Just getting it done (Stage 20)

The wind died away completely somewhere in the night, and by the time I was getting up this morning it was actually misty – quite weird in the desert. The upshot was a dripping-wet tent on both sides of the fly as I was trying to get things packed away.

We got treated to scrambled eggs today which is always a nice change from porridge. I tucked away a peanut butter sandwich for the road!

Mateo was already umming-and-ahhing about riding today, but when he discovered a flat tyre on his bike when he got up that made the decision significantly easier for him and he prepared to board the truck.

Australian Kevin was also planning phone calls as soon as he got network coverage – there was nothing at camp – so Canadian Kevin and I set off together.

We rode together for around 20km, but then hit a steep climb and he pulled away from me. Though he waited at the top I was finding today tough going, so he went on ahead. It was also a little more scenic this morning so I stopped for a few photo opportunities along the way.

I met up with Kevin at the 40km coke stop where the drinks were in the freezer and super cold – I drank one there, then stashed one in my bag for later. We both declined the cooled water from the goat skin!

Oddly it was still quite cool at this point so I actually zipped my jacket back up while I had my drink – then I forgot about it and set off again. I got through to km 60 and stopped to take off my jacket and eat my sandwich during which time Italo came past. I’d been intending to keep my second Hawai to have with lunch, but I was pretty hot at this point so figured it was better to drink it while it was still cool.

I got through to lunch, and Doug – the route mechanic – summed up the day well

Today is about survival.

Which aptly described how I was feeling. I hadn’t been able to find a rhythm that worked, and with no wind at all it seemed to be making things hard and hot!

I had some lunch – Lezinda had made guacamole again today which is an excellent sandwich filling and there was some of the left-over beef from last night as well.

A number of other riders came in while I was there and many agreed that today felt hard – a fact supported by the number of people who had taken the truck, either to lunch, or all the way from camp to town.

I got back on the road and there was now a little bit of breeze to help with the heat. Unfortunately the terrain had reverted back to endless flat plains which made that less interesting.

My plan had been to stop at the 116km coke stop – as I came past 114km there was a shack on the left which might have been a coke stop, but it wasn’t at the right location so I carried on. At 116km it definitely wasn’t there – nothing but a completely derelict building. I was pretty sure I had enough liquids to get me through to town, but I’d been looking forward to the break, and hopefully some shade.

With nothing else to do I carried on, and was soon greeted with a mirage ahead – an overpass! It turned out it wasn’t a mirage, but actually was an overpass.

As the first shade I’d seen in the 60 plus km since the lunch truck I stopped underneath for a rest, a drink, and my packed sandwich. I had hoped a TDA truck may also pass to fill up my water supply, but no such luck.

The other weird thing that began with this overpass was a two-lane dual carriage way, complete with solar-charged street lights every 50m

I get that the overpass lead to an airport, but we were still 25km from the city, and there was no appreciable increase in traffic, so I don’t quite ‘get’ it. There was also a super-flash, brand-new ‘International Convention Centre’, but again – it’s still very much the middle of nowhere, so would be something of a pain in the arse to actually hold a convention at.

Back on the road and with so much space and so little traffic it made things somewhat safer until I started to get into the city proper. The obligatory ‘ugly statues in roundabouts’ followed.

And then things started to get pretty hectic, and more than a little scary when I discovered that a green traffic light means ‘go’ and a red traffic light means ‘go, a little bit slower’ so even if you have a green light, you really need to keep a very close eye on traffic approaching from either side.

I made it through the traffic and didn’t miss the ‘sharp left hand turn’ that Max had been concerned we look out for and was soon in to ‘camp’. It was a bit frustrating to be the third person to ride the full day in, and yet there were no rooms left. I get that these things are ‘first come, first served’ but on a cycling tour it seems pretty tough to essentially penalise those who actually cycle.

A number of people opted for other hotels and while there was one quite close not only was it rather expensive, it also turned out to be full, so those who have gone off to hotels have had to deal with finding a hotel, then a taxi, getting bags to and from etc and in the end I opted to camp rather than deal with those hassles.

The hot shower and shave helped me feel somewhat more human, as did the trip to the nearby bakery for a burger-like thing – it’s hard to explain, it was more like a donut-batter bun, which was filled with a cooked mince/onion mix, plus sliced boiled egg, tomato and lettuce. Kind of odd but super tasty.

On the plus side I was able to out-source doing my laundry to the hotel for the equivalent of €5 which I was more than happy to pay!

After some sitting round relaxing and chatting it was time to deal with swapping tyres – we start the rough roads this coming week, plus the trip in to Dakar is predominantly along the beach so the wider the tyres the better!

I got mine swapped over without incident, but Dominic was having all sorts of problems getting his tubeless tyres to seal onto their rims. I also gave the drivetrain of my bike a good clean to get as much of the desert out as I could.

We got something of a surprise when one of the people who runs the hotel offered to sell us beer (or whiskey) if we were interested. The beer was pretty expensive at what works out at about €7, but it was super cold and after a six-day riding week it was very welcome!

There is a restaurant associated with the hotel a few doors up and the menu looked like it should be pretty good, so we headed off there. After a promising start, it ended up taking over an hour for us to get our pizzas, by which time we were starving, and completely fed up with waiting!

Most of the crew were also there, and had a similar, or worse experience, with Lezinda and Essen missing out on getting their dinner at all.

We popped round the corner to the nearby supermarket for an ice-cream desert – the first we’d seen since Boujdour!