Post-Khartoum Sudan, I am your bitch.

So, it has been a while since I blogged. I am in Bahir Dahr, Ethiopia, right now, so I will have to update with a few blog posts. So, let's start with Sudan since my last post.

Well, Sudan got hard. Very hard. And I lost my EFI. I tried my best, but two days after leaving Khartoum, I came down with a terrible stomach virus. I had started my 145km day of tarmac (30km easy dirt) and made it about 35km. Actually, let me start with a time line:

Feb 5th, 1800: Eat a huge spaghetti dinner. Feel awesome, go to bed.
2200: Wake up with a stomach ache. Maybe I over-ate. Try and go back to bed. Feel like I want to puke.
2300: Wake up, want to puke.
Feb 6th, 0000, 0100, 0200, 0300: Wake up, want to puke. Only comfortable position is on my stomach, which means I can't sleep.
0430: Wake up, finally puke. Feels way better. Immediately go back to bed.
0530: Get up, pack up gear. Feel ok, have some appetite.
0645: Eat a small breakfast. Feels ok. It will probably stay down, so I'll ride today.
0715: Start riding, feel decent. Not too good, not too bad. Then it starts.

35km into the ride, after the support trucks have gone by of course, I stop and vomit up breakfast. Try riding again. Have some water. Throw up said water. Have some Gatorade and throw it up too. So, I cycle for another 10 km, stopping at least once per kilometer to throw up any liquid, or solid for that matter that I have eaten. I feel terrible. I have to stop on the side of the road so I don't pass out riding my bike and kill myself on the now-dirt road. Spend a little bit of time dry heaving beside the one such there is for shade. Realize I'm going to lose my EFI. Makes me feel worse. So, I wait for the staff sweep (last rider of the pack). Thankfully, he is medic. Bad news. No truck coming to get me, so I'll have to try and make it the 80km to lunch. Fat chance. I can barely keep my eyes open at this point. So, I cycle until kilometer 51, just over the Nile, where our chef is buying groceries and picks me up. Thank God. We head for camp, 90km away. I fall asleep instanly, hunched over in the back seat of a pickup truck that is clunking like the ball joints are falling off. When I wake up, we are at camp. I am pretty depressed now, having lost my EFI on an easy day. So, lacking the energy to talk, eat or move, I lay in the dirt and sleep until dinner. Once dinner comes, I wake up, have a small dinner (and I mean uncharacteristically small). I actually manage to hold this dinner down. So, I set up my tent and fall alseep again. Until the next day. I slept for about 16.5 hours. I felt ok the next day, so I had a normal person-sized breakfast and started off riding . Bad idea. Today was a full dirt day where we followed some old, busted railroad tracks. Then my condition started (sort of) again. No vomiting, but I came close. I was dry heaving and could taste breakfast every bump I went over. So, pretty uneventful, but I made it problem-free to lunch. I took the truck at lunch. I figured I may as well relax and not kill myself. EFI gone anyway, right? When I got to camp, I felt alright. No puking, but still no appetite. So, I took my bike down off the truck to clean it. However, the staff member who tied the bikes on the truck was not careful. He is some impatient South African with clearly no regard for other people's stuff. Anyway, I take my bike down. It's f-ed up. Two bent rims, twisted front derailleur, kinked derailleur cable, scratched chainstay and rear derailleur and a frayed rear derailleur cable. Crap. Long story short, it was all fixable. Thankfully, one of the staff bikes received about the same damage, so he had a chat with the tour director and the transport of bikes has changed. So, all in all, I missed 140km of riding due to this stupid sickness. And lost my EFI, which I will discuss in a second.

My EFI loss. Yes, it's lame. I am very frustrated about it. Now, I know what some of you will say: "There is no shame in riding the truck". Yes, I know there is no shame. And, upon review of my situation at the time, I would have made the same decision if I had the chance again. I would never even have made it the 80km to lunch the first day. Not in a longshot. But, that doesn't make it any better. I still think about it a lot, and it still frustrates me because I was doing really well. It was a goal of mine to EFI and I failed. Even though I couldn't do anything about it. I'm sure you guys will understand where I'm coing from on this. But, my frustration is getting less and less each day, so I will be alright. I came to see Africa anyway, and I will. And hopefully I'll only miss EFI by 140km.

Ok, so on to Sudan. Sudan is hot. Really, really, really f**king hot. Even on the dirt. The days I rode the dirt, the temperatures were 47, 49 and 51. It would have been cooler in the shade if there was any. (sarcasm)At least on the tarmac there is a wind to cool you down(end sarcasm). Man, on the tarmac, it was 57 one day. Celsius. I like the heat, but this was ridiculous. I was drinking 10L of water during the rides. Imagine going into a sauna, cycling and blowing some hairdryers in your face. That is Sudan. And there is no shade. None. No trees, no grass, no roofs. It becomes a toss-up whether you want to cycle fast and get in early to the shade of the trucks, or cycle slowly, conserve energy and be cooler. As far as I was concerned, I just wanted to finish the day. Which I did, everyday, save the aformentioned 140kms. Actually, one of the tougher days, I came in to camp 6th out of everybody, which is good cause I'm usually about 25th and this was on dirt.

(vulgarity warning) Now, there is a humourous side to this. The water you get actually gets hot enough to make coffee with. It becomes too hot to drink by itself. And the sweating... Man, the sweating. In 8 days, I only wore 3 sets of clothes. No point changing, because you sweat packing up your tent in the morning. Then, when you get into camp after the ride, you can stand your clothes up in your tent there is just so much salt in them. Plus, there are all the stoamch bugs going around. So, while you're cycling, your crotch feels wet. Now, you're not sure if you've shit your pants or if you're sweating. But really, who cares? You just want to get out of the heat, so you ride on anyway. Then, you stop to check your pants and pee. But pee is not really the right word. You kind of just drip molasses out of your dick for the one and only time during the day, despite drinking all day. And the dirt is unbearable. Well, for the ladies it probably is wonderful. It's not really dirt, but more of a corregated hardpack. The entire day is corregated. It's like riding over rumble strips so hard that your teeth chatter. And you vibrate all day long. It wears you down to the point you are yelling at the road. But, sometimes the dirt stops and you are relieved with some very deep sand. Now you're riding through butter and you can't slow down cause you sink or fall over. So, you pedal on giving it all you've got while your tummy burbles and you're not sure if you want to fart, crap, burp or puke. It all feels the same at the end of the day. Then you probably do them all, sometimes simultaneously, anyway. The desert is just awesome.

So, sorry for the long post, but here are some closing thoughts: My spirits are not dampened one bit. I love this tour. The good, the bad, the sickness, the health, the dirt, the sweating, the 57 degree heat, the long days. Everything is just awesome. Really, really awesome. It really feels like Africa with all these challenges. The scenery has changed, the plants are different and things are going well. But I do miss some things. In no particular order:

1. A glass of milk. Real milk, not chunky powdered milk.
2. Falling asleep on the couch.
3. A pillow.
4. BBQs.
5. Toilets you sit on.

Anyway, that's all for now. I'll post pictures tomorrow and post about my time in Ethiopia so far. But I can say this: I will miss Sudan. I will miss it a lot.