Fundraising status: 6632.78€ or 59% reached, it made a big jump over the last days, thanks for that and let’s keep on as we will reach 10’000 km soon. The need for education in some African country is very high and YOU can contribute to give a better future to some kids with any contribution even the smallest one. Therefore thanks to support my fundraising ! If needed, the link is still here
Stage 75: Windhoek to Weissenfels
KM: 122.63 km
HM: 1257 m
Time: 5h34 minutes
Flat tires: 0
Liter of water: 5
Strava link
Stage 76: Weissenfels to Solitaire
KM: 123.5 km
HM: 608 m
Time: 5:30 minutes
Flat tires: 0
Liter of water: 5
Strava link
Stage 77: Solitaire to Sesriem
KM: 83.11 km
HM: 269 m
Time: 4h18 minutes
Flat tires: 0
Liter of water: 6
Strava link
And once again the road is calling us, after two very relaxing days in Windhoek and a change of tires (I love the look of my bike with these big mountain bike tires) it is time to start with the longest gravel part of the trip.
We started this first day with 20 km of Tarmac to get out of Windhoek, escape the crazy Namibian traffic and reach the 9000km mark! After these 20km of road in a slightly hilly landscape, it is with a great pleasure that we finally hit the gravel again. As of the first contact, I immediately knew that changing my tires was a great idea as they are wider and can be run at a significantly lower pressure thanks to the tubeless set-up. We started the gravel ride in the company of some baboons and Kudus (unfortunately again no pics as they are waaaay to fast) and could enjoy the first climbing part on some quite ok gravel roads, we faced a few washboard parts but it was overall a good road. Moreover, the change of landscape was highly appreciated after days of boring plains in Botswana, seeing something else than bushes was a relieve. As the road staid relatively smooth on that day, I really enjoyed these first 100 km on gravel and was highly excited for the next stages.
I started the second day highly motivated, looking forward for a second day of gravel and stunning scenery.
And this day did not disappointed me, after 30 km we reached the top of the tropic of capricorn and after a nice climb @74km the top of the Spreetshoogte pass and from there, the view was absolutely breathtaking!
400 m under us was the Namib desert, full of different colour, a view that I will not forget soon.After a looong photo session, we started the very steep downhill (400 m down over 4 km) before hitting the gravel for an additional 15 km till the camp Gecko where we enjoyed a nice refreshment.
We spent the next 18 km on some further corrugated but ok road before reaching a bigger road for the last 12 km till Solitaire (our next camp). And these 12 km made me swear hundreds of time, strong washboard and corrugation with quite some traffic… The gravel pleasure got replaced by the gravel pain… And after 5:30 it is happy and relieved that I reached the our camp and enjoyed a great apple pie.
The third and last day of this section was not really scary us, 83 km and 300 hm: a walk in the park for the Tour d’Afrique riders was our opinion. Well the first 20 km went indeed very well and fast, riding at 30-35 km on quite nice gravel road was fun. But then after a small climb, the situation changed, first we biked in what I would describe as a sandbox, the downhill was fun, like biking on snow but as soon as the road went flat it was another story, extremely exhausting and tiring. We spent most of our time trying to find “the best line” moving from one side of the road ton the other but without success. As we reached lunch after 42 km many riders were already quite tired.
After lunch we had a slight rest as the road was a bit better for the next 20 kilometres until we turned onto the last stretch to Sesriem. This was by far the worst road I ever rode in my life, a massive patch of waves and sand. Despite doing our best to stay on the bike, we had to put our feet down a few times, searching for a decent line, fighting against the corrugation and sand for 12 km under the heavy Namibian sun (temperature were reaching 36-38 degrees). These 12 km took us at least 1 hour while some other riders had to walk some part of it, spending a few hours on that short stretch. And in that situation, even the amazing scenery was not enough to escape from the harshness of this road.
Therefore it is highly relieved that we reached Sesriem after 4h18 minutes for our next rest day.
As I and a few other riders luckily got a room in a lodge and still had a bit of energy, we organised a trip to the dune 45, where we could enjoy a stunning sunset and the amazing beauty of the Namib desert before enjoying a more than well deserved rest day focused on doing nothing else than preparing our legs for the next section which will be even tougher!
And here we are, after 9311.8 km, 42,673 hm and 356 hours and 48 minutes on the bike, the eighteenth section is over and what a section it was, riding in the beauty of Namibia is something very special despite the harshness of the roads.
After this section, the soul is highly motivated, but my body is having a hard time, spending hours on a bike on washboard and sandy road is extremely hard and demanding but so far so good, let’s hope that it will stay so for the next section as well.
The next section, which is the before last one, is described as the toughest one of the tour with many days of more than 120 km on highly corrugated and washboard roads, let’s see how it will go!
And the new gallery can be found here
Fred
Marc
2 May 2019Your endurance is absolutely amazing Fred! Enjoy all the sections ahead and stay safe and healthy!
Fred
8 May 2019Thanks Marc, 4 days to go seems that i’ll manage to stay safe 😉