Heat is the least of our problems

Finally crossed out of Ethiopia into Kenya. Its going to be hard to describe the emotions I have gone through in the last few weeks and even harder to put into words the sights sounds and terrain that has been covered.
As for my list of new experiences here are a few:

Riding 148kms and there not being a gap in the people on the road enough to answer a call of nature.
Eating a sandwhich when you have just watched a cockroach crawl out of it.
Watching a Dik Dik get killed skinned and butchered.
Watching a baboon fall 30ft from a tree and only get saved by a luckily placed tent.
Seeing a flock of ostrich, herds of gazelle, and hundreds of baboons in the wild.
Doing so in stupid temperatures riding over some of the worst roads imaginable.
Hiding under a tarp to avoid the sun when a whirlwind goes dierectly overhead and pulls it in the air bringing down a boulder the size of a computer monitor into the guy next to me...a foot from my head.(cracked ribs we think)
Jumping into the back of a game warden truck and going on patrol for poachers.

I thik there is too much to cover in a short update so im going to try and write a decent one and post it next week, we are in a lush area right now just on a volcanic rim but head straight back into the desert for the next 3 days, then we are promised we should get some running water and decent services. (internet is still shady at best).

Hope all is well back home with everyone, would love to watch alfie chase baboons, that dog would be hilarius out here.

About to puke again.

Still in Ethiopia, about a week left before we cross into kenya, this next week is supposed to be the toughest week of the tour, highest temperatures, roughest roads, still hilly and no shade anywhere. We are on a rest day in a place called Abra Minch, ive spent the morning hunting out toilets while trying to get some shopping done and feed myself. The hotel we are in is the second in a row on rest days that has no water (we stop at hotels on rest days where you can get a room if you please or camp), about 5 of the group got showered then it ran out. Internet is crap, food is not for a week stomach but at least most of the kids in the town dont throw rocks.

Spent yesterday riding sweep at the back, got about 1km out of camp and had a double flat (got surrounded by ethiopians, fixed that jumped in a van to catch up, got out rode 1km cought up with another guy with a flat, got surrounded by 100 ethiopians, fixed it rode 3km he got a flat again, surrounded again 200 this time, rode 5kms I got a flat. Temperature in the high 30's and getting humid.

You can see where im going with this right now. I dont dream of burgers, bacon, steak or any other food, all I dream of is a pristine toilet that I can actually sit on and a shower that has running water, dont even care if its hot.

Highlight of the last few days though has to be a couple of big baboons running in front of us in the road yesterday. The lake that we are near is full of hippo's and crocodiles.....the wildlife is begining just gotta get through the next week and all will improve.

Dont have the energy for much else right now, but please wherever you are when you next use the toilet, enjoy the moment for me.

mark.

A Day in the Life....

Copied from Marks Tour D'Afrique post.

It was time to spoil myself this morning so a visit was made to the Sheraton Addis Ababa, rated as the best hotel in Africa. Cost per head was 220 Bihr, about $22, I managed to put away the following:

3 poached eggs
3 sausages
1 pita bread
2 slices of ham
chunk of blue cheese
chunk of emental
chunk of Gouda with chilli
chunk of another cheese
2 egg omlette
6 rashes of beef bacon
serving spoon of baked beans
2 mini burgers
1 large waffle with strawberries syrup and whipped cream
2 pastries
more cheese
coffee
2 thick juice smoothies

Not a bad breakfast in my mind, will burn it off tomorrow so not too worried.

Today is a rest day, but I thought I would talk a bit about the routine of the Tour D'Afrique as it kinda takes some getting your head around if your not out here.

The average day is supposed to be 125km's of riding, therefore most days are over 130km's in order to make up for shorter days into rest days or tough days (lots of mountains or exceptionally bad roads will normally be shorter days). Therefore slower riders can be out on the bike for 10+ hours day in day out depending on conditions.

We rise just before daybreak, in Ethiopia breakfast is served at 6.30 am, so you are usually up clothed and packing your tent down before 6am, no alarm needed, the muffled sounds of all the others doing so will wake you gently. Rise put on your bike clothes rub in chamois cream around your bits if its a real long day or really hot, roll your matt, drop your tent (all of which your incredibly efficient at) then head over with your bags ready to go in your locker. Fight for a spot on the truck to get your stuff in or drop it outside to do later. Find your bowl and tea mug and head to the breakfast truck that has hot water, coffee, bread, jam, peanut butter, porridge or Semoleana and on the odd occasion eggs or banana's all ready to go. Eat, do your thing in the bush with a shovel to bury if need be, wash your b-fast kit in bowls waiting for you, pack locker, find who you feel like riding with or put on your tunes and hit the road (race days all the racers leave at the same time, but as time goes by less and less people are taking the racing side seriously, you choose the days you want to race and the days you want to cruise, see the sights and hang with your friends.)

Once on the road you can find your group changes many times through the day as you pick up people or drop back to others, stop for coffee, coke, or toilet break as you feel like. As you hit any of the towns you can pretty much guarantee that outside one of the cafe's there will be a bike sitting there, you pull up and join whomever it may be, they head off when they are ready by which time another group or single will normally have joined you. If you are feeling really lazy you can sit at these for over an hour and be amongst a set of rolling friends - its kinda fun when your not in the mood, eventually the sweep rider comes along and you hit the road for a couple of hours until you are well enough ahead to do the same again.

The lunch truck is set up somewhere past halfway and consists of a (or multiple of you wish) sandwich, most often tuna, egg salad, cheese and tomato or on occaision last night's leftovers if they go well in a sandwich (pasta sandwiches are actually pretty good). Fill up your bottles head into the bushes with shovel if the need arises. Repeat the morning routine in the afternoon depending on how you feel and eventually you'll turn a corner and see the camp being set up.

Pull up give your name for attendance and grab your mug for some hearty soup that is always sitting good to go around the dinner truck, eat, grab your shit from locker, sort your bike and put up your tent, usually have a short rest before the rider meeting describing the next days riding hazards, climbs, conditions and race distances if its a race day, awards for days race if there has been one and any other business that people are doing that is pissing the team off (not washing hands, burying crap, riding erratically etc) some evenings the contents of the lost and found is auctioned, if you leave your kit loafing it goes straight in the lost and found bin and gets auctioned off weekly. You buy staff beer for the item you lost, BUT anyone who wants that item is welcome to bid any amount of beer for it, risky business leaving your stuff around.

Dinner is served straight after the rider meeting then you have a short time before the sun sets and most head to bed. Day done.

It is such a simple way off life, no real stress other than controlling your temper when kids are hurling rocks at you for sport. Add to this mechanic support in the evenings, trucks passing you a few times during the day that will stop if you give them the thumbs down to help you with your problems, medics doing rounds in the mornings and evenings, local support in the form of 3-4 guys and an extra vehicle or two that are also out on the road watching out for you, chasing kids, extra refreshment stops on 160+km days.

There is no doubt that this tour is hard on everyone involved, it drains you physically and mentally, but if your gonna do it, then this is defiantly the way to do it in style.

February 9th, Bahir Dar Ethiopia.

support trucks at sunrise, sudan

Internet is few and far betwen through Sudan and Ethiopia, I have spent 40 minutes over the last 2 days trying to get onto blogger to write anything, its sad that I have such an urge to be in contact in this way, but it also a wake up call to how dependant I have become on computers and internet in the space of I guess 10 years. Traveling through here would be Jonny's worst nightmare, the cafe's i have tried over the last days are still on dial up and it was worse than I ever remember it having been 'back in the day' im guessing this has something to do with how much bandwidth websites use now presuming that nobody really uses dial up anymore. Anyway I digress...

Another twist on the fight for water story was revealed to me by one of the Sudanese guys that was riding with us, turns out his home town of Wada Halfa was flooded and remains beneath Lake Nasser still today, he was pretty mad about this as apparantly the Sudanese president at the time was invited to Eygypt where they got him drunk and he signed the papers to allow the damn to be built for $15,000. Dont know if this is total truth but makes for an interesting story. He also spent much of that mornings ride talking about his balls so I dont know what to take away from the whole thing.

The end of Sudan and entry into Ethipia, Sudan as I have said before was incredible but riding flat roads for so long was becoming boring and the heat was becoming unbearable. Riding 140+kms a day in 40+ degrees gets to you eventually, the hotest riding day was 44.3 degrees i ended this day by taking a wash in a cow trough surrounded by cows and amused shepherds. The water was a milky colour and far from clean but cows and shepherds alike drank from it, they had no problem with me using it to wash. One of the shepherds drank alongside me while I stuck my sweaty salt encrusted head in it, he was using it to wash down the fresh milk that was spread all over his face like a kid with chocolate.

I have been looking forward to getting into the mountains and the pain that goes with them. Being in possesion of alcohol in Sudan is also punishable by 40 lashes so the promised beer in Ethiopia was eagerly awaited.(though through a few sneaky manouveres im owed a hundred or so lashes by the Sudanese). What I didnt expect was to get hammered in immigration on the border. No lies I handed in my passport bought a beer and sat down to wait for them to fill out the journal. With 60 of us crossing at the same time this wasn't going to be a quick porcess so I bought a few more (they cost less than $1 each so it was easier to buy a round than to get change.) I should add at this point that the immigration building is a mud hut, the border is an unmaned bridge and people where thirsty.



this is the line up for immigration in ethiopia, the door in the backgound is the office

About 8 beers later i stumbled from the immigration hut across the road to the campground, a dirt bowl full of animal bones and human feaces. Border towns are never going o be the most pleasant place to visit. This is followed by a visit to the towns brothel as this is the only place to shower. Welcome to Ethiopia

If you had told me before I left I would be washing in cow trough's swimming in the Nile, sleeping surrounded by bones and human shit and showering in brothels I would have told you a different story, incredible what you do when you have no choice.

First days riding in Ethipia was fairly low key, off road finally some climbs but nothing too challenging, the terrain litterally changed over the border, much more vegetation, a bit more green, and generally more of what you expect africa to be like, I was riding sweep in the morning so the kids knew i was coming by the time I got there, a few of the villages I had a posse of 40 or so chasing me through shoulting youyouyouoyouyou or moneymoneymoneymoney while avoiding cow herds and goats and waving to the elders that all waved and greeted you in some way was great fun. i tried filming it with my camera but its a bit too shakey to bother putting up and it almost ended with my face on the gravel at one point. Lesson learnt.

Next day and some proper climbs, 109km day but some monster climbs involved high point was 2400m and we have been since sleeping at between 1800m and 2100m this was also my first encounter with the rock throwing we had been told to expect. and im not lying when I say rocks, these are not stones, the little fuckers are clever enough to take the high ground and pelt you with things bigger than apples. I stopped to chase a few and gave a couple of women a hard time who where watching it all, they motioned for me to throw rocks back at which point I relaised that in all honesty I think i'd be lucky to throw a rock as far and with as much accuracy as these kids. If there was rock throwing as an Olympic sport the Ethipinas would have it dialed.

I have since learnt that it is just the Shepherd kids that can do this as they throw rocks to steer the herds, and its only when your out in the fileds that they get you. It is also worth noting that its a way of life here, when an adult sees you coming he starts pelting rocks at the kids to get them out of the way. In each country we go through we have a couple of native guys who know the land route and ways of making life easier and these guys will grab the kids and give them a beating for any reason, this seems totally acceptable to them and is accepted by the kids and anyone else who witnesses it as normal.

It has to be said that most of them are cool, they are obviously curious when we come cruising through town, i figure we are the equivalent of 60 ethiopians cruising through whistler in snow on camels, you'd want to have a look and see what's going on. We have perimeter ropes around some of the camps and especially the lunch trucks, they respect the perimeter and stand at the edge staring 10-20 deep at times. If you walk toward them most of the time they back off like your going to start throwing punches. I was fixing a flat at one point and was surrounded by them to the point of there being hardly any light when the new tube I put in blew as well with a loud hissing sound, they where falling over each other to get away....good times.

the photo below is the street leaving from camp on the first morning, you kinda get the idea what we ride through at times

February 15th, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

A few more days have passed, I was thinking about what I have to write about today while i was crusing up one of the climbs yesterday and thought I didnt have much to tell you about, then realised I was somewhere around 3100 metres above sea level riding a 100km stage in the hills surrounded by some incredible rolling countryside, this was followed by leading a 60 rider convey through the capitol of Ethiopia at 30kph so i guess a normal day here is a little different to home right now.

Have had some pretty impressive climbs over the last few days, we dropped into the Blue Nile Gorge, similar to the Grand Canyon in appearance, 1800m descent cross a bridge then 1800m climb out the other side, this was the first mountain time trial from the bridge straight up. I have been ill for a few days now with some ethiopian stomach and wasnt feeling my best but hit it as hard as I could and crossed the line after 1hr 44 minutes. I suffered like I havent in a long time, that was 1hr 44 minutes solid climbing in a gear that I could only just turn, I must have tried to change into a lower gear about 50 times despite knowing your in your lowest already I had to check again just incase the gear fairy has popped another one in there for me. Even the little fuckers at the side of the road left you alone on this hill, they looked at you and knew what was going on and must have had sympathy for a change.

Through each country we have had a selection of local riders join us, they are normally pretty strong and ride some interesting bikes, whatever they have been given is kinda the rule of thumb. Hanging out with the Ethiopians has been some of the most fun so far. Addis, one of the guys has transleted some of the things that have been said as we pass by, the one I like most is two kids looking at him as we rode through a town saying 'he must be their slave.' I was talking to one of them the other night who had a sheep tied to a tree by him, the sheep had a bit of charecter and I was rubbing it behind the ears, the rider asked if I wanted to join them a bit after dinner for a 'grill' ive been in bed pretty early so declined, didint realise till morning that the sheep I was rubbing behind the ears was the 'grill'.

Svend, one of the Canadians, gets help putting up his tent by a couple of Ethiopians with AK 47's

Kenya is looming, as much as it sounds like Ethipoia is a nightmare, it is a place I will return to, the people in general are very helpful, kids are in your face but it seems to be thought that this is a biproduct of mismanaged aid in the 80's and misguided tourists more recently. Living here is cheap, a beer is less than a dollar and a good capucino (the Coffee is some of the best i've had in my life) is around 25 cents. Juice bars are eveywhere with a pint of fresh mango, avacado and pasion fruit coming in at around 60 cents. Like Sudan you are a spectacle as a tourist and can expect to be treated as such. The landscape is stunning and far from the sand, mud and starving kids images that we are left with from the 80's, the one thing that does piss me off though is all the kids support Arsenal or Manchester United....muppets.

Looks like we might be getting some time off around Arusha, Tanzania to go do the safari thing, if anyone has any contacts please let me know, will be booking something when I get there and would like to avoid the hassle of trying to find out what you should really pay as opposed to what they will try and get from you.

Whistler - Really a trail centre?

There may be a love it or hate it view point on the trail centers in the UK, but how does Whistler fit into this idea of a trail center?

Whistler has 2 examples of trail centers... well.. areas of riding that are purpose built for riding.

The bike park is a phenomenal example of how to purpose build trail for bike riding and a good example of one that some people love, some people hate. Simply put though, if thats what you are looking for, theres nothing better.

If, i'm sure like most of you here, prefer to pedal and earn your ride, then the cross country trail network is possibly the perfect example of a trail centre. Every trail is accessible by riding to it from your doorstep, everything has been maintained with a view to bikes being ridden along them (I hesitate from using built as many of the trails were existing hiking, hunting and logging access trails that have been purpose adapted, not purpose built) and pretty much everything has a natural feel and has been maintained in a way that keeps the essence of riding pure.
Of course there are trails that have been purpose built. Many lovingly built by hand as well as those that make use of machine based construction and copious amounts of pea gravel. These machine built trails still serve a purpose and do have a welcome place in the Whistler trail inventory as areas that help to encourage people into mountain biking.

Anyway, love them or hate them, I believe trail centers are an important and integral part of riding culture although it'll probably be a long long time before the UK sees a trail center that gets close to the 250+kms of XC riding that Whistler has on offer. I for one hope that it does happen.

One thing that Whistler is missing, is a high alpine XC trail - So, thats what I would build if I could.
Give it a couple of years and we will see high alpine XC riding with lift support in Whistler.