3 days into the new section and it’s an absolute gong show.  Crashes, broken trucks and late nights..one incident after another.  The riders are absolutely shattered after 7 days of seriously difficult riding. We took them off the madness of the busy highway and onto the quiet country dirt roads.  Through villages, national parks and up mountains.  As difficult as it is beautiful, these past few days have been a true test.

As chaotic as it’s been I feel like the team has pulled through beautifully, Everyone working together.  I must admit that despite the madness of the past few days it’s been quite a bit of fun.  Hopping in and out of trucks with random Sudanese men, an AK47 at my feet, flagging down pickup trucks, yelling at ministers of tourism, police chiefs and anyone else who got in the way of the cyclists.  Writing press releases in the middle of the desert with a towel over my head.  Trying to edit photos in the back of the buckey (Afrikaans for pickup truck) as fun as the past week has been I’m looking forward to getting back to some semblance of a routine.  (As much as one can be found on this type of trip)

In case you’re curious I thought I would try to give you a bit of what a routine looks like here on tour.  I have a number of different duties.  We have a duty roster and we rotate through it weekly.

I do breakfast sweep twice a week. This means I wake up early and help get breakfast going and then I am the last rider out of camp.  Ensuring that everyone get to lunch without incident. I carry a GPS and Sat phone on these days in addition to my camera and cell phone.  One day a week I’m off, which means the day is generally my own.  I have opted to ride the full day on these days.  It’s better to be out riding otherwise work will be found for you to do.  I really enjoy the opportunity to experience a small slice of what the riders feel day to day.  My last day off I left camp early to help flag.  We hopped off the road and onto the dirt paths.  The first village I went through I was the first person on a bike they had seen.  In addition to also being the first women on a bicycle they have potentially ever seen.  Biking though was just like a national geographic magazine.  The ride was more single track then road riding.  I’m loving the big tires but missing the suspension occasionally.

The rest of the week I do accommodations duty.  This is my training for Tour Director in future years.  I switch between tour directors.  But we spend the bulk of the day trying to stay ahead of the cyclists (sometimes these guys are very fast) and handling any issues that may come up.  I try to get up early and enjoy a minute of two to myself (read: pick up a shovel and enjoy some quiet desert time before all the eyes are on you) Pack up my home again (cot while comfortable also very annoying setting up and down daily) my gear bag between rest days keeps getting smaller and smaller.  I end up wearing the something day after day for no other reason other then it means less laundry on rest days and I smell so putting on clean clothes when you haven’t showered in 6 days feels fruitless.  Repack my locker (must take a photo so my family can laugh my going from a full walk in closet to two 60 lt duffle bags) curse the amount of items with me. Coffee… essential.  My dishes are in the staff kit so I usually have to fight for my giant green mug that has to be washed again because of the sand and grit. Dig up a spoon..fail…use a fork to eat oatmeal. have coffee in one hand and try to sort out everything else while the riders get read to get back on their bikes.  Hop into the Buckey.  Work the GSP, write down data for the route sheet for next year.  Stop for an awesome second breakfast.  Egypt and Sudan were awesome for morning falafels and something called fuul.  Fuul is a bean dish that’s amazing.  Now that we’ve reached Ethiopia its ingeria and spicy chickpea hummus dishes.  Awesome. Back on the road and we scout out a lunch spot.  The truck drivers are amazing; these guys take trucks over some sketchy terrain with FULL loads. (As the riding gets more challenging the number of clients in the trucks increases) back in the truck and we scout out camp for the night.  Sometimes we use the previous year’s camp or search for something new.  It’s always a fun game.  This is usually the time that we can catch up on communication items too.  If I’m able to sit in the back of the truck (this is not a normal truck it’s like a global command centre in the back with chargers, 6 laptops, GPS and a BEGAN sat hook up.  It’s awesome) this is where I write blog posts from, edit, tag and sort photos, write press releases and sort race data.  I’ve been given the role of Race Director which means nightly I compile the race data and help with the racers needs.  As the riders roll in we update the white boards with the route for the next day.  Update the Bible (route data) and get sorted for the next day.  Ensure that everything is charged and ready to go.  In Egypt and Sudan cellphone coverage was good.  Here in Ethiopia we can barely get the Sat phones to work.

Then dinner.  Which is always amazing.  While everyone is finishing up dinner I usually sneak away to do the race data.  I didn’t know that my days as a tax librarian would come in so handy on the side of the road in Africa.  Excel spreadsheet!

I usually am the last person to get my tent up.  This is good because I can find a decent spot away from the riders and have some quiet time before crashing.  I thought I would be able to get more reading done but I think I’ve made it through 80 pages of my book since we left Cairo.  Sigh

That my day in a life.  As long as we have all of our chickens in for the night I’m happy.  Ethiopia is the true test of the group.  With the difficult terrain, children everywhere throwing stones and tired bodies.