As you might have noticed, we arrived a day early in Khartoum by crunching the days, allowing us an extra day before Addis so that we can travel through Dinder National Park.

Tomorrow we start 2 days on tarmac before hitting the off-road. There will be 7 days riding before the next rest day.

So what does one do on a rest day? Well I treated myself to breakfast in bed at 7am. I had a banana left over from yesterday, and also half a roll from some grub last night. Feeling relaxed after a good sleep, I then walked over to the communal taps to finish the washing; I spent an hour at it yesterday.  Already, Diane and Julianne were there doing theirs.

That done, I emptied my tent and swept out the accumulated desert sand, before cleaning with water and detergent. Likewise, I had to treat my duffel bag and toilet bag as I had had a leaking bottle.

Now I felt able to go for a coffee.  I told the man that in Spain we get a little biscuit with our coffee.  He took a small packet off the shelf and gave it to me gratis.  The little things.

Back to my tent. Someone had found a plug that worked. There were several but some had holes blocked off or you couldn’t get the pins in. This one worked. Charging up is so critical for us on rest days.  We all want to take photos, use our laptops and phones.

While they were charging, I was able to spend a good hour cleaning and inspecting my bike.

All the meanwhile, there are Sudanese boys all around playing football.  This a National Camping Residence and there seem to be a lot of football teams taking part in a local tournament.  They like to practice their English with you and are generally well-mannered. Sometimed they cross the line, as happened this morning when one cheeky youth  felt Michelle’s bum. She quickly told them just to back off and it was OK again.  He had a mischievous smile on his face!

We are not sure whether what we crossed yesterday was the confluence or not.  If we can today, some of us will get a tuk-tuk to investigate. But always the internet gets priority over everything.

In general, I am feeling strong and healthy.  The riding can be difficult, under conditions you are not used to, but we are  all adapting well.  Pivotal to everything we do is discipline; to keep a healthy routine with personal hygiene and a positive attitude. Somebody whingeing all the time would be a drain on us all.  I have not come across anybody bemoaning their situation.

Some of the riders book into a hotel at every opportunity i.e. every rest day. You can see a country by flying over it; you can see more driving through it.  Cycling gets us a bit closer still and the tenting brings us a bit more into contact with the locals and the conditions in which a lot of them live.  This is particularly true with the toilets and washing facilities.  Some of the toilets where we have camped have been atrocious: totally stained, broken tilework, pipes spewing out water, and filth. You hope to avoid this by booking into a hotel.  But this trip is not about pampering ourselves. We are not tourists.

Some of the younger riders have arranged to play a match against one of these Sudanese teams later on.  Martijn I believe has been the “fixer”.  Certainly I want to go and watch this, watch not play.

Forgive me if I have been long-winded but I do not expect we will have internet now for at least a week.  As we pass through Ethiopia it will become more difficlt.

By the way, the previous blog (Khartoum Calling) has now been updated and photos added.

Best wishes,

Eric.