Scott's Cycling Adventures

Today was basically a carbon copy of yesterday, excluding the dramatic sideways rain that gushed from the sky. The rain from the night before had mostly dried up overnight. Only the inside front of my tent fly was still damp, so packing up camp wasn’t a problem. The clouds from the previous evening still lingered in the sky, but they were non threatening and just mercifully blocked out the sun. The wind was dead calm and the temperature nice and cool for a long day of cycling. 181km. A new personal best.

Just after lunch (lunch for us is usually between 9:30-10:30am) the cloud cover started breaking up and organizing itself into more ominous and foreboding clouds. The sun popped in and out as if to say “sorry, I left my keys on the dining room table, I’ll be back for breakfast, tomorrow”. Getting into camp just before 2pm I could tell we were in for a repeat performance of yesterday’s rain timing. I got my tent up and dried out, just in time for it to start raining again. This rain was just a slow drizzle that lasted several hours and into dinner. As I write this (6:30pm after dinner) the rain has stopped. If the pattern stays the same, things should be mostly dry by morning. 

We are now only 151km away from Livingstone, where Victoria Falls and the Zambezi River splits the borders  of four different countries (Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia). We are also a day away from three wonderful rest days in a row. Although I feel like I’ve got my second wind, in terms of my energy levels, my legs will definitely enjoy the time off the bike.

This year’s TDA 2019 has been insanely lucky with the weather. Up until today it’s rained 3 times. Once in the middle of the night at the top of the Blue Nile Gorge in Ethiopia, once at the end of the day in Arusha, and a short drizzle on the climb out of the Chitimba Beach resort. None of it has been overly dramatic and I’ve only actually cycled in the rain once. I’ve been more wet from sweat, than rain. 

Today, I managed to avoid riding in the rain again by getting to camp early, but in my case that wasn’t a great thing. It gave me time to put up my tent before the sky opened up and dumped a torrential downpour on us. Now everything is soaking wet and my tent is covered in mud from the splashes of some very big raindrops. The rain stopped just as dinner was served (5:30pm) but the sky has stayed overcast. No sun means that everything that’s wet, will stay wet, until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest. That’s assuming we have sun. 

Rain has been so rare on this year’s ride, that almost all of the riders are enjoying it. It’s a novelty. It’s different. I don’t think I heard a single complaint from anyone. I know I enjoyed watching it lash the campsite, and the later riders all came in upbeat and only slightly wet. Granted, the deluge that hammered us was a fairly narrow band that didn’t intersect much with the direction the other riders were coming in from. They got lucky and missed the core of the storm. If our luck holds, it won’t rain anymore tonight, and by morning things will only be damp and won’t soak everything else in our day bags when we pack them. 

The weary legs appreciated today’s day off. Even after fixing my bike issues last week, I was still pushing them hard the remaining days. We did a good chunk of mileage during this five day block (725km).

We are staying at a pleasant camp about 15km outside of town, so it’s nice and quiet. It has all the important things, cold Coke, warm showers, clean bathrooms and ample camping space so I don’t have noisy neighbours to wake me up.

I’ve pitched my tent in a little grove of bamboo trees. They provide nice shelter from the daytime sun and house a wonderful assortment of chirping birds and squawking monkeys (although I can hear a fruit bat somewhere off in the distance, beep, beep, beep).

TDA set up a series of shuttles into town for anyone who wanted to head in. I passed on the option, as I’d have just spent all my money on junk food and ice cream. 

We are just three days from Victoria Falls now, another highlight of the journey. I’m really looking forward seeing the falls and bungee jumping off of them! 

A few weeks ago, I mentioned how wonderful the sound can be here in Africa. Well, there are also some drawbacks too. As I lay here in my tent listening to the evening environmental sounds I’m reminded of some of the things that have kept me awake, or woken me up at some unreasonable hour. The main troublemakers are:

• Dogs
• Fruit Bats
• Roosters
• Humans

Dogs, for the most part, are wild here. No one really keeps them as pets. They mainly scavenge for food and run loose. At night they roam free and do a lot of barking at each other.

Fruit Bats. If your unlucky and pitch your tent under a tree with one in it, good luck sleeping. They make loud electronic chirping like sound that can go on for hours. The first time I heard it, I thought a building alarm had been set off. No one has actually seen the source of this sound but every few nights regardless of where we are (city or remote jungle camp) the loud unnatural sound will start eminating from a tree somewhere.

Roosters. I want to kill them all. Other than Sudan desert camps, they are everywhere there are humans. African roosters don’t seem to understand how to tell time. They start cock-a-doodle dooing about TWO hours before sunrise. Just pray there aren’t two within earshot of each other, because then they will do a continuing loop of call and response. I’ve suggested having rooster for breakfast many times so far.

Humans are the worst! With the exception Malawi and Zambia, every other African country we’ve cycled through has had an ongoing battle of what religious group can be the most annoying. Every mosque and church has loud speaker attached to it, and despite most places having no power for important things like refrigeration, they seem to be able to power their very loud and horribly distorted speakers. This way they can wake you up several times a night to remind you whos god is better.

So, if your a light sleeper, or have trouble getting back to sleep I’d strongly suggest bringing earplugs on your next TDA adventure. Just don’t sleep through your alarm or I’ll have to add “TDA cyclists” to the list.

Did I mention I hate constantly riding up and down all day? I think I did. Today was another one of those days, however it wasn’t as bad as the last one. It was 300 meters less vertical, and the road was a bit more varied. 

The rolling hills of Zambia are covered in a wonderful variety of large canopy trees. The infinite variety of shapes and colours are a visual feast for the eyes. They keep my interest as I cycle. I also did something I haven’t done yet, I popped on my headphones and cranked some rocking tunes! The upbeat tempo of the music I was listening to propelled me up the hills and through the last 60km of “undulation”.  It got me into camp a lot faster than I would have if I had been riding “aux natural”. 

Today was another long day on the road. 171km. Slightly shorter than yesterday, but a bit more vertical. The maintenance I did to my bike last night made a HUGE difference and I finished the ride a bit before 1pm. The day before I finished just before 3pm, so the two simple fixes I did to my bike shaved almost two hours off my ride time. A substantial energy saving! On top of that, I quite enjoyed the ride after lunch. While the Zambia scenery isn’t particularly inspiring, the perfect, curvy roads, with lots of fast descents made the kilometres pass quickly. 

We are camped next to the Luangwa River, which is split by the Zimbabwe border. So close, yet so far. We’re told the river is filled with crocodiles, or you could probably find a place to wade, or swim across. Rest assured, I won’t be trying. I’m going to save my Zimbabwe visit for Victoria Falls.