Tourletters from Nouakchott

Western Sahara by Jeff Orum 

I am writing this from the first of five (!) bush camps we will have in a row. Last week we had three in a row and by the end of the last I was sure ready to have a place with showers and a rest room. I’d say the last week (and the next days) is probably the toughest mentally of the trip. The riding is relatively easy as we are having mostly favourable tail winds and temperatures that are not too hot, but the terrain has been the same hammada (stony desert) for 8 stages and the tailwinds that are nice for riding make it difficult to set up camp and to sleep as they tend to blow all night and make the inside of the tent rather noisy. With the wind it also gets quite cool in the evening and when we get up in the morning and there is lots of condensation on everything.

However, we did see a road sign for Dakar a few days ago, and while it is still quite a distance to get there, the end is starting to be in sight and we know that 2 weeks from yesterday we will arrive there.

Stage 41 took us out of Sidi-Ifni and away from the coast. The first big town we passed through (Guelmim) had a real camel market taking place so we went there and saw lots of camels, but no one was willing to trade their bike for one! At the end of the day we had 6 Km dirt road to a Ksar (reminded me of a small walled Kasbah) that was quite pretty.

We took the same dirt road out at the start of Stage 42 and then passed the landmark of the stone camels at the entrance to Tan Tan which mark the start of the Western Sahara. This began our traverse of the hammada that would last for many days. Lunch had a real treat (thank Rudy) of a pork leg from Spain (you can’t get pork in Morocco ) that was sliced into thin, delicious strips.

Stages 43 to 46 were all relatively long ( 150 Km or more), very flat stages through the desert. Fortunately we normally had a tail wind so they went relatively quickly, but there was the occasional side wind (which would result in a blast of sand when a truck passed by in the other direction) or even a head wind if the road turned the wrong direction. We did have camel meat one night (not gamy, a bit stronger taste than beef to the point I probably would not have it again on my own). For many of the days there was very little in the way of villages or petrol stations to get any Cokes or other food, so you had to make sure to carry plenty of water (seems like everyone did have a Camelbak) and make sure to restock at the lunch stop. Occasionally you would see a herd of camels.

My most major equipment failure came at the end of Stage 46 when I discovered a big crack in my rear rim where a spoke had pulled through. Yikes, I thought it might be the end of riding for me. Luckily, John (the Kiwi) had brought a spare rear wheel that was compatible with my setup and Rik the mechanic was able to get it set up on my bike quite quickly. Thanks John for saving the trip for me!

Stage 47 was just over 100 Km and brought us to our rest day in Dakhla. On the way into town we passed a lot of kite surfers and the wind that blew us into town would be a headwind on the way out as the town is on a peninsula and we would have to ride back 30 Km to continue the trip. The town itself was fairly pleasant, but didn’t have a lot in the way of tourist services. It had plenty of slow Internet places and a few places to eat. It was an OK place to spend a rest day since it did give an opportunity to really rest which was needed after the previous seven straight days of riding through the desert.

Stage 48 began with the ride into the headwind out of Dakhla and I rode it with 5 others so it went by pretty quickly and it was a welcome relief to turn the corner and get the tailwind we had enjoyed for the previous days of riding. So we started heading to the frontier and to Mauritania (and our five days of bush camping) and we will cross the border in two days. We also started seeing signs warning us that the areas off the road had land mines! I guess that means we will make sure any “nature breaks” are taken right at the roadside.

Stories of the novice cyclist part V by Kevin Crow

Q: What is large and smells of [fish guts]?

A: The western sahara (joke/truth courtesy of British Hawaii)

And don’t forget about the brutal pain in your bum caused by sitting in the same position for five plus hours. I never thought I would crave the 2000m plus climbing days till I had to deal with endless flats … and we have been blessed with massive tailwinds during the rides.

So shenanigans occurred! Team Hawaii left a tad early on a 65km timing-stops-at-lunch stage and proceeded to hammer it at 40.2 kph or so avg (all three computers read over 40kph). We split the load evenly doing exactly 1km legs during the entirety and left everything on the table. I was the weak link at the end as I couldn’t give anything more than 48kph in the last km, british and dutch Hawaii kicking it to almost 50kph before they realized they had dropped me off the back. Our strategy was to leave early and hope that the racers didnt notice our departure, such that they would either depart late themselves or just not push as hard as they would otherwise. 

And it worked … almost. The racers didn’t notice our departure but bicycle bob and the tall one (rob, tour director) decided to push anyway, finishing 20 minutes after us but if you took the day as a time trial they beat us by two minutes. Despite that we were still totally stoked at our ride, cheering and fist pumping at the end because we gave our best effort.

Dutch Hawaii already wrote about the games played in the desert during a tailwind … white-line slalom, bicycle pong, etc. But today we were able to experience that same wind in our face for 34km. Brutal doesn’t begin to describe how bad this desert adventure would be if we had a headwind the entire time. Racing rick took the lead and pushed it to about 27kph avg and after 5km or so looked to us to take a turn, the three of us combined … pushing ourselves … could manage about 24kph taking 500m legs.

I did get a bout of food poisoning though, and I may have to skip a day of the desert as part of the recovery … but that comes with travelling and eating on the road. All part of the fun on paris-dakar.

By Mathew Jackson

We have now crossed into Mauritania, over a five kilometre patch of unpaved road with a few exploded cars at the side of the track because the area used to be mined, be stick to the path and you should be ok. As soon as we crossed the boarder it seemed to get suddenly hotter as if the heat knew were the boarder was. We have had temperatures reaching forty-four degrees which has made the riding a little more demanding. The hardest thing in the heat is drinking enough water and taking on enough salt and minerals to replace the ones that you loose while riding. Today I have drank over eleven litres of water and energy drink.

The cinerary for the first two days in Mauritania was similar to the Western Sahara when we were not next to the sea, and that was starting to get a little reptative but today was much better with rolling dunes that looked almost orange, we also saw quite a few camels today as well. Today saw the first official stage win that Arnold, Kevin and I have taken. We road with John and Geerten and came in first as a group after 132Km, the last ten of which were quite tense, with a few looks over the shoulder, will they catch us will they not.

The team may have another sole win when we left a little early and made it to lunch first before there were strict rules on that sort of thing, we will have to wait and see on that one. We managed to average over 40Km/h for 64k so I think we deserve it for that alone! However Rob and Bob were two minutes faster than us using riding time.

We saw the worlds longest train at a camp that proved to be a nice surprise. The train is over two and a half kilometres long and moves iron ore across the country. The camp site was in a run of five dessert camps were water is very important and we must look after what we have in the 1000 litre tank, but this site had a well with an unlimited supply so we could take a proper shower and wash some clothes which was a welcome surprise.

We have spent some time hiding from the sun in cola stops at the side of the road which seem to consist of either a petrol station or someone’s home with a sun shelter or a tent to prove some shade. It is very interesting trying to us my broken French to talk to people and find out about their lives and views. We have also seen and camped next to or in mine fields at the side of the road, and seen a few florescent scorpions when looking for rocks to weigh down tents.

There are only seven riding stages left now until we make it to Dakar, it does not seem like we have been on the road for eight and a half weeks. We will cross into Senegal two days after the rest day and that will be another stamp in the passport, we then plan to visit the SOS children’s village in Dakar which I think will be very interesting. To be able to see were some the money we have all raised to going to be spent and the good work they do there.

By Tim van Quathem

As i only joined this group of enthousiastic riders from Tiznit, it was a great day for me. So far it was quite a short period, but believe me, so much can and did happen.

Before Paris-Dakar by bike, i`d never been on a bike for more than 90km. As the first day was only 75km and the day after was a rest day, it wouldn’t be a huge problem. But – as in many stories – the worst was still to come. Meaning every single day after..

The first 2 days it was my body, i discovered at least 20 new muscles that i`ve never used before. Next to the body, there was the bike, i got 4 punctures in the first 4 days. Then there was the body again, problems with the knees and a lot of problems with the stomach. But – still as in many stories – there`s sunshine after the rain. Today i really enjoyed the cycling, no problems, tailwind, little bit of problems with the knee, but it`s getting better. And today i can celebrate passing the 1000km, which is – for me – quite unusual, i normally don`t get this in one year.

Concerning the group, i can only say that it`s a great bunch of lovely and crazy people and i like it a lot. Whoupss!! Sorry folks, there goes the horn, got to leave you. Another delicious lunch by Rudy and his crew are waiting for us. See you later!!

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