LETTER FROM JOS

UPDATE END OF STAGE 1
I am sitting in my air conditioned hotel room in Khartoum and can't quite believe that stage 1 and 2000km of the tour is completed. I will try and provide this kind of summary after each leg of the tour, depending on my condition.

Cycling
I generally feel strong and is still getting fitter as we continue. The only day I was in trouble was at end of stage 2 in the strong headwind and after 8 hours on the bicycle, I really struggled the last 10km and was pulled by David & Gerald.

I am amazed at the speeds I am getting on my mountain bike. I have averaged around 35kmph the last few days but have run out of gears now. Spend most of my time (95%) in the big ring in last few gears. Roads have been flat and tarred till now. It will change drastically on the next stage till Addis as it is considered the most difficult.

My bum is getting used to the saddle but my knees are hurting last few days, not quite sure what to do but hopefully the rest day will do it good. I handled the heat quite well up to know as it was it dry heat with no humidity.

The route from Khartoum to the border with Ethiopia has been changed and will en counter the 1st dirt stages the next week. We will also cycle for 7 days without a break whereas we never cycled for more than 5 days without a break up to now. So as we get fitter the route gets tougher ….... Will probably look back and say this was the easiest leg from a cycling perspective.

Countries
Definitely prefer Sudan to Egypt as the people are more friendly and generally seems happy, although very few speaks English. That said the few days along the Nile in Egypt Luxor to Aswan and crossing the Red sea mountains in Egypt was spectacular scenery.

The route the 1st few in days in Sudan from Wadi Halfa to Dongola was my favorite section. Last 3 days from Dongola to Khartoum was rather bland, just yellow dessert sand everywhere. Everything is full of dust, looked like a river in my shower as I rinsed everything yesterday. Had to rinse my cycling clothes at least 5 times before the brown water started clearing. The new route to Ethiopia will take us through a game reserve in Sudan which is closed to the public so looking quite forward to that.

Lost a US$1000 and bank cards in Aswan while buying cellphone, still not quite sure if it was stolen or I loosed it.

Camping
I survived it up to now but has definitely not been converted. My equipment seems good (thanks Hein) just a pity the tent does not come with a remote control for pitching and taking it down but getting better at it. My bags hardly fit in the locker and as luck would have it I have a locker on the floor which making packing it each morning quite a struggle, basically stuff everything in and then apply max force on the door which has held up to now but suspect it will pop soon

I get up every morning at 5.30am for a bush visit, then getting dressed pack up tent, que for locker packing, then breakfast, wash eating utensils, fill drinking bottles etc, so quite a lot of queing. We are in africa after all

The food varies from average to quite bland. I have even opted for the vegetarian dishes as the meat is sometimes so though that I am sure I burn more kilojoules chewing it than the nutritional value it contains. 1st few days one eats everything you see as your body is not use to burning 5000 kilojoules. Definitely lost bit of weight.

Participants
There is a total of 57 riders varying in age from 18 to 71. The average age is 10 years younger than last year. That means the youngsters trip got paid by their parents but they are short of spending money, so I have started outsourcing my dish washing duties and bike cleaning for the start, hopefully as the trip progress I will be able to outsource more tasks. Quite a bunch of nice people despite the age gaps.

Contact
I am not using my SA number but is buying a local sim card in each country. I will send the number to Monique, Esther and my sisters (Aletta Karsten & Helena Willers). So if you need to get hold of me you should be able to tract me down through them.

The most visited blog for the trip is Gerald, the frenchman which spend most of his time in SA. I spend most of my time cycling with him so it gives you good idea of what happens on daily basis. You can see me bathing under a tap and more on www.africanride.blogspot.com

I also aim to send daily updates to Monique so please visit the site regulary.

Monique informs me that we have raised R72 000 sofar, so still some way to go the target. To everyone that donated thank you and please continue to raise awareness and possible donations for the good cause of the charity, www.xtremeforkids.blogspot.com.

I feel quite blessed being able to undertake this trip and am now going for a bit of sight seeing in Khartoum.

JOS