Hi there from Windhoek the capital city of Namibia!
It's been a big week for two reasons.
One being the 840kms of cycling in five days - close tot he type of mileage that pro riders do - flat long sections 160km, 160km, 208km in Botswanna, 150km to the Botswanna/Namibia border and 160km into Windhoek. The last two days had cross winds and full on head winds that made us question why the hell we were on bikes!!!! The last half of Fridays ride was tough going and so it was with a big exhausting sigh that we headed into two rest days. Saturday and Sunday have been spent relaxing and swanning by the pool for Chris and I who opted to stay at a hotel instead of camping up the road with the rest of the group. Some of us hit the mall for ice cream and a spot of retail therapy in our first European African city since Cairo. It was odd to see western shops including a Vigin Gym and Pool. It showed that we had got quite used to the typical African stall on the side of the road and at it's best a Shopright or Spa Supermarket. Windhoek is very German and so hence all the shops. We did however capitalise on the German influence and spent quite a lot of time adding calories to our diet in the form of German pastries and cakes. Oh la la they were good!!! We also found a great bike shp called Cycology and and repairs were made to bikes that have been making too many creaking noises and Patrick the owner is going to ride part of the course in the morning. HIs wife also gave us massages and so the body is in a better state than when it arrived on Friday.
The second reason why it's been a big week is because Chris turned the big 'four 0' last Thursday and he celebrated that by riding 150km to a bush camp. Champagne wasn't available in the middle of nowhere Namibia and so he had to settle for a belated celebration. The other crazy thing is that he and Adrie the race leader share the same birthday and so the TDA staff organised balloons and a treasure hunt/race for both of them as the actual TDA cycle race always ends up with the two of them sprinting for the line. In this case Chris got all the clues first and so was the first to the chocolate and yoghurt that they had hidden in the Toyota. When you are in the last stages of a cycle tour through Africa, celebrating a birthday with choclolate and yoghurt beats champagne anytime...(according to them..me..? I would have gone for the champagne!!) He did however eventually get cake! Dean the TDA bike mechanic was very generous and beat me to it. He went ahead to Windhoek and had a couple of days off and in his travels came across a superb bakery and had a piece of cake that he knew Chris would love. So when we arrived on Friday night he presented Chris with an entire chocolate cake that was so decadent that there is still half of it in the fridge!! I had a slither and it sent me into a sugar coma, as for Chris I'm sure he'll polish it off for dessert tonight.
So..we head to Fish River Canyon in the morning which is on the border of Namibia and South Africa and we will arrive there in five days time. 12 more days of riding and then we hit Cape Town. Can you believe it? We are in the home stretch. We ride 155km tomorrow and the first 30km is hilly and then it is flat for three days before we hit two off road days and a time trial. WOW!
I spoke to my dad tonight as he is in Joberg and quite jetlagged having travelled from Auckland New Zealand, via Melbourne and Dubai to be in Joberg today. He heads off to do a Soweto tour then a safari tour of Kruger Park and then Vic Falls before meeting me in Cape Town on the 12th. It will be a blast to see a familiar face at the finish line. We've all been told that it will end in tears and that the finish is quite emotional as we have all been living and riding together for 4 and a 1/2 months and so are now very close and our own kinda family. It will be strange not to see their faces at 5.30am over a cup of tea and the bicycle pump..hmmmmmm.
Anyway, Chris has just arrived back from sorting out his rear wheel and the crisis is now over..we can relax and have dinner. To my nephew Nicholas..hope your 21st birthday was a lot of fun..I'll see you later in the year..and wonderful Dan in La Jolla California ..you have a great birthday May 7th..tell Michelle to give you hugs on my behalf!!!
Love ya guys
Over and out from Windhoek, Namibia
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Where has the time gone!!
Hello to one and all!
It is April 22nd and we are in a town called Maun, Botswana and we have less than three weeks to go before we hit Cape Town. None of us can quite beleive that 'd' day is fast approaching. Have we really cycled 9,000kms to date? Is this trip of a life time almost over? Do we all have to go back to our respective homes and start working and get real jobs? Can our bodies adjust to sleeping in and not wake up at 4.30am-5.00am? Will we be able to cope with a new breakfast routine that does not involve taking down tents, packing a red box and pumping up tires ready for the 160km ride of the day? Will we be able to sit at starbucks in the morning when our bodies are looking for the lunch truck at 9.30am and a coke stop at 1.00pm? Life will be different after May 12 but I tell you what..we have had the time of our lives and would not have missed any of it -including the broken wrist - for the world!!!!!! OK we could have ditched the wrist injury but we are all in high spirits..somewhat jaded as we have hit high temperatures again..it was 41 degrees celcius yesterday but a rest day does wonders for our souls!!
This morning Dave and Alice from South Africa, Jan from Holland and Chris and I took a flight over the Okavango Delta. It was truely amazing to see the delta and all the wild life from the air in a five seater plane. It was an hour flight and we saw elephants, giraffe's, wilderbeest, hipos, bird life just doing their normal day to day thing oblivious to us up in the sky.The delta is in the middle of two fault lines. One fault line is in the south at Maun..the town we are having our rest day in and the other is miles north near the Angola border. The difference between the two fault lines is only 150 meters spread over miles and miles of ancient sands, hundreds of meters deep which buffers the movement of the underlying fault lines. The rainy season in the highlands of Southern Angola - the rain clouds over the Bie Plateau provide the rain and flood waters which journey thousands of miles through the Makgadikgadi Basin and disperses in an annual inpouring upon arrival at the Delta. The water seeps into the massive, shallow floodplain changing the delta and bringing water to the animals. At the moment you can see the flood water moving toward Maun and apparently in August everything will be covered in the immediate area close to Maun and so it will look like a large mass of water with little islands. We flew this morning for about ten minutes before we saw the flooded channels with lily pads and long grass swaying in the breeze and water holes. Prior to this is wide open space and the elephants and giraffes are cruising looking for shade and food.Check it out on the internet, there is nothing like it in the world.I took some video footage but have no idea how it will work out. It was a blast.
OK and so back to the race....Chris won the individual 40km time trial by 16sec over Adrie when we left Livingstone, Vic Falls - Zambia and his team also won the 40km team time trial yesterday, breaking the one hour mark with a great time of 59.47sec. It was supposed to be for fun and their team was the UK team called 'Tea and Scones' made up of Andy from Scotland, Ian from Guernsey, Phil from London and Chris.Their team strategy allowed them to whip the staff team who came in second by almost 2 minutes.Happy days for the UK boys.
My team was more style than cycling. We were called the Absolutely, Positively, Fabulous Team and so we had a great outfit...bras, bikini tops, cycling shorts, mini skirt, neck scarves and team tattoos of who we loved, "I was Prada, Alice was Gucci, Tiffany was Puppies and Sara was '60km from Kimberly..location joke..long story..will have to tell over a glass of champange when I get back story!" We were going for the look of how you could dress for cycling and even practiced our last place 'entrance' as we crossed the finish line with hands on handle bars and one leg extended out the back in a beautiful scale balance--ballerina style. This worked and got a collective laugh from the other riders as it was obvious that we were having a lot of fun. We as a team felt smug in our achievement .....however....much to our amazement our entrance to the finish was totally usurped 5 minutes later by one of the other riders who was dropped by his team and who shall remain nameless. He defintely one upped us by cycling at least a hundred meters and crossing the line minus cycling shorts and wearing them on his head as an aerodynamic accessory!! It was the most hillarious sight and all of us have not laughed so hard in a long time. He took the cake and prize for best effort!!! Of course we all took photos but they will not be published on the TDA site!!! A great time had by all.
So, some of you are probably wondering where I figured in the individual time trial. I didn't do it as I got a food bug and was flat on my back in Livingstone and was forced to stay an extra two days to let 'it pass out of my system'. Bad chicken will do that to you!! I joined the group at the second bush camp in Botswanna. That was an amazing drive as we crossed the Zambia border and instantly were stopped by a group of elephants crossing the road. This happened three times and it was a joy to see them just cruising in front of us. The other day we had a 176km ride and 10km before our camp there were at least 30 elephants just wandering along the sides of the road on both the left and right side. How can you race when that is going on? The front racers didn't see them as they had their heads down and bums up. As for me..I stopped..who cares about race results when you can see elephants just doing there thing. This section is called the Elephant highway and you can see why. We have seen them everyday for the past five days!!
I'm going backwards here but Vic Falls in Zambia is everything and more than what you hear. The noise was insane and so loud. The Zambesi River is in flood and at what they call the high, high level and so the amount of water falling over the edge is umbelievable. We couldn't white water raft as the water volume was so high and there would have been no time to recover between rapids should anyone fall out. We also looked at bungy jumping from Vic Falls bridge but the spray of water was too much and they could not adjust the tension of the elastic cord..a safety issue which one should not ignore!!!! We crossed over to Zimbabwe while we were at the falls and you can see the difference between the two countries. Zambia has benefited from what Mugabe is doing to Zim..all the tourist dollars are pouring into Zambia and no money is going into Zimbabwe..their inflation is currently 2,000% or something ridiculous and it's really sad to see what has happened to a previously properous country.
So we are in Botswanna and now head towards the Kalahari Desert and Namibia and so temperatures are going to get hot again. We have two rest days in Windhoek and celebrate Chris's 40th birthday there. His actual birthday is April 26th but the next morning may be another team trial so there will be no celebration on his part. Crazy thing is ..Chris and Adrie share the same birthdate!!Both are competitive and so birthday celebrations will be delayed.
OK..I'm sweating here and need to find a pool. Sorry for being so long in updating this blog but promise to do another in Windhoek.
Love ya
It is April 22nd and we are in a town called Maun, Botswana and we have less than three weeks to go before we hit Cape Town. None of us can quite beleive that 'd' day is fast approaching. Have we really cycled 9,000kms to date? Is this trip of a life time almost over? Do we all have to go back to our respective homes and start working and get real jobs? Can our bodies adjust to sleeping in and not wake up at 4.30am-5.00am? Will we be able to cope with a new breakfast routine that does not involve taking down tents, packing a red box and pumping up tires ready for the 160km ride of the day? Will we be able to sit at starbucks in the morning when our bodies are looking for the lunch truck at 9.30am and a coke stop at 1.00pm? Life will be different after May 12 but I tell you what..we have had the time of our lives and would not have missed any of it -including the broken wrist - for the world!!!!!! OK we could have ditched the wrist injury but we are all in high spirits..somewhat jaded as we have hit high temperatures again..it was 41 degrees celcius yesterday but a rest day does wonders for our souls!!
This morning Dave and Alice from South Africa, Jan from Holland and Chris and I took a flight over the Okavango Delta. It was truely amazing to see the delta and all the wild life from the air in a five seater plane. It was an hour flight and we saw elephants, giraffe's, wilderbeest, hipos, bird life just doing their normal day to day thing oblivious to us up in the sky.The delta is in the middle of two fault lines. One fault line is in the south at Maun..the town we are having our rest day in and the other is miles north near the Angola border. The difference between the two fault lines is only 150 meters spread over miles and miles of ancient sands, hundreds of meters deep which buffers the movement of the underlying fault lines. The rainy season in the highlands of Southern Angola - the rain clouds over the Bie Plateau provide the rain and flood waters which journey thousands of miles through the Makgadikgadi Basin and disperses in an annual inpouring upon arrival at the Delta. The water seeps into the massive, shallow floodplain changing the delta and bringing water to the animals. At the moment you can see the flood water moving toward Maun and apparently in August everything will be covered in the immediate area close to Maun and so it will look like a large mass of water with little islands. We flew this morning for about ten minutes before we saw the flooded channels with lily pads and long grass swaying in the breeze and water holes. Prior to this is wide open space and the elephants and giraffes are cruising looking for shade and food.Check it out on the internet, there is nothing like it in the world.I took some video footage but have no idea how it will work out. It was a blast.
OK and so back to the race....Chris won the individual 40km time trial by 16sec over Adrie when we left Livingstone, Vic Falls - Zambia and his team also won the 40km team time trial yesterday, breaking the one hour mark with a great time of 59.47sec. It was supposed to be for fun and their team was the UK team called 'Tea and Scones' made up of Andy from Scotland, Ian from Guernsey, Phil from London and Chris.Their team strategy allowed them to whip the staff team who came in second by almost 2 minutes.Happy days for the UK boys.
My team was more style than cycling. We were called the Absolutely, Positively, Fabulous Team and so we had a great outfit...bras, bikini tops, cycling shorts, mini skirt, neck scarves and team tattoos of who we loved, "I was Prada, Alice was Gucci, Tiffany was Puppies and Sara was '60km from Kimberly..location joke..long story..will have to tell over a glass of champange when I get back story!" We were going for the look of how you could dress for cycling and even practiced our last place 'entrance' as we crossed the finish line with hands on handle bars and one leg extended out the back in a beautiful scale balance--ballerina style. This worked and got a collective laugh from the other riders as it was obvious that we were having a lot of fun. We as a team felt smug in our achievement .....however....much to our amazement our entrance to the finish was totally usurped 5 minutes later by one of the other riders who was dropped by his team and who shall remain nameless. He defintely one upped us by cycling at least a hundred meters and crossing the line minus cycling shorts and wearing them on his head as an aerodynamic accessory!! It was the most hillarious sight and all of us have not laughed so hard in a long time. He took the cake and prize for best effort!!! Of course we all took photos but they will not be published on the TDA site!!! A great time had by all.
So, some of you are probably wondering where I figured in the individual time trial. I didn't do it as I got a food bug and was flat on my back in Livingstone and was forced to stay an extra two days to let 'it pass out of my system'. Bad chicken will do that to you!! I joined the group at the second bush camp in Botswanna. That was an amazing drive as we crossed the Zambia border and instantly were stopped by a group of elephants crossing the road. This happened three times and it was a joy to see them just cruising in front of us. The other day we had a 176km ride and 10km before our camp there were at least 30 elephants just wandering along the sides of the road on both the left and right side. How can you race when that is going on? The front racers didn't see them as they had their heads down and bums up. As for me..I stopped..who cares about race results when you can see elephants just doing there thing. This section is called the Elephant highway and you can see why. We have seen them everyday for the past five days!!
I'm going backwards here but Vic Falls in Zambia is everything and more than what you hear. The noise was insane and so loud. The Zambesi River is in flood and at what they call the high, high level and so the amount of water falling over the edge is umbelievable. We couldn't white water raft as the water volume was so high and there would have been no time to recover between rapids should anyone fall out. We also looked at bungy jumping from Vic Falls bridge but the spray of water was too much and they could not adjust the tension of the elastic cord..a safety issue which one should not ignore!!!! We crossed over to Zimbabwe while we were at the falls and you can see the difference between the two countries. Zambia has benefited from what Mugabe is doing to Zim..all the tourist dollars are pouring into Zambia and no money is going into Zimbabwe..their inflation is currently 2,000% or something ridiculous and it's really sad to see what has happened to a previously properous country.
So we are in Botswanna and now head towards the Kalahari Desert and Namibia and so temperatures are going to get hot again. We have two rest days in Windhoek and celebrate Chris's 40th birthday there. His actual birthday is April 26th but the next morning may be another team trial so there will be no celebration on his part. Crazy thing is ..Chris and Adrie share the same birthdate!!Both are competitive and so birthday celebrations will be delayed.
OK..I'm sweating here and need to find a pool. Sorry for being so long in updating this blog but promise to do another in Windhoek.
Love ya
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Chris wins Malawi Gin!!
Hi there to one and all,
You're probably wondering why the post is called 'Chris wins Malawi Gin'. I know you thought he was riding a bike in Africa and now you learn that he's winning bottles of alcohol? Is he gambling as well? Is he spending his spare moments learning how to play competition poker? (Well, actually he is as we have a new addition to the TDA family of riders called Tiffany who hails from the states and is a card shark and sharing her skills with all the boys. She's still winning but I tell ya, these boys don't give up no matter how much she fleeeces them!)
Anyway, Malawi Gin was the name of the section of stages from Iringa, Tanzania to Lilongwe, Malawi, all 1124kms. Chris won the section by 15 minutes after a superb effort over the hilly stage out of Chitimba Beach. We had a rest day in Chitimba Beach which is on the shores of Lake Malawi. Beautiful, white sandy beach, lake front camping, palm trees, little bungalows, a bit like Fiji...nothing to do. We didn't have internet connections and no shops so all we could do was sleep, eat and swim. It was an amazing rest day and everybody felt great for it. The stage started with a 15km easy ride along the shores of Lake Malawi and then at 14km there was a sharp right hand bend that went straight up this hill. We were told the night before that we would climb 1000 meters and then drop 2500 meters to a town called Mzuzu. The first climb was 25 km up! The Billy goat part of Chris's personality came out of it's wrappings and crucified the rest of the racers. He took a 15 minute chunk of time out of Adrie in the hill climb and as one of the other racer boys said..'Chris was on fire'. They did not catch him and so consequently he rode 120 kms by himself.
At the end of the stage he gratefully inhaled a home made fruit cake that Alice from Joberg's mother had made for him and sent via Patrick's brother Andre from Cape Town. Is that confusing? Basically we met Alice's parents Sue and Dave when they joined us in Nairobi and we got to know them as they also came on safari with us when we did Serengeti...AMAZING..saw the big five and Ngorongoro Crater Safari - also amazing..saw cheetahs again. While on safari Chris got talking with Sue and next thing you know he has negotiated a fruit cake..she is a babe of a woman and I love it as it means that I don't have to bake it!! She rocks. Patricks brother came to visit at Chitimba Beach and he had all sorts of goodies from fruit cakes to spare wheels to a conglomeration of bike bits!! He rode one stage with us and it was the hilly one. He did well to do that on his first day..it was tough!
Anyway, Chris is a happy boy to win a section and is looking forward to more hills in the Zambesi Zone section. We start off flat and long, 159km, 195km, and then on day three hills start again as we go trough one of the two gorges before we get to Lusaka.
As for me..I'll be happy with the flat roads as my wrist is still not quite right. I took the cast off after the three rest days in Arusha and then rehabbed it while the off road sections of Tanzania were taking place. There was lots of rain and mud and we decided that it would be crazy for me to ride those roads with a freshly healed wrist. I stayed in the truck and enjoyed the experieinces of seeing Doris truck getting stuck, digging it out, moving 200m in 5 hours and hanging out with the locals. Once we got to Iringa and we were back on tarseal/tarmac I raced the first stage and won it. It felt so good to be back on the bike I tell you it was heaven. I was so excited to be back on the bike after 5 weeks that there was no holding me back. The next day my wrist hurt like hell and I realised that I had better ease into the racing and so took it easy for the rest of the stages hence you not seeing my name in the stage wins after day one.I still have trouble holding on to the hoods and climbing as the wrist is stiff and feels like concrete. So the hilly sections are a problem but the flat sections are great as I have put my aerobars on...thanks to Richard in Encinitas who has been our saving grace and sending us things from out of our garage. Without his help I would not be riding as the aerobars make all the difference. Anyway, we ride for the Zambia border in the morning and hopefully I'll be able to race the section...fingers and toes crossed people.
We are off to clean bikes and get a load of food for the next section and so hopefully you are all well.
Love ya
You're probably wondering why the post is called 'Chris wins Malawi Gin'. I know you thought he was riding a bike in Africa and now you learn that he's winning bottles of alcohol? Is he gambling as well? Is he spending his spare moments learning how to play competition poker? (Well, actually he is as we have a new addition to the TDA family of riders called Tiffany who hails from the states and is a card shark and sharing her skills with all the boys. She's still winning but I tell ya, these boys don't give up no matter how much she fleeeces them!)
Anyway, Malawi Gin was the name of the section of stages from Iringa, Tanzania to Lilongwe, Malawi, all 1124kms. Chris won the section by 15 minutes after a superb effort over the hilly stage out of Chitimba Beach. We had a rest day in Chitimba Beach which is on the shores of Lake Malawi. Beautiful, white sandy beach, lake front camping, palm trees, little bungalows, a bit like Fiji...nothing to do. We didn't have internet connections and no shops so all we could do was sleep, eat and swim. It was an amazing rest day and everybody felt great for it. The stage started with a 15km easy ride along the shores of Lake Malawi and then at 14km there was a sharp right hand bend that went straight up this hill. We were told the night before that we would climb 1000 meters and then drop 2500 meters to a town called Mzuzu. The first climb was 25 km up! The Billy goat part of Chris's personality came out of it's wrappings and crucified the rest of the racers. He took a 15 minute chunk of time out of Adrie in the hill climb and as one of the other racer boys said..'Chris was on fire'. They did not catch him and so consequently he rode 120 kms by himself.
At the end of the stage he gratefully inhaled a home made fruit cake that Alice from Joberg's mother had made for him and sent via Patrick's brother Andre from Cape Town. Is that confusing? Basically we met Alice's parents Sue and Dave when they joined us in Nairobi and we got to know them as they also came on safari with us when we did Serengeti...AMAZING..saw the big five and Ngorongoro Crater Safari - also amazing..saw cheetahs again. While on safari Chris got talking with Sue and next thing you know he has negotiated a fruit cake..she is a babe of a woman and I love it as it means that I don't have to bake it!! She rocks. Patricks brother came to visit at Chitimba Beach and he had all sorts of goodies from fruit cakes to spare wheels to a conglomeration of bike bits!! He rode one stage with us and it was the hilly one. He did well to do that on his first day..it was tough!
Anyway, Chris is a happy boy to win a section and is looking forward to more hills in the Zambesi Zone section. We start off flat and long, 159km, 195km, and then on day three hills start again as we go trough one of the two gorges before we get to Lusaka.
As for me..I'll be happy with the flat roads as my wrist is still not quite right. I took the cast off after the three rest days in Arusha and then rehabbed it while the off road sections of Tanzania were taking place. There was lots of rain and mud and we decided that it would be crazy for me to ride those roads with a freshly healed wrist. I stayed in the truck and enjoyed the experieinces of seeing Doris truck getting stuck, digging it out, moving 200m in 5 hours and hanging out with the locals. Once we got to Iringa and we were back on tarseal/tarmac I raced the first stage and won it. It felt so good to be back on the bike I tell you it was heaven. I was so excited to be back on the bike after 5 weeks that there was no holding me back. The next day my wrist hurt like hell and I realised that I had better ease into the racing and so took it easy for the rest of the stages hence you not seeing my name in the stage wins after day one.I still have trouble holding on to the hoods and climbing as the wrist is stiff and feels like concrete. So the hilly sections are a problem but the flat sections are great as I have put my aerobars on...thanks to Richard in Encinitas who has been our saving grace and sending us things from out of our garage. Without his help I would not be riding as the aerobars make all the difference. Anyway, we ride for the Zambia border in the morning and hopefully I'll be able to race the section...fingers and toes crossed people.
We are off to clean bikes and get a load of food for the next section and so hopefully you are all well.
Love ya
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