Gonda rest day, Ethiopia
It has been an eventful week leaving Khartoum to say the least.
We rode 2 consecutive days of 160km along extremely busy, but paved, roads south from Khartoum. The edge of the road has a drop of anywhere between a few inches and a foot down to the verge, when you combine that with heavy traffic of busses and trucks it makes for quite a ride! Several riders came of their bikes over these days resulting in injuries from grazes to mild concussion. We are realising the reality of what we are attempting. Egypt and Northern Sudan with great roads and little traffic was our easing in period.
Day 3 out of Khartoum and we were starting the new detour via the Dinder National Park. The Sudanese Government had organised with one of our tour directors, Sharita, to allow the tour to ride through the park. This would mean we were to ride 3 days on what was described as ‘hard packed gravel’ averaging about 140kms each day!
It is important to note this new route was scouted by Sharita a few weeks before the tour started and nobody had at this stage ridden these roads!!!
Day 3 started well we were headed on dirt roads towards a town called Azzaza. The roads described as hard packed gravel, we were also told may split up and twist and turn as they crossed the desert but would all eventually lead to Azzaza!. So with that in mind Wayne and I set off!
It was not long and we had made one of many turns and we realised we were not seeing many tyre tracks of other riders. The roads were taking up a lot of our concentration also because they were corregated and covered in loose deep gravel. This made for extremely tough and very slow riding.
We had now ridden about 80kms and not passed the lunch stop, we realised we were off course. However with Paul’s statement ‘all roads eventually lead to Azzaza’ ringing in our ears we kept riding. Eventually we came across a truck driving towards us, we asked directions to Azzaza and with confused expressions all 3 occupants of the truck pointed in the direction we had come from.
So all roads do not lead to Azzaza!!!
The truck driver showed us back about 20kms and at a crossroad pointed us in the right direction of Azzaza. Or at least we hoped this was the case in amongst all our translations.
We were now pretty low on water and had not eaten anything since 7am, it was hot and dusty and the road was pretty much loose sand and loose gravel. We saw some camels ahead with 1 or 2 being ridden. When we reached them we showed them our empty water bottles and they smiled and went about filling them up for us. Not with water, but rather with fermented camel milk. They encouraged us to drink and kept refilling our water bottles. We drank as much as we could and then they filled our water bottles again, we hoped we would find some water and not have to drink much more. Oh and we asked directions to Azzaza and they pointed in 2 different directions. The way we were going and the way we had come from. We decided to continue for some reason we still thought we should be heading south-west.
After another hour of riding the road began to fork again, we had to make a decision. In the distance off to the left we could see a radio tower and a line of green trees. The other direction was just more semi-desert. So we headed left, finally after over an hours riding we passed some children hearding goats, I said hello and they screamed and ran as fast as they could away! we are definitely off the beaten track now!
We reached the radio tower and a small village and managed to get some cokes and water. We decided to ring the tour leaders as it was almost 4 pm and we had not seen anyone or checked in for lunch. I tried the 3 sat phone numbers only to get the same message ‘this number does not exist’, after some searching we found Sharitas Sudan mobile and managed to call. However the village we were in was not on the map, most aren’t mapped apparently. So we decided to ride on in the direction the villages stated Azzaza would be found. When I asked is it 1km the answer was yes, when I asked 20kms the answer was also yes, when I asked 100kms, you got it the answer was yes!!!
So we rode on, about 40mins later we reached another village and still not Azzaza, they pointed in the general direction we had been riding and we continued on. About 10mins out of the village we found a police truck that had been sent looking for us, they said we were about 3kms from Azzaza so we followed them. 3kms turned into 20 and we finally found a few riders changing a tyre, we were now assured it was about 5kms to camp and we rode together.
Lesson for today
1 All roads do not lead to Azzaza
and
2 ‘Hard packed gravel’ actually means loads off loose sand and gravel and loads of corregations!
Day 4 into Dinder National Park, we woke a little sore and tired after our 200km plus day. We were to ride about 140kms today through Dinder and to our camp. The Park entrance was 45kms from camp and it took us all morning to reach the gates. The road was corregated deep loose gravel. It took all your concentration and energy to keep upright and moving forward at most 11 or 12kms an hour. We hoped when we entered the park that the trail might improve, it did not!
Oh it might be important to note hear that we were to ride in groups through the national park because of the danger of lion and buffalo.
I had several bad falls in the loose sand before reaching lunch, and my right wrist was pretty sore and swelling rapidly. I reached lunch at 3pm and had a swollen wrist and loads of cuts and abrasions. If I had been thinking correctly I would have realised that with these roads there was no chance I would finish the stage and keep my EFI status. But I strapped my wrist and rode on. About 3kms after lunch I had another bad fall, I no longer had the strength in my right wrist to hold steady through the deep gravel. I had a cry on Waynes shoulder and to get him to continue I turned around and started pushing my bike back to lunch. By this stage the requirement to ride in groups had completely fallen apart and riders were stretched out alone for miles through the park.
I was picked up by 1 of our support vehicles and my bike was loaded on the roof, we stopped constantly to hand out water to dehydrated and frustrated riders, only reaching the park gate at about 630pm. Darkness was approaching and the TDA had riders spread out throughout the park.
The wash-up of the Disasterous Dinder Experiment is that many riders lost EFI, including Wayne and myself, just about everyone had some sort of injury. And that the un-tried roads of Dinder required much more time and much more planning to be done safely.
Day 5 another 140kms on the same messed up roads to the border. When the call came for bikes for the trucks, meaning riders who weren’t riding or were unable to ride and were going to ride the trucks instead, there were more than the trucks could take. 17 riders in the dinner truck including Wayne and myself, 3kms from camp and we picked up the 1st rider who had given up, Dana. A few more kms down the road and most riders were wanting to get on, we were overloaded and they had no choice but to ride on. It took us 8 hours on the trucks to reach camp at Matema on the border, only a handful of riders finished the day most being trucked in at the end.
We crossed the border the next morning and skipped 2 days of riding to come ahead to Gonder for additional rest and to check on my wrist. Actually 11 riders came ahead and as we sat down to dinner another 6 arrived at the rest day hotel. That is about a third of the group abandoning ship.
While we were resting in the most amazing hotel overlooking Gonder, we have managed to sort all our gear, rest tired and aching muscles and have a few well earned drinks. My wrist is getting stronger each day, thankfully for the extra days rest here.
We ride on tomorow towards Abu Dar, we only have 2 riding days and then rest again there.
What a week!!!!!
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