Bath Time in Khartoum, Sudan

Hello family and friends!!
We are in Khartoum, Sudan having checked into a hotel and have had two baths and four showers to remove the dust, sand and dirt of 10 days riding in the Sudan. All our fellow riders are at the Blue Nile Yatch Club camping by the Nile but Chris and I decided to do the hotel thing. Bed and a bath for sure!!!! We have crossed the Nubian Desert and have just done part of the Sahara Desert. Check out the photos on Tourdafrique.com and see what we have ridden through!!!! Sand, sand and more sand with a bit of rock thrown in for good measure! Our sunblock is great stuff from Australia, it stays on the skin, blocks out the burning rays from the sun BUT it also holds the sand and dirt and so we both look like we have great tans. If you had have seen the bath and the bath water today you would have realised it was not tan..just dirt!!! I tell you......small pleasures so far are :
1. Water
2. Hot water
3. A bath tub
4. Going to the toilet and doing number twos without needing a shovel!
5. Toilet paper
6. Asphalt to ride on and coke stops!! Can you believe it..coke stops for the health fanatics. After riding in 44.7 degrees celcius, a bottle of coke is like a lightening bolt to the system!! Who would have thought we would be drinking that stuff. (Clients..it does not mean you can!!!)

Anyway, the Cairo to Khartoum Section finished today, almost 2,000km down, 10,000km to go! I was the overall female winner of the first section which is called 'Pharoah's Delight' having won all bar two of the stages. If you've been following the race results you would have seen that one of the stages didn't have a female winner. That's because I was the only female racing that day and I had to stop at the lunch truck and get on Doris as I have a sprained wrist. I didn't want to do it but my hand was numb and so I figured that I had better give it up rather than face permanent damage of my hand. By getting on the truck you also incur a 12 hour penalty so I was not happy!!! You can tell that I must have been in pain ..being slightly competitive and all that!!! So how did I sprain my hand you ask? I wish I could say that it was a flying crash in the sand in Sudan but alas no. It was more simple than that. Last Sunday Chris and Tom from the US were getting a traditional shave with a blade etc in a small town called Dongolar while I tried to find an internet cafe. It was our rest day and we had spent all day cleaning our bikes and doing laundry etc and I was tired. It was dark and the dirt road was wet and slippery and I tripped and fell. My rubber crocs sent me flying (not a fashion shoe so what was I thinking wearing them!) anyway when I broke my fall it was with a right wrist!!! So, I tried to ride Monday. The first 50km of the stage was on asphalt and I was ok riding with one hand but the next 10km before the lunch truck was off road and brutal! Every bump, every judderbar just killed and so I had to stop.

Next day I rode and was OK as it was predominantly asphalt and hard packed dirt but the day after that I had to stop 15km before the end as my hand was numb again. Eva ended up winning the stage but I figured it wasn't worth damaging my hand just in order to win another stage. I was behind Eva by 6 minutes in that stage so it wasn't too bad. When I got to camp Chris mobilised my nerves and did some soft tissue work and iced it and that seemed to get feeling back in my hand. Next day I was pissed so rode hard and won the stage as the 130km was all asphalt. It's easier to ride one handed on asphalt than on the off road stuff. Chris also won the stage that day so Team Alexander-Maund did well. This morning we had a time trial and I came in second to Eva, back 1 minute 15 seconds. I didn't have any aerobars and had a slide in the sandy 1.5km off road section and lost momentum. I duct taped my wrist so that I could ride on the drops and I'm paying for it now!!! Our aerobars are in transit somewhere and hopefully will get to Addis so we can use them in the next time trial. Chris made a pair of aerobars out of two steel tent pegs and a towel. It looked odd but it worked. He was only 25 seconds behind Ardrie and came in second. We have a rest day tomorrow and so I'll be resting the wrist. I bought an elastic bandage this evening from a local pharmacy and it's much better when I wear it. It has to heal soon as we are heading towards the hills and mountains of Addis Abeba in Ethiopia. Addis is at 9,000 feet..yeah baby!!!

The Sudanese people are unbelievable. Very polite, generous people and have been nothing but a pleasure as we ride/race through their villages. They are amazed that we have chosen their country to ride through and you should see the kids when they see the bikes and all our bling and toys! It's a blast. They are so poor yet have such grace. A very proud people and we have enjoyed them immensely. Calls to pray wake us up at 5.20 - 6.30am and have become a normal part of our day. It's very cool!!

Update since Safaga:
I always seem to be apologising for not updating you on our travels but there seems to be a bike getting in the way. After Safaga, we did a hill stage to a desert camp, then another stage to Luxor where we had a rest day and we intended finding an internet cafe and getting on the blog BUT there were too many Egyptian Tombs to see (including Tut's) and Temples etc so we did an organised tour to ensure that we saw it all. It started at 8.00 am and didn't finish until 3.00 pm. All well worth it but after the day of sight seeing we had to then replenish the food supplies and get the calorie count up and ended up sitting on the banks of the Nile in a great fish restuarant eating like there was no tomorrow!! The thought of an internet cafe definitely went out the window when we saw the old style boats on the Nile ..a Falook ..spelling may be off and so we took a sunset cruise with an Egyptian Captain who called himself 'Captain Cook' as soon as he found out that I was from New Zealand. The boats are the old style sail boats , quiet, beautiful and a great way to see the sunset. When we finally got back to shore it was time to organise the next days cycling gear and so we didn't make it.

The next stage was Luxor to Idfu a small rural town....or so we thought between Luxor and Aswan where we were heading to catch the ferry to Sudan. We were told that the town was rural and so as females in an Islamic town not to walk the streets by ourselves and to be appropriately dressed as in no bare arms or legs. The stage was a great ride....bar the crash when Patrick from South Africa ate it at a railway crossing which was suspect to say the least. We had a police escort and we were all riding slowly in a group when the road starting turning to the left and the railway line went on an oblique angle which was hell for cycle tires. Patrick went down and I was behind him so I had to throw my bike down in order to not take out Douglas our blind rider from Kenya (who incidently is amazing!!) who was on my right side. Remy was behind me and he went down as well. I ended up with a bruise on my hip but escaped without injury! Very lucky..

Hey it is 10.25pm here in Khartoum and my eyes are rolling around in my head and I need to sleep. Internet is free in this hotel and so I will get back to you in the am. I'll tell you all about Chris and his racing, Aswan, the overnight ferry ride from Egypt to Sudan on Lake Nassar, teh ferry ride across the Nile with cars, bikes adn a donkey and also what we are about to do in the next section.
Love ya all and hope you are all well.
Stay away from coke..it rots your teeth and you should only drink it after a 170km stage ride!!
Later
Team Alexander/Maund in Africa....loving it!!