The day began well and I was out on the road by 9am. The first half an hour was like Sunday and I was dreading the rest of the day as the coaches were out in full force and the road if anything was narrower. A little note on some of the wheels of the vehicles over here as well. There seems to be a few roman chariot racer wannabes in Sudan and they have put silver spikes on the hubs of their front wheels. Some of them double deckered and if you're lucky you may even find yourself having to dodge or jump a triple deckered wheel spike! It's like being on the set of Ben Hur when you've stopped your bike after multiple horn blasts and turned around to find a silver spike rotating towards you out of the dust!
Thankfully after 5 miles the traffic disappeared and the road became very peaceful and I could actually hear my music from the one remaining working ear plug. The road may have been good going but the wind decided to make an appearance and as I'm cycling in a slightly different direction, the wind was a strong crosswind that kicked up sand and dust. The specs had to go for this and for the first half of the day there was a lot of head down cycling with my core strength battling to keep Nigel on the road.
I had a few aches and pains emerging as it seemed it was the first day for a while where I actually had to push hard against wind and terrain. Other than that the ride was very relaxing and there were very few people around. I decided to stop at a truck stop at 12, I hadn't gone as far as I thought I would've but needed a bit of a rest and the smell of bbq'd meat made it rude of me to carry on cycling.
I think today was the first time I knowingly had goat. I've had meat broths and stews previously and not had a clue what was in it but I couldn't really mistake it today as when I asked what meat it was, the man pointed to the rear half of the animal that was hanging by my head!
It was good, it tasted like farm a little (you could smell the farm in your mouth) but for the most part it was well cooked and I didn't get given much bone in my bowl which was a bonus. I had it with ful and bread and I even enjoyed the ful (must've been hungry)
Even the meal was relaxing, the locals didn't come up and surround me, they said hello and then left me alone. I appreciated that a lot, it can be very very hard work repeating the same things over and over when all you want to do is stretch your legs and "mong" out.
I got back on Nigel at around 1. Not an ideal time but the wind had changed to suit me and I wanted to make the most of a good breeze. It's amazing to see how the landscape has already changed. Khartoum seems to be the turning point between the northern yellow sandy desert to the eastern reddish mud and rocky skyline. The trademark red African dust is making me turn a whole new shade of brown and when I rub my skin its like 60 grit sand paper.
The land soon became much more fertile and dusty plains soon turned to fields of crops and then in some areas green fields with purple lavender. It's great to cycle through the changing landscape because not only do you see how the colours change, you smell the differences and you can also notice the difference in housing. The houses now are fenced with straw as opposed to mud bricks and the roofs are straw also. They are round also instead of square and I'm guessing this is what it will be like for the next couple of weeks in Ethiopia.
I had my first Ethiopian training session with a renegade child and a rock as well. He didn't even wait till I had past him, I was pretty much alongside him. He still missed though and the rock bounced down the road alongside me. Bit soon I thought, not even in Ethiopia yet! It wasn't going to affect me though. I was super chilled out today and was pleased with the ride. I decided to wild camp when I got to the cover of a large rock formation at the end of the road. The trouble was, the road was probably the longest and straightest road I have experienced yet and after 10 miles of extra tired cycling with the rocks still the same size, I decided to turn off early into a large area of trees. In an hour and a half I had cycled past one farm so I was pretty sure I was in the middle of nowhere and wouldn't get much trouble, if any!
It was still quite light when I stopped so I delayed putting the tent up until the sky turned orange. I just got the mat out and passed out for twenty minutes. I woke myself up snoring so it must've been a good power nap and then got the tent and dinner sorted.
Three packets of Asia's finest beef flavoured noodles were on the menu tonight with 2 milk biscuits that I used every ounce of self control to save during the latter part of my ride. The noodles always remind me of my great friends in New Zealand who are supporting me so much at the moment. Noodles are a standard lunch time meal for the Hackett family (well, the ones that couldn't be bothered to box up a lunch or had no leftovers from the previous night's dinner) noodles, along with a cheap pie and i used to have the amount of water and microwave time down to a fine art. I never thought in a million years that just 3 years later I would be cooking the same "bumbu" powdered noodles on a stove in the middle of Sudan! (Shame they don't do pies out here - they are definitely on the list of meals when I get home, I bloomin love pies!)
All in all another good day and I've set myself up nicely for a fairly short cycle into Al Qadarif tomorrow. Cycle touring is quite tactical sometimes depending on your water, your health and where you are in the world and I guess that's another thing I like about it. Today I put the effort in so tomorrow I can hopefully be done by 1pm and change some Sudanese pounds to Dollars.
That's the plan anyway but by now we all know that my plans are pretty much pointless!
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