2012 English Channel Swim
7 - 14 September 2012
After having cycled through Africa, completed 5 Ironman Triathlons, run the Comrades Ultra Marathon, Climbed Kili ... I have decided to take on a slightly tougher option ...
... 34km of cold, open water swimming ... leaving the coast of the eternal "wanna-be" soccer nation, over to the "frogs" on the other side ...
I’m happy! It is definitely tough – but not as bad (so far) as some people made it out to be. The mixture of seeing Africa, cycling, relaxing and meeting so many people is very therapeutic … and most of you probably know I need therapy ;-)
I miss decent toilets … where one can sit down for a few minutes and consider the meaning of life. The squat toilets in these Arab countries and a shovel in the desert don’t really offer possibilities to relax and contemplate.
I miss Vida e, good wine, Gandalph, Mykl (my cycling buddy) and swimming!!!
A shower would be nice a little more often
For those looking for my tent in the photographs … mine is a little North Face, Rusty Red in colour … but not the one alongside the truck in the aerial shot previously displayed.
Everyone is getting on very well in the group (for now) … I’m sure some people will be grating each other the wrong way here and there as the tour progresses, but those from previous years organizing and working on this tour seem to agree we have a real good group this year.
Feel free to check out the other blogs and websites … link to them via the Tour website on www.tourdafrique.com. There are also three very good fundraising programs being run by fellow riders – Marcus and Adri have two interesting programs going. Howard has a neat newsletter via subscription to raise monies for two good causes … contact Michelle on africa.cycle.trip@mweb.co.za for more information on his little project.
The distances we are covering are really dependent on the terrain we are going over. Basically the leaders tend to cruise along and complete the day’s riding in about four to five hours, us cruising racers will do so in under six hours and the last bunch crawls in around three or four o’clock latest. Distances of over 150km really don’t phase us in the least. The first week in the desert we had distances of around 80kms, last week around 130km and next week around the 160km mark on several days.
Toughest at the moment is getting comfortable – or the first bum placement – on my saddle in the mornings.
Getting out of my sleeping bag in the mornings is also tough … except when we have the Gummy Bears playing in the background (thanks Inge).
Flat tyres are possible in the desert … either from the numerous rocks everywhere in the Nubian Desert or from tyres/tubes pinching when running on low pressure thru the sand
- I absolutely love camels! I don’t think they are the smartest – but they are real cute. We were flying along last week and came cruising at low altitude over a bridge. As we crested, I noticed Tom’s helmet ahead and was still wondering why he should be stopping on the bridge when I came face-to-face with a good hundred camels approaching the bridge …!! We pulled over and really enjoyed the “herd” pass by.
- The stars, moon, full moon, sunsets, sun rises are all absolutely marvelous out here in the desert.
- Time alone on the road – away from all my friends and partners on the tour – in piece and quite, heat and sand … peaceful and quite splendid.
- The Yoghurt Truck … we had just settled down to dinner in one of our desert camps shortly after Wadi Half and in the middle of absolutely nowhere. A dairy company truck came by from seemingly nowhere and stopped to give us three free yoghurts (gee, thanks … how are we going to split this amongst forty people) … we obviously jumped at the chance and bought cold, fresh yoghurts and sweet milk … YEEHA!! By Khartoum we had passed the same truck another four times and were buying milk whenever we could flag him down.
- The change from the Nubian Desert (east of the Nile – more grey, rocky and harsher) to the Sahara (West of the Nile – Light brown/beige sand, less rocky, intermittent trees/shrubs and more camels).
- My self inflicted Rest Day … I took on a twelve hour penalty and decided to leave early (before the official 08h00 Race Start). I was feeling tired and sore and just wanted to chill-out and enjoy the day. I left at about seven-forty and cruised along alone while the sun was rising slowly. I passed some other strollers and was soon passed – at immense high speeds – by the lead bunch. I joined Sarah and Alice and we were soon joined by Andrew and Marcus. After a fun lunch stop with food, music and dancing (led by the dancing girls Elaine and Rachel) – our little group had grown, and included Baby Sean, Dave, Darrel and George. Along the way we lost and gained some people and eventually I crawled over the finish line as the last person … but thoroughly happy after our experience at the well.
- Our experience at the Well! Our little stroller group was feeding thru the desert and we spotted some animals and people at a well a hundred meters to the right, off the road … so we went to investigate. There were several locals filling buckets and various vessels with water. The well was a good thirty meters deep and they were using their donkeys to pull up the buckets … they would attach the rope to the donkeys and they would then walk the donkeys away from the well. Some camels were floating around – but as usual they were very shy. The locals were initially very quiet and introverted. The mood changed quickly when George took the rope from one of the donkeys and pulled up a bucket – also by walking away and pulling the rope over his shoulder. In the end the locals were having so much fun selecting us at random to pull up buckets. They provided the camels with water which got them real close, Sarah got to ride a camel and we all got together for photographs. All in all we were laughing and having a lot of fun … and there was one little donkey which always got into a neighing fit each time we were laughing about something …
- One can walk down the road in Khartoum without constantly being accosted and irritated by money hungry twots.
Sudan is awesome … a beautiful country and beautiful people – everything and everybody wants to give, give and give more!
The initial arrival is quite stark …lots of sand and no great roads. Although there is sand everywhere – it is also very rocky and rocky hillocks abounding all round. Everyone is always greeting, smiling and trying to interact and talk to us … even with the language barrier we are able to converse to various degrees. We always get offered tea all over and some of us have been offered lunch, dinner, a bed to stay and even a daughter here and there … Nels has actually had two different offers of a daughter to marry.
Although they are busy building the road all the way from Wadi Halfa to Khartoum – the Northern sections up to Dongola are still in very early stages of construction and no use to us. South of Dongola the roads are nearly completely finished or already compacted and ready for the final process of tarring – meaning a high speed freeway for the Lycra Train.
Sudan offers endless feelings of freedom – although there are several villages along the way and the Nile (and it’s lush verge) pop up here and there along the way – we mainly ride thru open desert and nothingness! The first few days were stifling hot. Sand and dust gets in everywhere! And our cycles took a beating and a half.
The later stages – after Dongola have been cooler during the days and at night … but still comfortable to lie with the tent open or without the flysheet. The full moon has also been spectacular!!
Our Routine
Since Wadi Halfa we have been escorted by the African Routes backup … thanks guys and welcome! We all received a RED Box which has all our daily goodies including tent, clothes and bike spares. This goes into the larger truck … or rather Dorris. Betsy – the smaller truck – is the daily lunch truck.
In the mornings we get up between Six and Six-thirty … official wake up with the hooter and music is at 06h30. Breakfast is between 06h45 and 07h15. Departure for the Racers is at 08h00 and for casual cruisers at any time after sunrise. I generally crawl out of my sleeping bag at about six fifteen … cursing and complaining about my sore legs. Roll up my sleeping bag, pillows, etc and crawl out to breakfast and coffee … lekker porridge and bread/peanut butter/jam. At seven I’m getting dressed, packing up other goodies, normally roll up my tent by seven-thirty and stash my red box by ten to eight.
Many thanks to Alice for some of her RED Box space during the first week … I must take after my mom cause I just had to take too much stuff and couldn’t fit it all in my own red box!
We left Aswan in convoy nearly two weeks ago. Aswan was very clean and tidy. Beautiful, green and colourful along the Nile … catering very strongly for the tourist market – especially all our friends from Deutschland … Ja?
The police and military presence – as always – was very visible. Partially due to the presence of the Aswan Dam Walls … I think hydro-electric power source … and Aswan is a Customs Port to Sudan in the south. We met two Mexican cyclists that had waited to cross the first/old dam wall for nearly three hours and were denied the opportunity as it was illegal to cross by bike. We had special permission and they were able to tag along with us. We met another cyclist from Japan … the Mexicans are trekking thru Africa towards Cape Town and the Japanese guy has traveled from China thru Asia into Europe and now down to Nairobi. We have subsequently bumped into them on several occasions – they actually stayed with us in Khartoum last night again.
The Japanese guy keeps telling the Mexicans to hurry up and go faster … he wants to get to Nairobi soonest as he misses his wife and wants to fly back home. His trip has taken a good year and a half … and when he gets home his wife is apparently going on some adventure of her own … I just hope she isn’t planning something crazy like cycling thru the Americas or so …
The Circus of Aswan – The Ferry
Well what can one say … a true African adventure!!! Thank god we were able to get ushered thru quickly … customs and onto the boat. The boat only leaves at five or so (our luck ... only at seven) and people start boarding and packing from the wee hours of the day. Truck loads of goods and people come bustling in and get carried onto the ferry by a constant stream of worker ants ... Organised Chaos ... pushing, climbing, bumping, moaning, balancing and more pushing. Two barges were loaded up and up and up alongside (which ultimately traveled several hours slower than us) and the ferry was filled to the brim with people and goods from the lowest decks up to the top/roof … people slept and squashed onto the roof where every space possible was found and used to stack goods. We were lucky to have so called First Class cabins … two per cabin – thanks for the company Gerhard.
We split up security duties – two persons per hour keeping an eye on the passages and doors of our section. We had the best toilets on the boat … well what was left as toilets, usable and space wise, when everybody came thru to use the First Class toilets.
The trip was really good! The ferry was not too noisy and very calm on the water. We all slept very well and crawled out to a beautiful morning. Quite weird sitting on a huge lake … Lake Nasser … and looking towards the shore where everything is Sand!
Along the way we came close to Abu Simbel – a temple buried in the sand till it was discovered in 1813. The condition of the temple is brilliant as it had been covered for so many hundreds of years. In 1960 – as the levels of Lake Nasser were rising, due to the dam wall in Aswan – the temple came under threat. UNESCO put together a remarkable project costing US$40 million to cut up the temple and move it a fair distance up the coast to its current position.
Corruption, Theatrics and Inefficiencies into Sudan
I don’t think - even if I tried real hard - that I could find a more ridiculous process of getting everybody processed thru border control and customs!
We initially handed in our passports to the Sudanese on the ship. We had to complete two forms with the passport. In the morning – once we had docked – they called in every person on the ship (one by one ... several hundred passengers) to collect their passport … and re-state their profession. We then unloaded the ferry … which went much quicker than loading, but no less pushing, pulling and mayhem than earlier. Our stuff was piled onto a truck and driven up to the Customs Building.
Here … once more they wanted a form completed – including our profession and were quizzed once more about our professions for another form shortly afterwards. I wonder if they would have noticed if I gave a different profession every single time?? Or how they would have reacted had I stated I was a CNN Reporter or Personal Aid to Georgie back in the US?
Our dear customs inspector was also something else – he made us take all our bags off the truck … simply to put a sticker on each one, which was checked by no one else further along. He checked the odd bag here and there … helped himself to sunscreen, was looking for batteries and refused us permission to enter Sudan until he had a quick consultation with our Dr (which turned out to be wart on his finger) and received some free tablets for constipation and diarrhoea.
