21st day Khartoum Sudan 1977km - still EFI - 11 days no Beer

Awoke as usual before the crack of dawn, in what was to  be our last desert camp for a while, as we have two rest days in Khartoum. Today's ride is to consist of a 20km time trial, followed by a further 43 to lunch, that would put us at the outskirts of old Khartoum, where we are to pick up our police escort to take us through town to our campsite.

Unusually for me i was up and ready on time, as i was to be the 4th of the racers to start in the time trial, ( we set off at 2 minute intervals), i was not feeling strong and did not expect much. it is still very cold first thing in the morning, and my fingers  were numb with the cold even with gloves on. Knowing that i would need 10km to warm my legs and find my rhythm i settled down, only to be over taken by Janet who started behind me, and finished about 6 mins in front of me. I came in at about 41mins and way down the list. Janet and i rode the rest of the 66km to lunch together, she is a kiwi living in states with her english husband working as a sports fitness therapist. They were both on the trip last year, but Janet is back doing parts that she missed due to the fact that she broke her wrist last year in Dongola, and had to take 5 weeks out from the tour, she is a real lively person, and super fit.

Bloody-Minded Englishman

The lunchtime wait was near the site of the old part of town known as Omdurman, where General Gordon famously lost his head to the Mahdi Army back in queen vic's time, and where a few years later Lord Kitchener took his revenge by sailing up the Nile with three gunboats, and blasted the mud brick town to bits, retrieved the Mahdi's body from his tomb, and cast it into the river.

One of those gunboats, the Melik, still survives and is now used as the office of the Blue Nile Sailing Club, the sponsors for our visa applications and where the tour generally stays, but not this time , as the wash rooms are "not up to standard", which, given the condition of some of the "up to standard" ones we have seen doesn't bear thinking about!

So we went under Police escort 34km across town to a new site, we made quite an impressive spectate, as with lanes closed, sirens blasting, and traffic building up behind, 60 cyclists paraded through town, to the cheers of the crowds lining the streets, at least i think it was cheers...or perhaps they were just mad because their buses were late!

The new site is called the National Camping Residence, and is 10km from the center of town, which is making getting about difficult and costly, as once in town we have a great problem finding a taxi driver who actually knows where we are staying even though we have the address written on a piece of paper. It was after studying this paper for a while that a look of realization came to the face of one driver and he said "Ah, you mean the barracks", it could be called any number of things, for as well as being a campsite, it is a refugee camp, sports training ground, and islamic study site. We know about the sporting connection because of the football kits drying at every available window in the living quarters, and also because we have meet the Somalian Olympic long distance running team, over here for training, well, we meet him actually, quite a nice bloke! And the strong Islamic connection mad it's presence felt when we were visits in our camping area, by a strange person, who firstly welcomed us to Sudan, and then hoped that we would abide by the local customs, and not allow our women to parade themselves around in a shameless nakedness in the campsite, personally judging from the look he gave the girls, i think he had only come over so that he could witness some of that naked flesh at close quarters for himself.

We went to the international mall for our evening meal, and treated ourselves to a very good chinese meal in the food hall for a total of 13 Sudanese Pounds (SP), then went and spent an obscene amount on coffee and donuts, SP100 between 5 of us, given that almost anything, from a pen to a glass of coffee costs just SP1 on the street, it really was obscene, but the cakes were very nice!

We were in need of some solace, as we had just had some bad news. On arrival at the camp we had a meeting with Henry Gold,to bring us up to date with the situation in Kenya, and he announced that unfortunately, things didn't seem to be getting any better, and as we were due to get to the border in around a months time , we have to start making decisions, and we could not cycle through the country, we would instead be flying over it to Tanzania. I know that a little inconvenience to us is nothing to the trouble and bloodshed that is tearing the place apart, but It was very disappointing for us. Once we are safely out of the way , we are going to have to find something to keep ourselves busy for about two weeks, because it is one thing to bundle us on to a plane, but the trucks, with all of our support infrastructure, were still going to have to drive across Kenya, to enable us to continue with the rest of the tour. Some of the options are to fly out to Zanzibar and laze on the beach, but i think i might join a group that are planning to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, and then join the others at Zanzibar, that would be an unexpected turn, and was certainly not on my list of things to do! And all this at our own expense, as it seems unlikely that our insurance policies will cover the costs.

On of the reasons for the feeling of disappointment is because it brings into question the EFI situation for some of us. EFI means Every Fabulous Inch (or another F word, when you are battling along a bumpy track), and is defined by the fact that through sheer guts and bloody-mindedness, you absolutely refuse to give in and get on to the support trucks, even though every fibre of your body is screaming at you to do so. Some were unfortunate enough to lose that status on the first day, when a strong head wind and a long day, caught out their preparations, others have lost it due to illness. And it was with this in mind whilst i was suffering on the "Washboard" that Harrison turned to me and said " I don't know why you don't get on the bus, Is it because of your EFI Status, or because you're a bloody-minded Englishman?", the answer came back "both".