is. It was a huge personal challenge, it was a journey as much about cycling, culture and landscapes as a journey of self discovery.

I was asked to speak at my scout group AGM (as the person to entice everyone to actually come along to the AGM!). I sat down at my computer to write my speech - and I didn't know where to begin. Ithink that was even harder - to put our journey into words to an audience that wasn't there, than to simply cover the required kilometres for a day.

We went through so many exciting moments that I could only pick out a few to share.

People expect riding a bicycle across Africa would be a life changing experience. I’m still the same person, and the world back home is still the same. Nothing has changed yet I see everything in a different light.

People ask me what I’m going to do next – and I don’t know the answer. I had my life back home set up so that I could come back to it and everything would be the same. But I know I don’t want this. I don’t want this to be the end of a great journey. I want it to be the start of the next adventure.

My eyes have been opened and I don’t want to close them. I’m looking around at all the possibilities – and there are seriously a lot out there!

One of my favourite quotes is something a Mark Twain once said:
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

The journeys end

2009-05-10T01:44:00.000-07:00

We got into Capetown yesterday and had a pretty over the top welcome! I can't believe how fast the last few days have past. I'm feeling weird. Excited and sad at the same time.

I haven't updated this blog in such a long time that I don't know where to start - I think there's been one or two opportunities but they were both on long pedalling days and I had time between getting into camp and our rider meeting to either do internet or yoga with Erin... Yoga won - I needed to stretch!

So Namibia, apart from being a great country to experience the feeling of riding naked in (due to very few people) was perhaps one of my favourite countries to bike through - although each country is so diverse that it is hard to say which I like the most!!! The landscape was unlike anything I had ever seen before, but hard to describe. Beautiful yellow grass and nice little hills. And Mitch and I always prefer the dirt to the pavement.

The riding through South Africa was less exciting and has been more about just getting to the end.

Dad says from reading everyone elses blog that everyone else seems to be reflecting at this stage and I admit I have been purposefully avoiding it, as there's people at work that might be reading this blog and I haven't been so keen to go back.

The "what next?" is constantly on my mind and something I think about quite often as I pedal along. Since arriving in Maun, Botswana I suddenly decided that I didn't really want to return to 9B, the medical ward at the MAH. I miss working and having something to think about - and have especially noticed it in the last 3 weeks. The thought of going back to showers, bedpans, and changing pads is not something I want to be doing forever. And I know if I returned that its too easy to just get back into the old swing of life, get back into the old comfort zone. But then I thought that it would be nice to have an income again soon after I got back so I told my boss that I was still keen to come back. I am however thankful that he has finally emailed me back and basically told me that he's got too many staff at the moment and I would have to be redistributed to another part of the hospital... But the thought of being unemployed and starting something new really excites me. Suddenly I'm unemployed and I don't think anyone else has been so excited about being unemployed before! "What next" for me means going back home for a few weeks at least, and then finding a new job in an emergency department. I don't know where - maybe Hobart or Alice Springs I'm thinking. Or Darwin. The plan is to apply everywhere and see what comes up.

Anyhow, there's more to write but I'm out of time - I'm meeting up with some friends to walk up to the top of Table Mountain watch the sunset and have a picnic.

Happy Mothers Day Mum! Look forward to seeing you and Dad and Janey on THURSDAY!!!!

The Namibian Nude Mile

2009-05-04T07:58:00.000-07:00

It had to be done.
And Erin and I had to out do the boys.
So we ride a full 10km completely naked instead of just one mile (1.6km).
And then another 27km topless.

Namibia has been an awesome country - maybe even my favourite TDA country. Nice dirt to ride on, not many cars (hence the nudity).

The internet place is about to close so I can't finish this entry today but its been ages since I've posted an update so here it is - will update again ASAP!

Camping Out

2009-04-24T06:37:00.000-07:00

The elephant highway has been a challenging section. Long days in the saddle up to 207km, which took me 9 hours on my bike to complete. Botswana was flat, the scenery unchanging. Thorn tree after thorn tree, my slick tyres wore out so I've been riding the last few weeks with my semi- slicks which means slightly harder work. I just tell myself I'll be fitter for it when I get home! To make life more exciting I ride with different people everyday. I spent one whole day riding with the sweep rider - Shanny and Henry in the morning then Alex in the afternoon. Sometimes I still ride alone and listen to my MP3 player. I ride with Sonja, Viv, Isabel, Mara, & Lloyd taking it in turns in a peloton to get through the wind. I ride with Tim and Bruce where we take 10minute turns on the front. There's meant to be prevailing tail winds but the weather doesn't seem to want to behave itself. I'm pleased to have reached Namibia, and the next 7 days are unpaved road. Woohoo!!! As well as the challenging long days the mentality of the riders has been somewhat lower. We can see the end approaching but it still seemed so far away. Only 2 more weeeks now and I think there'll be a mixture of excitement and sadness as we get closer and closer to Capetown.

3.5 months of camping is a long time to spend in your tent and now that we have reached Namibia we are below the high risk malaria area. The first two nights in Namibia I don't pitch my tent and sleep under the stars. The first night works fine, but the second night got a bit more exciting. The sky was clear when I went to sleep somewhere around 7:30pm. 10pm I wake to raindrops falling on my face. Everyone is frantically putting their flies on. I am the only one camping out and I crawl under the lunch truck where it is somewhat dryer and go back to sleep. The wind picks up and the rain gets heavier and I move over so that I'm not getting wet, and eventually I go back to sleep. At 2am I'm awake again. Its still raining and the moisture has collected on the pipes under the truck and is dripping quite heavily on me and my sleeping bag. I make a dash for it with my sleeping mat and sleeping bag to the campground kitchen, but when I get there I find that the fabric awning that shelters it is not waterproof. The only dry spot I can see is in the corner under the kitchen sleep so that is where I sleep. I wake extra early at 4:30 when James is up making scrambled eggs for us for breakfast. I give him a hand cracking eggs and drop a heap of egg shell into the mixture which makes me giggle (and everyone tells me the first thing they heard that morning was me giggling!). Sometimes we are so well supported I feel like I'm on a luxury tour and I really want this to be an intrepid expedition, which is how I felt that night!

The next day riding we get some rain, and I get nicely soaked and freezing cold on my way into Windhoek. Even though I am freezing cold and can barely see, I have a big giggle just because I am feeling so mad yet so alive!

Next time I don't pitch my tent I'll have to prearrange with someone to gatecrash if it rains!

The Elephant and The Worm

2009-04-18T01:21:00.001-07:00

I have pedalled the last 5 days along the section titled "The Elephant Highway", named so because there is a high chance of seeing elephants along the way! And the first day riding we are disappointed. I see plenty of butterflies. Plenty of caterpillars. Plenty of grasshoppers. Plenty of elephant poo (which we're told not to ride through because as well as obvious reasons, elephants like eating acacia trees which are thorny and the thorns don't digest too well and unless you really like fixing flats...).

The second day is better. There's more elephant poo to dodge. I see a deer-like creature which starts with the letter L but I can't pronounce the name or have any idea how to spell it! And then we pass by the biggest piece of road kill I have ever seen - man dead elephant stinks!!! We also pass by some hyena road kill. And then drinking by the waterhole is Bob, the biggest elephant I have ever seen. He's about 50m away from me and Evelyn (who doesn't spell her name like that but I don't know the right way to spell it) and staring at us. Don't think he sees too many bicycles. We get photos of ourselves with him in the background and he takes a few steps towards rider Simon, flapping his ears, and we think he's going to charge. He doesn't though but we don't linger too long and leave him to drink without being watched.
I see two more elephants that day, one crosses the road right in front of me, another I don't see until I've spooked it riding along beside it.

The following day we get warned of the rogue elephant who likes to stand on the highway and take on the cars. He's off duty thankfully when we pass though!

Ok - so now the story with the worm.
Worms are much smaller than elephants and in the Botswanian sand lies some larvae. The larvae have buried there way under at least 3 riders skin and grown into worms that wriggle and itch right under the skin. Some riders are also ill with intestinal worms too, and the treatment for both worms is apparantly the same - so now there is some talk that we all should take prophylactic worm medication. I am thankfully still asymptomatic - but very intrigued about these worms!

The long days in the saddle have led me to now understand what it feels like to have pressure areas! Nothing too major down there yet though!

Hope all is well with everyone back home :)

Victoria Falls - the adrenaline capital of Africa

2009-04-12T05:05:00.000-07:00

It took 3 days for us to pedal the 480km between Lusaka to Livingstone, the town near Victoria Falls.

Victoria Falls is the adrenaline capital of Africa so of course I don't miss out on the opportunity of lots of adrenaline activities. I am a brave person - brave enough to bike across Africa, brave enough to venture from the suburbs into town on local transport in the city of Lusaka and back again by myself (which I did because everyone else was simply hanging out at the western mall on our last rest day and I wanted to check out the markets in town!). I'm quite proud of myself for this because it was tricky figuring out which bus to get back on again - but definitely worth it and even though I gave up on finding the snake stone, I did find the Rambo Tot (which turned out to be a sachet of orange flavoured liquor), another item we were meant to find for the scavanger hunt. Jolyane and I came second in the great hunt anyhow!!!

Yesterday however I went on the gorge swing. The gorge swing consists of a rope suspended in the middle of the gorge. You stand on a platform on the edge of a cliff, and step off, and after you have had a free fall of 53 metres the rope swing catches you and you fly back up into the air again, fall again, and then its just like a massive massive swing.
I'm standing on the platform in my harness feeling ok, and I walk closer to the edge. The guy at the top says to me
"Are you ready?"
And I look down suddenly scared, and terrified. I don't really want to walk off the side of a cliff. This is crazy. But I am crazy - I know that already (enough people told me before I left, and enough of the locals over here tell us the same thing!).
"No" I tell him. "I'm scared".
He smiles...
"3-2-1" he says
I know thats my cue to walk off the side of the cliff.
"Can we do the counting thing again?" I ask.
And he counts again.
And I walk off the side of a massively high cliff, and fall at 140km/hr down the 53 metres watching the trees at the bottom of the gorge come closer and closer.
The rope catches me and I get the giggles at myself for getting so scared about something that only lasts a few seconds and check out the view of the gorge while I'm swinging backwards and forwards until they lower me to the ground.

I have 2 more goes on the swings - both of them are tandems. It wasn't any easier going over the edge. The next time is with Malcolm the Giant. Malcolm and I get harnessed up again, we get shown where to hold each others harnesses and they tie our feet together. Going tandem you have to go over the side of the cliff backwards. Malcolm is more brave than I am and as we're leaning backwards to fall over the side of the cliff he's leaning backwards faster than I am. I'm scared and start leaning forwards. He starts leaning forwards then too (he says anyway - I didn't realise!) and I pluck up enough courage to firstly swear ("oh f*** it") before I lean backwards and pull Malcolm with me over the side of the cliff. And we're going head first towards the hard rocky cliff face on the other side of the gorge, faster than before (180km/hr maybe) because tandems are faster, and heavier.
It's a funny story now because lots of us are aware that we swear more than we did before we came, but I'm still not a big swearer yet!

This morning I spend more of my hard earned $s (I keep using the excuse that I don't know when the next time I'll be in Africa will be) and take a flight on a microlight glider to see the falls and it was a really cool!!! So much fun. Microlights are kind of like a hang glider with a motor. John my cool Aussie pilot from Alice Springs points out some hippos below us.

There's some more long days awaiting us and tomorrow is going to be an easy 82km day to get us across and into Botswana. 3 countries to go and only 4 weeks.

Janey - you asked if I was looking forward to coming home or sad to be leaving. And the honest answer is that at the moment I'm happy, and in 4 weeks time I will be ready to come home. I love biking, but at the moment I spend 7-8 hours actually sitting on my bike covering all these kms. 5-6 hours a day would be sufficient I think!!! So yes, starting to look forward to coming home, but still enjoying the pedalling (although feeling challenged by the end of the day - which is the whole idea in the first place. This trip wasn't meant to be easy!)

Annie Jo - thanks for your email, looking forward to hearing Adams band when I get home!!!

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!!

Long days, the great scavenger hunt and a good nights rest

2009-04-06T06:42:00.000-07:00

I have a new purpose as I pedal my way through Zambia - finding objects for The Great Zambian Scavenger Hunt. It's lots of fun and I feel kind of like I'm doing the amazing race! The hunt is all over at 5pm tomorrow and my partner in crime - the wonderful Jolyane and I still have a few more things to find. There is a list of 20 things on the list we need to find and so far we have scavenged:
- a broken discarded shoe
- a piece of amalesa (which we had to firstly find out what it was - charcoal!)
- a ngwe - which is an old Zambian coin no longer used
- a seed from a baobab tree
- a mozi (brand of beer) bottle cap
- a rusty nail
- and many more equally random objects.

We also needed a picture of me on a local bicycle - I chose one with a 3 year old kid on the back, and the frame was really huge and it was a really hard bike to ride, not to mention how worried I was that the kid would fall off the back!!! We have a picture of a Zambian person doing the TDA pose (holding their bicycle above their head).

Today we thought we might have had a lead for the "snake stone" which I think is apparently a special black stone that you rub on a snake bite thats supposed to fix you up. We need to find a Witch Doctor to get one of these. We saw a sign to the "Black Doctor" though 400m off the main road, which we followed into a little village which obviously (although only 50km from Lusaka) saw very few white people. They were very accommodating of us and although the doctor did not have a snake stone one of his 5 wives made us tea, and gave us bread and beans and we had a good chat... it was one of those great moments you get when you're travelling. The doctor himself was 79 years old and looking good. He said he had 62 children, who had 9 different mothers (but only 5 wives). He had some very cute kids (or maybe they were grandkids- I'm not sure!). Anyhow, Jolyane, Miranda, Nate, Dave & I (who were all with me in the village) managed to get behind the sweep rider so everyone was wondering where we were at lunchtime! And then Eric who was the afternoon sweep rider caught me finding my rusty nail in the afternoon. It was only the 2nd time I'd been caught by the sweep - I'm usually up near the front of the pack!

Anyhow, I'm in Lusaka now, the capital of Zambia. And thankful that tomorrow is a rest day because I am feeling tired - the last 5 days have been long - 145km, 175km, 141km, 151km, and today only 105km. But the rolling hills are never ending and there have been some big climbs. Thankfully however I have a new thermarest, kindly donated to a needy rider by Werner who had to go home early in Tanzania after he was hit by a truck and broke his elbow. Werner's thermarest is thick - at least half as thick as mine when it used to inflate, and it has a built in pillow. At night time even though I'm still on the ground in my tent, I feel like I'm back in my bed at home!!!

Mitch the Rockhopper is now feeling like new after Dr Mark operated on him recently and gave him an operation - a Total Drivetrain, casette and chainwheel Replacement he had. He's shifting again like he did when he was new!

It really is a long way down...

2009-03-31T01:34:00.000-07:00

Well its been a while since I have updated this blog and I'm sorry I haven't had the chance. Firstly I want to say happy birthday to Mum though!!! Sorry its a little late. I tried to call and find internet on your birthday but it was Sunday and all the internet places in the town of Rasungu were closed and Rasungu is not a place with mobile reception of any kind but I was definitely thinking of you!!!

We have entered Malawi. Our last rest day was at Chitimba Beach on the northern part of the lake, lots of sand and somehow there were big enough waves to body surf on. Even though it was rest day there was plenty of activity going on - beach volleyball, scrabble, cards, and a chance to curl up and have an afternoon nap!

My first impression of Malawi was somewhat similar to Ethiopia. Lots of children saying "money, money" at you... it wasn't until a few days after I'd been in the country that I learn that "Moni" is actually the word for "hello" in Chichewa, the official language of Malawi, and there is less begging than I thought.

Its this point in the tour however that many riders have in fact taken off to have a holiday from their holiday. A concept that I originally thought a bizarre idea but now understand it much more. Endless days in the saddle, sore bottoms, and a beautiful lake with the chance to scuba dive, beaches to relax on has led quite a few riders away for a few days. I keep riding though, enjoying the time in the saddle.

It rains everyday here - not something I am used to being from the Sunshine State where it barely ever rains. My tent has only had one leaky moment though and I have decided that I am actually quite happy with it these days!!! Should really stop complaining about it haha!

A bridge on our route has been washed away so we take an alternate route to Lilongwe (in fact the short route!) where I am now. We ride the mountains instead and they are beautiful... although we would have loved to ride the road right next to the beach!!! Headwinds and hills has made the challenge continue. We get 2 days to explore this city, the capital of Malawi.

And the hyenas come at night....

2009-03-20T05:07:00.000-07:00

Well, I am feeling much better after my big stack. There is still a deep cut on my knee but its healing well, my wrist is still a little sore and will be pleased to have pavement so it doesn't have to put up with all the shaking of the unpaved roads, and I can still feel the bruising of my ribs but it only really bothers me when I sleep.Thanks for the offer to send a new helmet mum and dad however my existing one is looking ok and although it isn't ultra ideal to ride with I have examined it for fractures and cracks and it appears ok apart from a minor hole in the outer shell (which is seriouslz tiny) so I am confident it will still give me some protection.

Tanzania is a beautiful country - very lush in comparison to the rest of Africa that we have seen so far, and although I am a little sore I still love riding unpaved roads! I am taking it much more easy on the downhills because I don't want to do any more damage to myself if I come off again!!!
I have ridden every inch of every day since Arusha, with the exception of one afternoon when I got busy pretending to be an ambo for a little while instead.

Our 3 day safari was awesome. We saw all the big 5 and many other exciting things aswell. I like giraffes the most - they are very graceful animals, especially as they are so large... and they are docile aswell. Frank, one of the riders I was with on safari swears he nearly got eaten by a lion. But seriously, there are quite often hyenas around our camp sites - sometimes I wake up and need to pee but have to hang on because I can hear noises and I'm afraid I might get eaten by a hyena!!!

Today is a rest day in Iringa. The roads are meant to be paved until we get to Namibia now which is probably a good things because my knobblies are wearing out and Mitch the Rockhopper likes to ride all day every day and gets jealous when I stop to help people (like the other day when I was helping Bruce he spontaneously punctured himself, and then did it again when he was getting loaded onto the lunch truck while I was off getting Paul to the hospital!!!). Then he goes and decides to make all his rear gears stop working for a while (had to be a time trial day too! - silly bike!) so he's been to see Mark and Tom the bike doctors who have thankfully made him feel much better, and he now has rear gears that work.

So this morning has been a day of changing tyres, the slicks are back on, done my washing (that's one thing I won't miss when I get home - handwashing all my clothes!!!). Gave Mitchy a clean so he now has a nice clean and oiled drivetrain again. Hope he feels more loved now and will stop spontaneously puncturing himself for no obvious reason!!!

Utter chaos... (and a trip to the local hospital!)

2009-03-19T02:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the most chaotic day on tour so far however it is always the unexpected events that happen along the way that make these trips worthwhile.

I'm riding along anyhow as I do most days except rest days and when I get to about 33km I see Alan & Bruce standing up inspecting Bruce's bike. I stop and they ask if I have any first aid stuff on me. Which I don't because I used it all up on me the other day!!! I look at Bruces elbow and there is blood everywhere coming out of it. His clothes are all ripped up too. Thankfully he is standing up and looking ok (apart from all the blood). Times like these we all work in a team however and the next rider is never too far behind. Evelyn is more organised than the rest of us however and she has some first aid stuff. Malcolm has babywipes to clean up all the dirt. And because I didn't bother to keep the fact quiet that I am a nurse, and because I am slightly more used to seeing copious quantities of blood compared to many other people, I am the one that gets to fix Bruces arm. So I clean the wound & compression bandage it and do a pretty good job at stopping the bleeding and Bruce is able to keep riding. I think Erin (the medic) is at the lunch truck & I want her to look at it to see if she reckons it needs stitches.

But further behind me Paul Porter (different Paul to the one helping me when I had my wipe out) also stacks it. He's gone over after not seeing a big huge pothole hidden by the shadow of a baobab tree.

Paul is a great guy and someone who I admire alot on this tour (especially because he's an Ironman, but also because he's 53 and keeps racing with the younger guys even though now he's the only racer in the masters category). He also knows a lot about a lot of things, and is a very interesting person to talk to.

Paul hurts his elbow quite badly, which needs to be sutured. When I get to the lunch truck Erin is not there (and I wanted her to look at Bruces elbow!!!). I missed seeing the 4x4 go by with her and Eddie our local guide for the section. Anyhow, the 4x4 gets back to the lunch truck while I'm still there with Alex & Erin our 2 awesome medics, and Paul. Erin can suture and I want to learn so I ask if I can come up to watch. As they take off the tape applying pressure to Pauls wound the wound opens and blood squirts out - I don't think I've seen blood squirt out like that before and they expect an arterial bleed - which means the artery requires suturing usually under anaesthetic - which means Paul will have to go hospital, but first we need to get Paul back from the lunch truck into the 4x4 and there is so much blood. I am trying to help by holding Pauls arm above his head & it is decided that 2 people need to go with Paul (as well as Eddie to drive the vehicle) to help stabilise the bleeding as best as possible along the way. We are more than 100km from the nearest hospital in Iringa. It's decided that Erin should stay with everyone else because she needs to check out Bruce, and in case there are any more emergencies along the way so I go with Alex & Paul & Eddie in the 4x4. Alex is applying pressure to the wound, I'm applying pressure to a point below the wound and for a while we get the bleeding stopped and stabilised.

We're in Tanzania. The roads are slightly better than the ones in Northern Kenya but it takes a good 2.5 hours in the car to get to Iringa. We get there and Paul is still alive and talking, slightly pale in the face and there is lots of swelling to his elbow and we suspect its fractured.

At the hospital Alex jumps out and finds out where we need to take Paul to. We must've looked weird - 3 Mzungus in lycra - 2 holding the others hand above his head.

Luckily the doctor is also a cyclist - he tells us he has a nice bicycle - it has 6 gears!!!

I was impressed with the hospital - they x-rayed Pauls arm, he was seen by an orthopaedic surgeon and we got his wound surgically cleaned and the bleeding controlled. Paul was admitted overnight and Alex, Eddie and I returned to camp.

Back at camp however, another rider had hit his head which also nearly required suturing (good thing Erin stayed at camp!), the dinner truck had broken down yet again (our dinner truck support vehicle is not feeling so well these days!!!) and hadn't got to camp until late. We don't get there until 1030pm and thankfully Sonja, Isobel & Michel have put up my tent for me - all I need to do is climb in and sleep...

Wipe Out!

2009-03-09T06:38:00.000-07:00

It was a typical day riding in Kenya. Actually better than typical because we rode right past a herd of Zebras!!! Makes me really feel like I'm in Africa. It's meant to be a 165km day, and I make it to Lunch at 70km feeling strong.

After lunch there is a heap of road works (nothing new). They like piling mounds of dirt over the new part of the road so that cars and trucks can't get across - but for bicycles they are easy to get over, and the new construction road is often smoother and easier to ride on than the old road or the alternative route. Also with less traffic so usually safer too.

So I'm riding along, on a slight downhill that I don't realise when I come across one of these mounds of dirt and think it's not so high, I'll get over it easy. But when I get closer I see it's sandy dirt, and I remember I have my slick tyres on and I'm going faster than I anticipate. I break slightly before the mound then go up and over, and suddenly I'm up high, soaring through the air on Mitch the Rockhopper. What comes up must come down however and Mitch lands too heavily on his front wheel. I fly over the handlebars, and my shoes are cleated into my pedals so my bike flys over me and at some point I become uncleated. I hit the ground. Hard. Face first in to the dust. I roll over and sit up but I can barely breathe because I am winded. I hurt too. I take my helmet off and note briefly that my visor has come half unattached to my helmet. I take off my sunnies and take a look at how scratched they are and I'm glad I was wearing them because otherwise that would have been my eye! I look down at my knees and they're both grazed the left one more than the right. There's a tiny bit of blood coming out of my lip and the side of my face is grazed. Its only a couple of minutes before Paul comes along and finds me sitting in the middle of the road and stops. Then Sven comes along. And Ivo. And I realise I am riding with a truly great bunch of people. Sven has a few clean washers with him that he gives me to clean up the blood. But my knee has a hole in it - and a very tiny bit of fatty tissue is hanging out of it. I'm shocked and I know that normally I'd be okay to clean up a wound like that on someone else no worries, but I'm really shaken up. I have a few bits of first aid kit in my camelbak (which is actually a blackwolf and not a camelbak at all hahaha) and manage to patch myself up ok for the time being. I slowly check the rest of me over and note that my right shoulder is bruised, my left elbow and wrist is sore too.

I get up with help from Paul & Sven & Ivo and go sit under the tree for a bit. Paul is great and hechecks my bike and I'm lucky I've only put one of my bar ends out of alignment so Mitch is Ok, that's easy to fix. He waits with me because I'm still shaking and there's tears in the corners of my eyes but I'm trying not to cry. I know I'm ok but I can't stop shaking. I contemplate keeping riding but my knee hurts, and my elbow won't let me tie my hair back up which has become loose. Paul calls Shanny who is sweeping and we figure that the lunch truck is a few hours away so I could sit and wait for it or hitch a ride back to lunch with the locals where there is better first aid supplies and Erin the Medic. We take the latter option and manage to squeeze two bikes and 2 Mzungus into a vehicle, and they're nice guys that drive us 10km back to the lunch truck. Erin manages to give me a bit of a better clean than I can do of myself. I ride the rest of the way to camp on the truck. I look over my helmet closely and my visor is clipped back in, there's a small damage mark just where my right temple lies - helmets are great things that do save lives!!!

Now I have a new nickname - first it was Nubian (because I always collect dust and turn up to camp and lunch black like a person from the Nubian Desert), then the Mysterious One (I'm not going to write an explanation of that one here because it is complicated) and now I'm Hop-a-long.

Today I ride the truck because my knee is quite swollen but I think it's getting better, and although I'm stiff nothing feels like its broken. Just need to keep up the Ibuprofen!!!

The next 3 days are non riding days and I'm going on safari!!! Excitement +. And I don't doubt that my bruises will be sufficiently healed for me to jump back on my bike the next riding day :)

I forgot to write before I realised when I was writing my reflections about the greatest things about this trip. Here they are:
- Flying downhills at anything up to 77km/hr so far!
- the personal satisfaction of riding a hard day
- Being able to see the culture without the barriers you get when travelling in a vehicle
- Camping every night - although I'm frustrated by my tent sometimes I'm still not sick of camping
- riding lots and lots
- bargaining in markets (I bought a plate the other day for 180 kenyan shillings which I got down from 2700!!!)
- seeing wildlife
- camp cooking!!! I love it!
- the wonderful carefree feeling you get from spending so much time outdoors

Even in my battered and bruised state that I'm in today I still manage to have a great day.

The challenge continues as we ride through Kenya

2009-03-09T06:24:00.000-07:00

*** I wrote this blog entry about a week ago now and haven't been able to post it until now!!! - sorry my blogs out of order now!***

As we descend out of the hills of Ethiopia we hit more unpaved empty roads in the northern desert of Kenya. The roads are rough and bumpy covered in LAVA ROCK! Not nice stuff to pedal on!!! And they call it a highway - average speed for our trucks is 18km/hr! Bicycle is faster sometimes. But me and Mitch the Rockhopper are both tough and handle it ok (although we did truck it for 30km the other day due to a sore knee – feeling good today although it’s a rest day today so it doesn’t have to ride!).

2 nights ago we have our first proper rain. I would like to be as proud of my tent as I am with Mitch the Rockhopper however if I didn’t have such a big addiction to camping I think I would be seriously considering in a new home for the rest of the trip. You see, my tent as lovely as it holds up camping in Aus, just doesn’t like the strong winds you get out in the desert. It won’t stand up without pegs (and sometimes it’s hard to get your pegs in tough ground, or equally tough to get it to stand up in super soft sand!!! The other night however it had a true challenge - lots of wind and rain at the same time – I took a photo and will one day hopefully be able to post it here but this whole continent is doomed with dodgy internet access and sometimes its as much as I can do to actually post these blogs. Thankfully it stayed relatively dry inside but I was surprised. Then last night we were camped in a beautiful campsite in Marsabit Wildlife Reserve – which has baboons everywhere!!! Unfortunately I had to choose the baboon toilet tree to pitch my tent under!!!! I thought there was a few heavy drops of rain over night but when I got up this morning I found that there was a heap of baboon faeces waiting for me to clean up… It was seriously gross –there’s another photo that I’ll post here one day!!! I’m usually ok with that kind of stuff but it was everywhere… everyone had a good laugh who walked passed me this morning cleaning it off… now it looks ok but still smells like baboon manure…. Maybe will spray some perfume on it see if it improves!!! Despite this I still plan to EFT this journey (Every F******* night in a Tent). Haven’t had the urge to take a hotel room yet and aren’t sick of camping despite my tent (which is also the smallest on tour) or my thermarest which has a cancer (this is what happens when your sleeping mat lining comes away from the cells and a big bubble of air creates a tumour which in this case is sadly malignant and I can’t blow up my mat anymore – its still comfy enough with my little 1/2cm thick foam mat underneath it though!!!

Today is a rest day and the thing I like most about rest days is taking a shower. Our vision of a nice shower has changed. All you need is 4 walls and running water and that is a nice shower. Hot water is a luxury. A hook on the back of the door to hang your stuff is a bonus. Yesterday we got to camp to find no water so it was a bucket bath instead. I get the chance to update this blog about the same amount of times as I get to take a shower. Kenya is hard to get water so we’re not allowed to even take a water bottle shower on riding days – it’s strictly baby wipes inside the tent.

Nairobi is the halfway mark and lifes meant to get easier after that!

A typical day in the life

2009-03-07T00:37:00.000-08:00

Wake up is around 6 and for me I don't need an alarm - the noise of everyone else deflating thermarests, folding up tent poles is enough. I put my cycling gear on, cream up (a very important part of the day for the prevention of saddle sores!) pack up my tent and gear inside my tent. Then it's time for breakfast which is typically either oats, cornmeal, and bread and spreads. I put my sunscreen on, make sure all my gear is in my locker on the truck and jump on my bike and start my ride.

I usually ride alone because I like a bit of personal space and we live and camp quite close to each other. But sometimes I ride with Sven, and sometimes with Jolyane. And sometimes with someone else. I usually ride non stop to lunch which somewhere between 40-75km from camp depending on the road and how far we are riding that day. If it is a hard day I might stop for an energy bar though.

Lunch is bread and tuna, egg, or cheese, and bread a spreads. I usually arrive at lunch between 10 and 11am. I fill up on water and reapply my sunscreen so I don't burn like crazy with the malaria tablets I take and jump back on my bike, trying to cover as many kms I can before it gets quite hot.

Then its back on the bike and time to keep pedalling. If there's a coke stop somwhere halfway between lunch and camp then I'll stop and get coke, or ginger beer, or fanta. And its amazing how so many people who don't drink much soft drink back home all crave coke - it's cold, its sweet, it contains energy.... and caffeine :)

When I get to camp I make sure I drink. Then I go help out in the kitchen to help get dinner ready - this is a highly optional activity that is always appreciated by the staff. There's 65 mouths to feed and lots of stuff to chop. Lots of garlic to peel. Lots of beans to top and tail. Beetroot peeling. I like helping though. Mostly I like it on the principal that I'm not here for a luxury expedition and helping cook food makes me feel like I'm not taking the easy way out. Eddie (our current local guide) jokes that the first thing I do after I jump off my bike is head straight for the kitchen.

I set up my tent and then there's a rider meeting around 5:30pm then dinner after the rider meeting.

Bed time is never long after dark after such a long day. And I always sleep well.

Halfway reflections

2009-03-07T00:11:00.000-08:00

I'm in Nairobi! The halfway point in terms of time (still more than halfway on distance however) so thought I'd take a moment to reflect on my expedition so far!

What has the biggest challenge been so far?
I can't single out one challenge to be the biggest but there have surely been plenty of them as I make my journey southwards. Each country presents a new challenge -
- in Egypt it was getting used to long days in the saddle, headwind on the first day.
- the sand of Sudan
- The hills, rocks & kids that throw the rocks at you in Ethiopia. And riding at altitude where the air is thin. And the endless calls of "you-you-you how are you?" and although the caller doesn't care how you are they still want a reply from you.
- The corrugated unpaved road of northern Kenya called the "trans east african highway" although us Mzungu (white people) struggle to understand how such a road can possibly be called a highway!
- and next we have the mud of Tanzania to look forward to!!!

But there have been other challenges too for example:
- pitching my tent in the sand
- internet access that simply frustrates because it will work and I'll write a long piece of blog and then loose it - I have a previous blog saved on Tims USB stick at the moment but he doesn't happen to be here right now so now my blog is going to be out of order slightly!
- The time I pitched my tent right under the Baboon Toilet Tree (and I thought there were a few heavy drops of rain overnight! - something else to clean in the morning)
- The number of times I'm out on my bike and there's an oncoming truck passing an oncoming truck (and suddenly I'm riding my bike off the road and in the dirt to keep alive!!!)
- Spending every night so far in my little tent (which is the smallest tent on tour) on my little thermarest which sadly has cancer and no longer inflates!
- On the bike riding up hills in Ethiopia shouting "Salamno" to all the billions of kids you see in hope that they won't throw rocks at you.
- Knowing that there is showering facilities at the camp that you're going to only to find that when you get there there's no water!

But now I recall the BIGGEST challenge for me. The biggest challenge was riding when I wasn't well, and when my knee was sore. And jumping on the truck. Jumping on the truck for me is a huge mental challenge which I have done for 200 of the roughly 5500km of this trip so far and I have only done it when I haven't been well, and taken another 30km to rest my knee which was sore for a while. But everytime I ride the truck I feel like I'm cheating although really I know I'm actually being smart. It still doesn't feel as good at the end of the day when you rock up in the truck knowing that everyone else has worked hard to be at the designated campsite that night.

How do I feel?
Good. Really good. I love this lifestyle. I love only thinking about riding everyday and only having to worry about keeping my feet turning. My neck no longer aches. My quads no longer burn. I have sensation in all my fingers again :)

What have I been eating?
An awful lot. I eat 3 times as much as before I left home I think!!! I eat what they serve on riding days and on rest days I try to eat as local as food comes depending on where we are. And that includes the Ethiopian injera designed to make you fart, and made many riders sick with GI upset (myself included thankfully only to a mild degree)

The Gorge

2009-02-15T00:34:00.000-08:00

Well, the second stage of nine is complete and I am proud to say I have been riding recently at 3200m above sea level – the highest point on our tour - and there is definitely a difference in air quality! Pedalling up a beautiful hill is somewhat challenging - the hill is no steeper than usual, it’s not even a particularly long day but the air simply is lacking in oxygen. I try to take a deep breath in but there’s nothing there yet the air is fresh and crisp. The locals as they do yell out there encouragement to me as I go up the hill with their shouts of “you-you-you give me money” or by the little 4 year old kid who sees a foreigner and says “you-money!” I don’t think he even understands what he’s saying but the poverty in this country is definitely visible with almost everyone I pass asking me for money. Sometimes I try to explain that I am a very poor foreigner on a bicycle that would be in a car at this moment if I had money. But that is of course a lie because there is no better way to travel other than by bicycle. Everyone asks where I am going and I don’t think they really care and no one knows where Capetown is so I tell them the next place I am going to – Addis Ababa (which is a mouthful to say when you’re riding up a hill at altitude!).

We have conquered the hardest altitude gain in a single day and our longest climb for the tour – up the Blue Nile Gorge – a truly amazing place with a lovely long decent, and a bugger of a climb – they had a time trial option too which I didn’t take thinking it would be a big enough achievement just to reach the top of the mountain however the staff decided they were going to record my time without me knowing!!! So I had a lovely 20km climb of 1500m up this gorge – stopped twice to eat an energy bar and then find out that I’ve come 5th out of the 8 women who they recorded despite not realizing I was racing… will have to actually race the next opportunity we get…

Anyhow now that I have arrived in Addis there are some great things here. Firstly a DHL office where I received a package from home containing some special handlebar grips to help with my finger numbness, and my aerobars – so that I can have a few more hand positions. Thanks so much for sending them Mum & Dad!!! It is really greatly appreciated. It took a bit of effort getting them once we found the DHL office – the people there insisted it wasn’t there and it wasn’t until Craig actually went back to the cupboard where they keep the packages and was looking through there himself that he found the package… that’s Africa though!

Secondly I just found a place that sells ice cream!!! I haven’t had ice cream since Khartoum. It was great too… hazelnut flavoured mmmmmm…. Might be going back there tomorrow I think!!!

Ethiopia

2009-02-09T04:18:00.000-08:00

There’s no other word to describe Ethiopia other than unique. It’s an amazing place and I really love it – it is everything Africa should be and the riding is suddenly challenging with unpaved rolling hills – big ones too. I spent 3 hours climbing up a hill the other day – thought I’d never reach the top!!!

There are rocks everywhere. And children everywhere. And the combination of children and rocks is not a happy one for the foreign cyclist. In one day I get hit twice – once on the shoulder, once on the leg – neither of them bruise though so I’m lucky. Mitch the Rockhopper also gets hit twice – once is a rebound off the road but the other one comes hard and fast right onto him – I don’t know where it hits and I keep pedaling so I’m out of the firing zone and he seems to still be going ok. That night whilst inspecting him I notice that his front wheel is turning stiffly – was wondering why I was pedaling so slow! The disc is pretty bent and I think its time for a replacement but I get Mark the bike doctor to take a look at him first before I perform his surgery – good thing I brought a spare disc! Otherwise Mitch is holding up to the challenges of Africa very well.

But the rock throwing children in Ethiopia is the price one pays to see the rest of the beautiful country. The hills are simply stunning. The culture is truly authentic. The way the people live in the villages is simple yet there is something so beautiful about it that I really can’t put it into words. I’m so frustrated my camera isn’t working!!! The children greet you as you pass “you-you-you – give me pen!” but I don’t have a pen for each Ethiopian child as there is simply so many of them. And the fruit juice here is incredible. They have these really awesome layered fruit juice – avocado, mango, papaya, guava – it’s the most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted!!!

Struggling ...

2009-02-09T04:11:00.000-08:00

I pedal along the flat road in Sudan. I am feeling somewhat unenthusiastic. The road is paved and flat and I'm not feeling so well. There's a big headwind. Quentin and David ride past me and I jump on their wheel and manage to keep with them until lunch. My stomach doesn't feel good so I just eat bread and jam... no tuna today. I force some fluids into me and get back on my bike and keep riding with Quentin and David. When I see Werner at a coke stop (we like coke stops in the afternoons! cold sugar boost mmmmm...) I stop and get something to drink and let them go. We have a 120km to ride against the wind then another 20 after we make a turn... I leave the coke stop with Werner but then he's going too fast. I can't peddle fast with my bellyache! For the first time I miss life back home. I miss family, friends, the dog, my bed, the shower (I love showers - especially hot ones, but any will do - as long as there's a cubicle and running water!) I even miss work. The lunch truck passes and I consider hopping on. I stop for a pee and I also loose an energy bar I just ate. I sit under the only tree I have seen for miles in the shade for a while before I force myself to continue. I keep going and Mark and Alex pass me, see me struggling and offer me a wheel. I take it. They stop at the next coke stop and I keep going, and crawl into camp. I find out that someones watch had measured it had been 42 degrees out in the heat that day. I put up my tent, have a waterbottle shower and go to bed. I can't fit dinner inside my stomach.

The next day I wake up and feel ok. I eat some breakfast and jump on my bike. By lunchtime I'm feeling gross inside and force some energy drink inside me and bread and jam. I keep riding and it's a hot day. I feel thirsty and so I try and suck fluid into me through my camelbak but it's making my stomach feel sore and I can't drink anymore. The lunch truck passes and I give it the thumbs up but 10 minutes later my stomach ache intensifies and I regret the decision. By some coincidence Michel is also not feeling good and because he is behind me the sweep rider has caught up to him and the lunch truck comes back for him. I ride 114km before I give up and jump on the truck. It's my first time on the truck which means I've just lost my EFI. The last 35km is to the Ethiopian border and when I get there I see Frank - another rider who looks like he's on his deathbed with dehydration, he can hardly talk.

That night I remind myself about my life priorities - "number one have fun" and "look after yourself first". And I create a new one - its called "respect for body". So the next day I take a full day in the truck to allow myself to get better!

Thanks for all the emails, blogger comments, facebook messages and comments everyone – I always like to hear from you guys back home so keep them coming and I’m sorry I don’t get a chance to reply to each of you personally.

Across the Sahara

2009-01-30T09:56:00.000-08:00

We pedalled across the Sahara and into Khartoum and the first section of the ride is complete. It was a beautiful ride on newly paved roads. Sickness spreads through the camp like wild fire with many people violently expelling fluids from both ends of their bodies, and lots of truck riding going on. I'm fortunate to not be affected as yet, and will keep my fingers crossed that it continues to be that way.

The Sahara is in many ways like a beach, and we ride and ride dreaming of finding water and waves to jump into... but they simply don't come. Occasionally we camp near the Nile so we can have a swim there. There is some risk of getting Bilharzia swimming in freshwater throughout Africa but seeing its a disease that is easily treated I think it's worth the risk.

In Khartoum I had my first proper shower in 9 days, and I'm now feeling much much fresher. Today I actually sat on a toilet twice in one day - it's been two weeks since I last did that!!!

I have now pedalled the entire distance between Cairo and Khartoum and my body is handling it pretty well... despite a bit of finger numbness, mild chafing down under, all else is well!!!

Desert Dust

2009-01-25T04:07:00.000-08:00

The town of Dongola now has internet access so I am able to update this blog sooner than I thought. The connection is still slow so still no photos (and my camera is back at the zoo where we're camped charging).

Sudan is I think the nicest place I have ever been. The people are so friendly and giving. The majority of the road between Wadi Halfa and Dongola where I am now has been mostly unpaved which most of the mountain bikers prefer! The roadies ride on but have a tougher time without suspension. Many of the riders are struggle more in the heat so I'm feeling lucky I've come here from the heat and aren't having such a rough time adapting. My long dose of Doxycycline had commenced which means that those taking the doxy are more prone to sunburn. I apply my sunscreen religiously and haven't been burnt yet but I reckon I'm going to come home with a very sexy cycling tan!!! I have the beginnings of a sunnies tan now too, as well as a glove tan, finger tan, knicks tan, t-shirt tan... there'll probably be a helmet strap tan too before long!!! Sudan is mostly desert so it has a low population level, clean air, strong sun. The sand is very fine - like dust and it gets everywhere. My clothes that were once white are now nowhere close to their original colour - I did a heap of washing today too and it just wouldn't come out. It coats my tent, and my body. Worst its through my camera which makes its functionality very temperamental (I'm hoping it will behave better after its finished charging because now the zoom doesn't work, the lens takes a lot of fiddling with before it will close.) At the end of a days cycle it coats my arms, legs and clothing (which is a good thing because it provides protection against the sun). Depending on where we're camped depends on how well we can wash. Sometimes we can go for a swim in the Nile, sometimes we're allowed to fill a 750ml drinkbottle to use as our shower. You'd be surprised at how refreshing it is though.

I stopped between villages the other day when I was greeted by a boy and he asked me to sit in the shade for a while which I did because it was the middle of the day, and I could feel the sun burning my skin. His dad made me a cup of tea and fed me some dates (I think the water for the tea may have come straight from the Nile but it didn't make me sick)... very nice of him... then he decided he wanted to kiss me at which point I decided it was time to leave. I get so used to hanging out in my lycra I forget that I probably look like a prostitute to some of these people... I carry a sarong in my backpack and have since made a point of putting it on when I stop!

I quit the race because this place is so amazing and I like taking the time to stop in some of the villages, chat to some of the kids, and leave when I want to leave instead of when the racers leave. The plan was never to race this thing anyway.

Sadly the road from Dongola to Khartoum, and Khartoum to the Ethiopian border has all now been paved so I have put the slicks back on my bike, and am now looking forward to getting to Ethiopia where the pavement ends - even if the kids do throw rocks and try to put sticks in between your spokes!!!

1000km gone

2009-01-18T06:52:00.000-08:00

Well sorry about the lack of pictures on here... web connection is really slow and everyone is frustrated at not being able to do it.

We made it to Idfu yesterday, and today kept pedalling on to Aswan which means we have now kicked over the first 1000kms of the tour. It's amazing how fast it's gone (and also how fast my MTB can go too!!! - managed to cover 113kms today at an average of 29.5km/h).

My racing endeavours continue because I don't believe in quitting so I'm going to finish the section to Khartoum at any rate. Todays race was the first 60km and I managed to stay with the pack until just before the end... the MTB still feels strange to sprint on!!! And when some of the people in the pack are boys with cyclocrosses me on my lovely red Rockhopper just seems to fall off the back. Finished only 1 min behind the pack today anyway, better than the 12mins yesterday!!!! Very strange race situations. Sometimes there'll be a railway the entire pack has to stop at to wait 10mins for a train to go by before we can continue... and there's lots of donkeys on the road, traffic moving everywhere, and potholes potholes potholes.

Aswan is much nicer than Idfu. I went exploring around town with Sonja in Idfu and the kids were crazy, pulling on our bikes trying to make us come off... improves our balance at any rate!!! We camped in the local soccer stadium grounds.

So now we're in Aswan and Aswan is the last place for internet (and beer too!) until we reach Ethiopia so I won't be able to update this blog again until a while!!!

Mum & Dad - thanks for your email update - always good to know what's happening back home. Dad your new car sounds like a great idea what colour is it?- I don't think you'll regret the choice!!! Tassie is beautiful - think I'm headed back there on my next adventure perhaps!

LUXOR - rest day

2009-01-16T03:52:00.000-08:00

Well... I am enjoying an easy day here in Luxor. After I wrote my last message I made my way back across the Nile on the ferry where I met a man called Mahmoud. Mahmoud was a horse and cart driver and offered me a ride in his "ferrari" for 5 egyptian pounds to see the market and the bazaar and then take me back to my "hotel" (which is actually my tent which is set up in the grounds of Rezeiki camp). I initially refused until he offered me the same trip for only 2 pounds, I decided my legs were quite tired and it might be worth a tour of Luxor. So I got on and had a full city tour of Luxor... and then he stopped and bought some meat... and then offered to take me back to his house and make me dinner. I had already told him I am already married as well... I seriously need to buy a ring or something I think and actually wear that head scarf I bought!!! Anyhow, I didn't get offered any more camels from him because I did tell him I was already married, however he asked how many camels for my sister and offered a million - so there you are Janey - you're worth more than me! If things don't work out with Jim one day you can come to Luxor to meet Mahmoud. I refused his offer of dinner at his house aswell. So he invited me to a party instead. Which I also refused.

I'm very excited because I'm getting bar ends for my bike in Khartoum. Lone has lent me hers in the meantime, which was very kind of her. Hopefully the fingers will get a little less numb soon!!! Thanks heaps Plenty for sending them to Quentin!!!!

Today has been a bit less exciting... I cleaned my bike, then went for lunch and ate an entire half chicken. Very tasty. Then walked back through the markets. Bought some fresh dates which I have been eating and have just thought that i probably should have washed them first. Hope the stomach will continue to be tough!!! They also sell viagra at the date shop if anyone reading this ever comes here and needs any. I didn't buy any but the man said he could sell it to me for a good price! Next I'm headed back to camp to clean up my tent - which is just as thrilling as cleaning my room only I actually can't porocrastinate doing it as I have to pack it away tomorrow morning as we're peddling to Idfu and then Aswan the following day where we hop on a boat and cruise down to Wadi Halfa to enter Sudan! I'm very excited about Sudan but think that there won't be much internet access.

Beth and Irene - thought I should let you guys know Bike Mechanic Dude is already taken :( didn't get in quick enough. He was already hooked up with the medic before they came here!

My phone has caught up to me too 100 egyptian pounds later.... but it has a flat battery and there's no power sockets inside my tent!!!

from SAFAGA we went west to LUXOR!

2009-01-15T06:46:00.000-08:00

It has taken us two days to ride from Safaga to Luxor and we were blessed with tail winds making the "toughest day in Egypt" easier than the first two days! The 40km hill climb was easy enough and the promised headwind on the downhill to follow which usually makes the section harder than the climb never came.

Today we returned to cycle along the fertile farmland along the banks of the Nile, providing us with a big change of scenery to the nothingness of the desert that we have passed through.

Suddenly all of the kids in the villages we pass through line the streets. Some are kind, yelling out their greetings of "hello, how are you, what is your name?" while others are more aggressive and wait for the next cyclist with rocks in their hands ready to throw as you ride past... Haven't come off yet.

There are many more cars, narrower streets, and plenty of donkeys and donkey poo to avoid running into!

But now I'm in Luxor, having just completed a failed mission to find some bar ends to attach to the ends of my handlebars to stop my fingers going numb. It was an interesting mission anyhow, I had to go across the cross river local ferry by myself. Met some nice Arabic girls however who were friendly and spoke only a tiny bit more english than I do arabic. We had some kind of very giggly conversation because neither of us could understand eachother. At least sitting near them meant that I didn't get another marriage proposals- which happen so frequently I am tired of rejecting them even if they do involve camels... if anyone's ever desperate for men come to Egypt - they're everywhere and will propose if you're only talking to them for a few minutes!!! Anyhow, I'm hoping I can get some bar ends brought over from a sectional rider when we reach Khartoum. Fingers crossed while I still can cross them!!!

Looking forward to a well deserved rest day in Luxor tomorrow anyway!!!

The first few days...

2009-01-13T04:46:00.000-08:00

Firstly apologies for not updating this blog earlier. Internet access in Cairo was dodgy and my patience wore short! Managed to get my visa for Sudan with no worries - took most of the entire day hanging around the sudanese embassy though. Had a few days up my sleave so I went out of Cairo to a beautiful place called the white desert. Have some nice pics but as I said before internet access is dodgy so I'm not uploading anything today sorry!!!

Been riding 4 days now and the first two were pretty nasty - I decided to at the last minute register as a racer rather than as an expedition rider as I had originally planned and am now regretting the decision as I spend most of my mornings staring at a wheel in front of me trying to keep up with the racing pack - I managed to stick with them for the first 50km on the first day but after that let myself get dropped. So I'm coming 4th out of the 5 girls that are racing but am seriously considering giving up the race so i can just ride and look up, enjoy the vast desert around me. We've had some good riding so far, the first day was the nastiest - 123km battling headwinds out of Cairo meant we formed pelotons pretty fast working as a team pulling turns out the front. The second day we did 168km from our desert camp to the next desert camp - a long way but beautiful tail winds meant it wasn't as hard as the first day. I let myself get a biut dehydrated that day and was feeling very tired after 100kms. Today and yesterday we have been feeling spoilt because we did 133km, then today only 100km with more beautiful tailwinds so easy riding. We have police escorts when we ride and they tend to enjoy following packs of girls - don't think many egyptian women go around wearing lycra! Today I rode most of my day alone but still picked up a police car who followed me maybe 40km of my day!

I'm in a town at the moment called Safaga, and it's the first time in 4 days since I've had a shower so I'm feeling nice and fresh again.

They feed us really well - the chef on tour can cook well. Breakfast is porridge or breads and spreads or both plus fruit. Lunch is some kind of meat/eggs/tuna (source of protein) plus bread. When we reach camp we get some nice salty high protein soup to help keep the fluids up. Dinner is carb rich and protein rich - rice/pasta/couscous and some kind of meat and veggies with lots of spices to make it nice and tasty. In addition to this we can fill up water bottles with energy drink and we get a box of 20 energy bars to last us 10 days.

I'm having a great time anyway - enjoying the sealed flat roads of Egypt. I'm not surprising a little sore but nothing too terrible - quads are aching slightly but that's not as bad as the pain at the base of my neck. Only mildly saddle sore at this stage and hoping it stays this way - there's so much sand around and it gets everywhere - the last place you need sand is inside your cycling knicks!!!

Anyhow - only 2 more days until its time for a rest day and one of those days is meant to be the hardest Egypt day so I'm looking forward to getting that one out of the way!!!

Hope this message finds all of you well - I lost my phone in the hotel in Cairo sorry Mum & Dad - they have found it and I might be getting it back fingers crossed - there is advantages in having a phone with a massive crack down the screen!!!

Two weeks left...

2008-12-19T02:37:00.001-08:00

There's only 2 weeks to go now until I'm out of this country and at the moment I'm feeling a variety of emotions... mostly excited about the trip, but also a bit scared. I have spent the last year inside a square. Inside that square there is a house with two parents, a hospital where I earn money, a scout group where I have lots of fun doing crazy stuff with a bunch of teenagers, a gym with friendly faces to say hello to whenever I rock up, and more recently I have added a cycle club where I have met a heap of people who share the same passion and have introduced me to the fun of racing criteriums and endurance mountain biking...

But I'm about to leave that world behind and travel outside that square. The last minute anxiety starts to sink in. I am going to be a zillion miles of home. Mostly I am scared becaues I don't know if I will be able to make the distance - and I really want to cycle EFI of the way (E= every, I=inch and the F= any word beginning with F that you think best describes those inches - could be fun or fantastic... or something else). I'm scared of getting nasty sunburn because of increased sensitivity from taking malaria tablets. I'm scared of the first few days that are always scary when you're in a new place and don't know anyone. I'm scared of saddle sores (aka bike bum).

But I know these fears are also what makes the trip so exciting - there is the excitement of getting to see a new continent. The excitement of camping in a tent for 4.5 months (and if you know me well you will know that I LOVE camping - there is nothing quite like it!). The excitement of meeting 50 new people who are just as crazy as I am.

The unknown is just as exciting as it is scary!!!

Verticon 6hr Challenge

2008-11-03T01:58:00.000-08:00

Another excuse for a long training ride for my big trip!

I started out peddling strong - not having done too much technical mountain biking before I wasn't expecting great things. Had a few stacks on my first lap but only really hurt my pride.

Halfway through lap 3 I was wondering why I was having difficulty cleating my left foot in and on closer inspection discovered my cleat was missing. By lap 4 I had buckled my front wheel and was ready to cry, but then after walking my bike a few kms I met a nice guy who wasn't racing who lent me his. Finished up in 4th place so not a bad effort (even if there were only 8 girls doing it solo!), covered in mud, blood and bruises, I still had fun anyway!

Brissie to the Gold Coast Cycle Challenge

2008-10-20T14:03:00.001-07:00

Perhaps it was a good thing my road bike was destroyed by a certain motor vehicle as it gave me a chance to test out how my rockhopper would go on a longer ride. The 100km ride was completed in 4hrs 6mins cycling time - not bad for a mountain biker!!! That was only 20mins longer than last years effort on a road bike.

3 months 3 days to go

2008-10-05T04:03:00.000-07:00

Well... today there is exactly 3 days and 3 months to go until I leave. Getting excited but there is still so much to organise!!!

Cairo to Capetown - a 12000km journey in just 4 months - travelling solely by peddle power - I know it's not everyones cup of tea but for a crazy person like me it seems somehow perfect.