TDA – Page 9 – Scott's Cycling Adventures

February 19, 2019 TDA Scott

TDA Rest Days – Bahir Dar

I’m very well rested! In the last week we have done more resting than cycling! If this had happened during the first week when my Achilles tendons were screaming at me I’d have been happy for the down time, but now that I’m more or less healthy again, I’m itching to ride!

While on the topic of body parts…all of mine are doing well. Left and right Achilles’ tendons are pretty much healed up. I can feel a slight ache in them when climbing stairs but that’s it. Pinky is healing very slowly. I still have a bit of numbness and tingling, but every day it gets a bit better. The weakness in my grip that had accompanied it has gone as well. Yay for sock wrapped handle bars!

Unlike the other hotels we’ve been staying at, this one doesn’t have a “grounds” area. Those of us who’ve chosen not to book a room have had to pitch our tents on the balcony’s or in a big conference room. It’s actually kinda nice. I have a 3rd floor balcony view of Lake Tana (see the palm tree photo from yesterday’s post for my view).

I haven’t done much of anything here in Bahir Dar. Some people went out on Lake Tana to do some hippo spotting but I’ve done the hippo thing on safari before. I did go out to a local Pizzeria Restaurant and bar that didn’t actually have any pizza on their menu. I did have a very good Garlic Cream Soup though (apologies to my fellow riders after consuming). Other than that I’ve mostly been reading, tweaking my bike (added a new bottle cage to replace the crappy one that broke) and catching up on my blogs/note taking.

Tomorrow we…bus? It’s our first actually scheduled bus day. More on that tomorrow.

February 18, 2019 TDA Scott

TDA Stage 27 – Short But Sweet

Easy ride today. A mere 61.7km. The majority of the group was done by 10am. We finished up in the city of Bahir Dar where we will have another two rest days. It was initially only supposed to be one rest day, but because of our impromptu bus day at the border, we got ahead of our planned schedule. So, rather than have three rest days in Gondar, it was split between the two cities.

It’s a bit strange being back in Bahir Dar again. I was here in 2017 working on a job for CUSO. We flew in from Adis Ababa and drove out to a hospital in some small village. I’ll be cycling some of the same roads! When I was here with CUSO they discouraged us from going anywhere alone and never go out at night. With TDA it’s much more relaxed. I don’t know if that’s because the political climate has changed for the better or if CUSO was just being overly cautious. Either way I feel perfectly safe wandering the streets of Bahir Dar. As African cities go, it’s quite nice. Time for another relaxing afternoon. Yawn…

February 17, 2019February 17, 2019 TDA Scott

TDA Stage 26 – Tour D’Afreeking-mazing

Today’s ride was GREAT! 114km of awesome! Smooth winding roads, big climbs, speedy descents and spectacular vistas. Everything you expect from the TDA adventure, packed into one day.

Egypt and Sudan were great counties in their own ways, but Ethiopia really has some stunning scenery. Don’t get me wrong, there were stunning vistas in both Egypt and Sudan (stunning desolation). Here it’s different. Things are alive. There are people everywhere. You can stop in what you think is a isolated quiet spot and in 30 seconds you’ll be surrounded by half a dozen curious children.

We did just over 1000m of vertical ascent and it was tough but the reward of zooming down the back side at 50km/hr+ was exhilarating. If it wasn’t for a lot of blind corners and sharp switchbacks in some places I’m sure I could have hit almost 70km/hr. Speed on a bike is a bit of an adrenaline rush. All you can hear is the wind whipping past your ears and the sound of your wheels on pavement. I can’t wait for some more big climbing days.

February 17, 2019February 17, 2019 TDA Scott

TDA Rest Days – Gondar

Ok, before you get on my case about spelling…Gondar/Gonder is spelled BOTH ways here. Which is right? I have no idea. I’m sticking with Gondar because is sounds more Lord of The Rings.

Anyway, we’re tucked away in a very nice hotel for our two rest days. The hotel is located on the highest hill in the city so the view is pretty amazing. I spent half the first day at Ethio-tel, the countries cell provider, getting my new SIM so I can be connected again. The experience was very amusing (only because I had lots of time to kill). There were no obvious lines, just piles of people huddled around desks with Ethio-tel (ET) employees at them. Some how you had to get your passport onto the desk of one of the ET employees. We managed to find an ET employee who wasn’t busy and asked about how things worked. He nicely took our passports (there were 6 of us) and dropped them on one of the desks…we were in the cue! Then we waited patiently. Finally the ET rep got to our pile and started processing us. For some reason ET doesn’t have nano-SIM sized cards (which every cell phone made in the last 5+ years requires) so after you register all your info and pay for your new SIM, you have to go outside the building and find a local “SIM cutter” to trim the card down so it will fit. Then you come back inside and you can activate the SIM and pay for the data/voice features you want. Even Sudan had nano-SIMs, so not sure why they aren’t available here. Lucky for me I could skip the “cutting” step because I brought my OLD iPhone 4 to use for all the local SIMs.

On a side note, for some reason I haven’t been able to upload photos over the ET cell network. Downloading works fine and tiny uploads work but photos (presumably any large file) time out and die somewhere in transit. Some of my future posts may be photo free until I can get on a wifi source (like the hotel here). I’ll edit my posts when I can to add pics.

After the SIM adventure, it was a little local shopping for some needed supplies and back to my tent in the hotel yard.

I’m really looking forward to our first real day on the bike in Ethiopia!

February 11, 2019February 17, 2019 TDA Scott

TDA Stage 21 – Run to the Hills…

I lied…

The busses are back! At least they are in fewer numbers and don’t go quite as fast (still MUCH faster than they should, on a road as rough, narrow and busy as they are).

I expected today to be more of the same scenery as yesterday and it was for the majority of the day. However, about 20km before camp, a little range of hills popped up. A little geological hiccup in the middle of a vast plane. Our camp was a five minute walk from the base of them so, having got in early (1pm), I decided I needed to climb the highest one next to us. Why? Obviously, having burned only about five thousand calories today, I needed to burn a few hundred more!

The climb to the top only took about 25 minutes. And oh what a view! Well worth the extra calorie expenditure. Gazing down from the “summit” provided a vast view of the surrounding area. The little range of hills curving off to the hazy horizon. Our little bumpy road nestled up at its feet.

I wandered over to the back side of the hill to preview our ride tomorrow. I expected to see more hills growing in numbers and heights, but there were none. Just more flat planes stretching out before me. Geological abnormality indeed!

I turned to head back to camp and something on the ground caught my eye, some graffiti on a large flat rock. Then some more, and a few rocks over, even more. Had I stumbled on some ancient Sudanese inscriptions or just the bored musings of some creative Sudanese teenager? You be the judge…

January 21, 2019June 5, 2019 TDA Scott

TDA Stage 5 – Crash and Burn

Another beautiful sunrise sent us on our way this morning. Today was to be a day of challenges. Longer ride (145Km), a fair amount of climbing (1200m), and sore Achilles’ tendons. On top of that we are heading inland and lost our wonderful tail wind. We climbed on a very easy and minimal grade all the way to our lunch spot (70km in). I took it really easy, babying my tendons. They we feeling sore but not horrible. I ate lunch quickly and started off on the 2nd half of my day (not wanting to seize up from lack of movement). About ten minutes out from lunch, it happened…

A car had just passed me, and I was looking down at my cycling computer. I looked back up and there was a huge dust cloud about 400 meters in front of me. It wasn’t there a second ago. My initial reaction was, “oh it’s just some construction road crew stirring up a lot of dust. As I cycled closer, it quickly became apparent this wasn’t the case! The car that had passed me, mear seconds before, had somehow lost control, swerved onto the shoulder of the road, demolished a road sign, swerved back across the left side of the road flipping on its side and some how ending up pointed the opposite direction. I immediately hoped I wouldn’t find some horribly injured people or someone that had been ejected from the vehicle. I flagged down another passing car and got to the vehicle as quickly as possible. Much to my relief I could see the passenger struggling to get out of the vehicle via the passenger door (that was now pointed straight up). It was a woman in a black burka. She appeared unhurt and relatively calm. I helped hold the vehicle door open as she jumped out. Her husband (assumption) was still in the vehicle and trying to get out. He also appeared uninjured, but was definitely more shaken up. I continued to hold the door open as the man from the vehicle I flagged down came around the car and helped the guy out. I checked the back seats and they were empty! Thank goodness, everyone could walk away from this crash!

By this time other vehicles were pulling over to see what had happened. I was about to contact our tour doctor when one of our security details showed up (we have tourist police traveling with us to make sure we are safe!) and after confirming I was ok went to the aid of the crash victims. With nothing else I could do they told me I could go (no police statement or anything). So off I went and promptly forgot about every ache and pain I had for the next 10km while I replayed the incident in my head.

So after that fun, it was only another 60 km to our police checkpoint “bush” camp. Meaning no water, no power, no toilets. As the ride neared it’s end, my tendons became less sore. Mainly because other parts of my body started complaining louder. My back was sore, my butt was sore, my knees were sore. Even the balls of my feet were sore. It’s was a long and tiring ride, and just wanted to get to camp.

Still, I’m now safe and sound in my tent, well fed and getting some much needed rest. One sobering thought…if I hadn’t taken it easy this morning and I was twenty seconds further down the road…I could very well have been road kill.

And, as strange as this may seem, it’s the reason I’m here. Enjoy life while you can…you might be dead in 20 seconds…

January 20, 2019February 19, 2019 TDA Scott

TDA Stage 4 – Houston, we have a problem…

So, my ankle is sore…specifically my Achilles’ tendon. It started bothering me yesterday and today it ached the entire ride and was slightly swollen. The internet tells me it’s Achilles tendonitis., which I tend to agree with. Solution…rest it. Easier said than done when on cycle tour with a set schedule. I’m at a loss as to why it’s bugging me. I haven’t been cycling hard, and with the strong tail winds we’ve had the first three days, it’s been really easy riding. I’ve talked to some more experienced cyclists and they suggested I might need to adjust the clips on my shoes or adjust my cadence, however the pain started on days I wasn’t wearing my cycling shoes (which is how I ride 99% of the time at home). So I’m chocking this up to the sheer amount of cycling. Never having ridden more than 105km in a day before, I’m in uncharted territory personally. Lucky we have a rest day coming up in two days and hopefully it will work itself out. If not I may have to spend a day or two riding in the truck. Booo!

I’ll be riding super slow (for me) tomorrow. Maybe try that cadence thing… Funny, I was all worried about my ass being sore and it turned out to be my ankles!

January 19, 2019February 19, 2019 TDA Scott

TDA Stage 3 – It’s about to get real!

The temperature is starting to climb. While today’s ride was still very comfortable, The forecast shows the mercury rising. In a few days the temperature will reach 25C and that’s at our current position. Each day brings us further south, pushing the mercury higher.

Tonight is our first night of camping. The tents are up and the cooler bar is open (stocked with Pepsi! WTH!?! 🤮 I’m going to have to have a chat with management!). I’m actually looking forward to sleeping in my own tent. With my thin fabric walls it’s still more privacy than sharing a hotel room with two other dudes!

January 18, 2019February 19, 2019 TDA Scott

TDA Stage 2 – Exhilarating Egypt

It’s all going to come crashing down eventually. It has to. But for now, another perfect day!

The temperature was absolutely perfect for cycling, add to that a very strong tail wind and I just blew through the 150km of Stage 2. That’s almost 50km longer than the longest ride I’ve ever done! Barely pedaling I was whipping along at 35km/hr. I even finished the stage first. Not something I was expecting to do. Yellow jersey anyone?

I had started the day intending on taking it easy and not pushing too hard. 150km is a long way, and this is only day two. I need to leave some fuel in the tank for the future.

I have to keep telling myself “it’s only day 2, and everything has gone perfectly so far”. Eventually the weather will get bad and I’ll spend a few days wet and muddy but as of right now I’m totally hooked on this adventure cycling! So amazing!

Riding through the dessert alone with the landscape is both humbling and exhilarating!

January 17, 2019February 19, 2019 TDA Scott

TDA Day 1 – Go for launch!

Launch! Not lunch! Although our first day is mercifully easy and lunch is a meager 30km into the day. Here we go! We start the day with a photo op cycling past the pyramids, and then we all pile onto a bus to be shipped out of town to start our journey. Past tours have cycled out of the city but safety was always a big concern. The streets of Cairo are a “bit chaotic”.