Fundraising status: 7062.78€ or 62% reached, the tour is slowly but surely going towards its end and we are still far away from the 1€/km targeted. Therefore thanks for a last push, every amount is highly welcome, even the smallest one will help! Thanks a lot and If needed, the link is still here
Stage 78: Sesriem to Betta
KM: 137.58 km
HM: 860 m
Time: 7h20 minutes
Flat tires: 0
Liter of water: 8 + 2 sprites
Strava link
Stage 79: Betta to Konkiep Lapa
KM: 154.58 km
HM: 932 m
Time: 6:06 minutes
Flat tires: 0
Liter of water: 7 + 1 sprite (and an apple pie)
Strava link
Stage 80: Konkiep lapa to Seeheim
KM: 126.05 km
HM: 378 m
Time: 4h33 minutes
Flat tires: 0
Liter of water: 4
Strava link
And after a very relaxing stay in a beautiful lodge in Sesriem, it is time to hit the road and face one of the hardest sections of the tour with 681 km of mostly gravel roads.
The road condition of the first stage of this section having been described by the TDA team as “your worst nightmare” I started this day with a lot of respect and ready to spend more hours than usual on the saddle.
And unfortunately, the start of the day confirmed the description made by the TDA tour, corrugated, lot of washboard parts and full of sand, despite my wide tires the roads are barely rideable. Trying to find the best line, I finally opt for an off-road approach and spent the first 30 km riding on the side of the road as this was the best option for me. Unfortunately, after our first intersection @km 30, I had to change my tactic as riding off-road was not an option any more as the sand was way too soft.
And it was the start of a 40 km slalom, going from one side of the road to the other, looking for a decent line, fighting against the sand part which can bring your speed from 25 to 5 km in a few seconds and trying to keep your water bottles on the bike as they are regularly jumping out of their cages due to the heavy vibrations.
A very hard challenge but at least we get rewarded by an absolute stunning scenery, it is like biking on another planet, the view were absolutely amazing and breath-taking.
After a long break for lunch @km 73, we started our pensum again. By chance, the road was slightly better we got an improvised coke stop in a local farm and the wind started to blow in our back. All that together helped us to finish this stage in 7h20 minutes at a pace of 18.8 km/h.
Even tough this was a hard day and only 18 riders finished it, it was, in my opinion, not the hardest one of the tour. The hardest one remains the Sudanese ride with headwind and 50° and I hope that it will stay so!
The second day of this section started like the first one, corrugated, washboard, sandy… a real pleasure for our bikes and bodies… But after 25 km of pain, the road conditions changed and therefore even the following 18 km long climb was, on that day a pleasure.
After lunch @km 79, we headed for a long downhill bringing us to the village of Helmeringhausen where we enjoyed the best apple pie of Namibia (that’s at least what they pretend) before finishing the day in a nice camping spot in Konkiep lapa. In comparison to the previous day, this was almost a walk in the park
The third day of this stretch started as the one before ended, meaning on a very smooth and nice gravel road on which one we could cruise easily at 30 km/h. Moreover, after 32 km we reached the town of Bethanie, where we saw the oldest church in Namibia and could enjoy a fantastic coke stop where Baldr and I got some eggs and bacon (for us it was like paradise)
This place was supposed to have the best carrot cake of Namibia but I did not try it as the bacon was definitely more appealing ;-). After this stop, we spent the rest of the day on a beautiful paved road, enjoying once again the beautiful Namibian scenery, especially at the end of the day as we pass through some impressive hilly area.
Stage 81: Seeheim to Canon roadhouse
KM: 94.58 km
HM: 460 m
Time: 4h08 minutes
Flat tires: 0
Liter of water: 4 + 1 sprite a coffee and an apfelstrudel
Strava link
Stage 82: Canon roadhouse to felix unite
KM: 169 km
HM: 1005 m
Time: 6:19 minutes
Flat tires: 0
Liter of water: 7 + 1 sprite
Strava link
And here we are, back on some “garbage” gravel road, the first 27 km of this fourth day were really bad, so bad that I even lost one of my water bottle on the way (lucky me another rider found it later on). Thanks god, after these 27 km we joined another road and this one was smooth and nice. And guess what, we had again a coke stop but this time with the best Apfelstrudel in Namibia ;-))) and I have to confess, it was a very nice Apfelstrudel indeed.
After this nice break, I kept biking on a rather high speed as our camp in Canon roadhouse was very close to the fish river canyon and I definitely wanted to see it. For the one who never heard of it, this is the second biggest canyon on earth after the “grand” one.
And therefore, thanks to Elisabeth for the organisation, Romy, Elisabeth, Ashley and myself went out for a nice organized sunset tour to this canyon after our ride and it was absolutely stunning!
And for our last day in Namibia, the program was quite challenging with 171 km to ride, 124 of them being on gravel road… Luckily for us, the gravel was decent and we therefore managed the first 127 km (including lunch) fast enough to reach a local supermarket 5 minutes before they closed in order to buy some meat for the brai (south african barbecue) that the TDA team planned on our coming rest day. One of the big moment of that day was the end of the gravel where Steve kissed the paved road as a token of appreciation and the fact that we saw for the first time some greenery after weeks of sand and rocks! Moreover this greenery was vineyard, which is, I’m sure, a sign that I need to drink more wine as of now ,-). The last km after our shopping stop where quite easy, riding with Matts, Baldr and Steve, enjoying the long flat stretches which brought us to our camp and passing the 10’000 km mark just before reaching it!
And on the rest day we enjoyed the TDA olympics that Loraine organized, a very funny and friendly way to spend together our last rest day of the tour.
Food
Food, as you can imagine is one of the most important topic for us!
The food routine during the Tour d’Afrique is the following:
– Breakfast with porridge, bread, nutella and so on
– Lunch (most of the time around 9-10 am for me) with some bread, tomatoes, cold meat, the rest of the previous diner and 1 or 2 cups of fruit salad.
– A soup after the ride
– A diner at around 5.30 pm
(moreover, during the ride in case of coke stop we will eat any snack available where we do stop)
But let me go a bit more in details:
Let’s start with breakfast: I do have to confess that I really don’t like porridge and that is slightly annoying when you spent 4 months on a porridge tour ,-(… I tried one day to skip my morning porridge but quickly realized that it was a very bad idea as I ended up without any energy after 50 km. Therefore since then I suck it up and swallow a vast amount of porridge every morning while dreaming of eggs benedict, sauce hollandaise and bacon…..
Lunch: At lunch we usually get quite some options, bread, potato salad, tomatoes, cold meat something for the vegan, vegetarians, lactose intolerant and so on… And the most important question of lunch is always to know if we can get 1 or 2 cups of fruit salad. This can change your day indeed ,-)
Soup: As soon as we finish a ride, we usually are a bunch of hungry monster and therefore TDA is offering us a soup to make us wait till diner. Unfortunately, we changed our cook in the middle of this tour and since then the quality of the soup went from amazing (even for someone like me who does not like soup so much) to at best mediocre… Therefore, as we now stay most of the time in lodges and camps, quite some riders (including myself) are replacing the soup by some french fries and other snack we can buy on the spot.
Diner: Here as well, we unfortunately suffer from a drastic change of quality since our previous chef Mark has been replaced by Errol, nevertheless diner stays one of the most important moment of the day and everybody get a big portion of highly nutritive food. Pasta, potatoes and so on are quite often on offer. And one of the highly awaited moment is when one of the crew member calls “open kitchen” which means that each of us can go for a second, third or even fourth plate (as long as some food remains).
All in all we are eating an awful lot, not a big surprise taking in account what we are burning on a daily basis on the bike and going back to a normal diet is going to be quite a challenge ;-).
And here we are, after 10’001 km, 46’308 hm and 385 hours and 14 minutes on the bike, the nineteenth section is over.
This section has been really hard on us, shoulders, wrist and arms are hurting, I’m therefore looking forward for the next and last stretch as we are going to enjoy a lot more paved roads.
Even if this one being the last one, it is with a mixed feeling of joy to finally see my girlfriend and finish the tour and sadness as this long awaited great adventure is going to an end in a few days.
And the new gallery can be found here
Fred
Stephanie
8 May 2019Amazing Fred, the scenery in Namibia looks incredible. Such a great effort! Enjoy the last “few” km’s and your break in South Africa!
Fred
8 May 2019Thanks Steph, and yes the scenery in Namibia was absolutely stunning! And now, 4 days till the end… Cannot believe that it is almost over
Thomas Kämpf
14 May 2019Bravo et félicitations !!! C’est extraordinaire que tu as vraiment fait toute la distance à vélo sans faille.
Fred
16 May 2019Merci Thomas et ce fut un voyage magique et très certainement la seule fois que j’atteindrai plus de 10’000 km en 4 mois sur mon vélo 😉