Iringa, Tanzania - 6000km

Hello!

Well, what a week we just had! There were ups and downs (perhaps more downs for some people). For starters, some good stuff: We passed the halfway point in terms of distance of the trip a few days ago (On St. Patrick’s Day) and right now in Iringa, Tanzania, we have come approx. 6000km. We looked it up on Google maps and that is about the equivalent of going from Vancouver to Halifax! Crazy! These last seven days of cycling has probably been the most consistently enjoyable days of riding that the two of us have had this trip. Only 1 of the 7 days was pavement and the rest was a combination of dirt, gravel and sand. We didn’t really mind though because that is what our bikes are built for and we have fun doing it. The other thing that made it very enjoyable is that we often only rode half days meaning we took the truck in the morning and read and then cycled the afternoon. We have found that we have a lot more fun this way because (especially on the rough terrain) a 50-60km ride is just the right amount for us, as oppose to a 90-110km ride. There has been a bit of rain recently, but it is quite predictable (late afternoon storms) so it hasn’t caused too many problems. Now for a bit of the negative side…one of the trucks has been consistently breaking down and has been limping through Tanzania getting make-shift repairs along the way. This has led to a few delays on meals and people getting their equipment at camp. Luckily, all our stuff is on the truck that is working fine so we have not felt the brunt of this too badly. The worst part about the week was that one of our fellow riders (a really good guy) had a pretty bad fall on some of the rocky gravel and ended up severely breaking his ulna and also clipping a vein. This was two days ago, and he had to get rushed to Iringa where he had some surgery to clean and repair the vein. Unfortunately, his tour is done and he left to go back home to the United States yesterday for more surgery to repair the break. Up to this point, he had cycled EFI for the whole trip and was an incredibly strong racer. It was a bit of a shock, and we all feel very, very bad for him.  

We thought we would take some time to do something a little different on this update and that is to give everyone a bit of a “day in the life of TDA” sort of thing. So, if you are interested, keep reading and you’ll find out about some of our routines and how we are living on the trip.

First of all, here is a typical daily schedule for a riding day:

0600hrs: Wake up
0600hrs-0610hrs: Snooze Time
0610hrs-0645hrs: Dress, pack, put away tent, etc.
0645hrs-0705hrs: Breakfast
0705hrs-0715hrs: Put packs in truck, brush teeth, wash dishes
0715hrs: Start riding
Approx. 1100hrs: Lunch
1145hrs-1500hrs (Approx): Afternoon riding
1500hrs-1600hrs: Set up camp, change, wash
1600hrs-1800hrs: Relax, read, eat soup, socialize, bike maintenance
1800hrs: Rider meeting (briefing on the next day of riding)
1830hrs-1900hrs: Dinner
1900hrs-2000hrs: Get ready for bed
2000hrs: Go to sleep

So, there is a typical day for us! The times vary a bit depending on whether we are riding a full day or half day and what the distances are and road conditions, etc.

Another thing we thought people might be interested in is water usage. Between the two trucks, they can carry 2000L of purified water that we use for drinking and cooking and (sometimes) washing. As a whole group, we go through about 900L a day, which means that they pretty much have to find a water source every two days, which in some of the places we have been, is very difficult. As a result, we are always on some sort of water ration. Either water is ONLY for drinking (and cooking) or we are allowed one 750ml bottle of water to clean with in addition to drinking. We tend to use a lot less than this though because of the great expandable cloths that our good friend gave us. Besides, in our mind, we are always on the highest water restriction because the more water we use, the less there is for the people that actually live here and there isn’t much to go around.

Okay, that is all we are going to update everyone on for the time being. We have 5 days of riding ahead of us before our next rest day in Chitemba Beach, Malawi and it is all paved!