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I am currently in Lilongwe, capital city of Malawi, looking to head west tomorrow morning into Zambia in order to reach Lusaka and then Victoria Falls. It should mark the 4th major part of the journey so far and should culminate with reaching Pretoria/Johannesburg around the 10th June in time for England's first match against the USA in Rustenburg. For the rest of the blog I will talk about a couple of the people that I have met on this journey, both of whom are travelling with their own very good (and most importantly regularly updated :)) blogs: 1. Oli Broom - Embarked late last year on a cycling trip to Australia in time for the Ashes which start at the end of the year. He talked some sense back into me while I was nearly going mad in Sudan (he cycled with us from Aswan - Khartoum) so I'm therefore eternally grateful. You can read all about his epic journey here. 2. Bjorn Heidstrom - Bald Norwegian goatee sporting fellow cyclist that I met on the ferry to Wadi Halfa and then again when visiting one of my charity's projects in Mombasa. Spends his time having stones thrown at him by kids, stitching football shirts together from all over the world and raising awareness for UN refugee camps, many of which he has visited in Africa on his journey. Here is his site. In the mean time, it would be great to hear from absolutely anyone who ends up reading my blog. Hopefully it might motivate me to put some more stuff on over the next couple of months. You can e-mail me on john.cc.walton@googlemail.com.

East is the beast

As I sit in an Internet "cafe" in Gedaref, the last decent sized town in Sudan before Ethiopia, I begin to hear loud bass pumping through the wall. I continue to check my e-mails, facebook and what happened in the Six Nations at the weekend rugby results. But something is definitely going on. The clunky internet access finally shows me the end of an interview with Brian O'Driscoll and this allows me to let my curiosity get the better of me. So I pop out for a yoghurt. A crowd has gathered on the corner of the street, and in the background there is definitely something on fire.

On closer inspection, the crowd is surrounding three singers who are all wearing Omar al-Bashir t-shirts while some other musicians are playing in the background a type of music that I can't say I've ever heard before. There is a large video screen above the singers also displaying Mr Al-Bashir waving his arms and speaking to various people. There are some men directly in front of the singers in turbans and Jalabiyas waving long sticks over their heads. Flames are now bellowing out of some metal thing in the background. I think a cook has lost control of his oven, but for the interests of story telling I am keeping the possibility of pre-riot arson open. I head back into the internet cafe, no longer worrying about how to start this blog posting.

It's been a crappy couple of days. When we left Khartoum on Saturday afternoon, the weather was repulsively hot. Duncan wasn't convinced that his thermometer's reading of 52 degrees was accurate... The salt crystals forming on his lycra suggested otherwise. I had earlier jammed ice cubes into my drinking bottles, but within half an hour the water inside them was hot. My body must be working some serious overtime to keep me at a reasonable temperature.

To make matters worse, while cycling last night to avoid the heat, one of Linsey's front pannier racks decided to give way, ripping through 4 spokes and sending her bike flying - fortunately the road was quiet... We flagged the first passing truck which took us to a town down the road. The wheel was badly damaged, and when we took the rack to a joiner the next day he simply said "this... is finished." We were aggressively charged money by a man who seemed to be doing us a favour and had another man cause a puncture by adjusting the tyre valve for no reason. And this heat just does not subside.

Things in the east of Sudan have not quite seemed the same as the other parts that we've passed through. One man who helped us find a bus to take us to Gedaref where we could fix the bike properly did not mention the full cost of taking all our stuff. "I'm telling you this is the price"... "No-one understands why you come here"... "People want to get out of Sudan". Despite all the positive experiences of the last 3 weeks, right now I don't blame them. The heat would appear to be getting to everything and everyone.

A decent hotel and shower this evening have made things better and the music has actually cheered me up a bit, even if it has been sponsored by the world's first ICC-indicted world leader. Now I just need to get back to my room...

Next stop Ethiopia!

Khartoum Characters

After 13 days’ cycling, we’ve spent the last few nights in the spare room of an apartment sharing with 4 Eritrean girls who have made their home here. They have an amazing story – two of the sisters living here spent 9 days and nights walking from Asmara to Khartoum. I asked what they did for water and one of them made a scraping motion in the same way that a child might when digging a pit on the beach. “It’s in the ground” she said.

People may think that I’m crazy for even attempting to cycle down to Cape Town, but it doesn’t even compare to what so many people on this continent have to do just to live a decent life. They see no heroism in this – it’s merely a case of doing what needs to be done to survive. There are probably hundreds of thousands of cases similar to this in Khartoum alone, in a country which is said to be almost as complex as Africa itself...

The heat here is extraordinary – like when you put your face too near an oven door when you open it. 20 hours a day. It never goes above 49 degrees here – the law states that people don’t have to go to work if it goes above 50. I have been told several times that actually the temperature goes above this on a regular basis. According to Duncan’s thermometer on our way into town last Sunday, it was 51 ̊C in the open air.

Given Sudan’s prevalence in the media for some unsavoury reasons, people might be excused for thinking that Khartoum might not be a pleasant place. I have in fact heard it described as the safest capital city in Africa – on the evidence on show, I think that this is quite possible. It is remarkably wealthy in some areas with huge Dubai–style hotels along the side of the Nile. Despite the heat, our stay here has been a hugely regenerative experience (bank account excepted) after 13 days’ cycling through the north of the country, mostly through wasteland barely worthy of being described as desert.

Since arriving we have gratefully experienced the hospitality of British embassy staff and been shown the town by our original hosts, who run perhaps Khartoum’s premier nutritional health centre, which is attempting to tackle the increasing problem of obesity in the city. Something I definitely did not expect to see! We will however be back on our saddles heading for Addis Ababa at the crack of dawn tomorrow (Saturday 13th March) with stories of stone-throwing kids giving us some cause for concern.

I know however that it is unlikely to be as difficult an experience as the one that our current hosts went through. One of the girls that walked all those miles through the desert has just had an application to move to Australia with her fiancé accepted – I truly hope that it will give her the opportunities that she deserves.

Aswan Ferry

I can't say I was surprised by the state of the ferry that took us down the Nile from Aswan to Wadi Halfa - we went through the terminal via a process that seemed to have been made up as we went along and eventually made our way onto a vessel full of people pushing, shoving, lying down in every direction, shouting and stacking up huge boxes of all sorts of products being shipped into Sudan from Epypt.

There were about 15 "westerners" on the ship, including the Swiss equivalent of Michael Palin (though luckily not from the Swiss equivalent of Monty Python), most of whom found space on the top deck in among the hundreds of people who had fought to get a bit of space somewhere.

Parts of the boat were hugely crowded and the toilets on board would have to be ranked somewhere in the bottom three that I've seen since I started the journey (that means apocalyptically bad) but apart from that, the 20 hour journey was pretty smooth, with us all sleeping out on the deck in a huge raft of sprawled bodies.

When we arrived at Wadi Halfa, a small dust-ball of a town with rooms costing about $3 for the night, we went through the most long and drawn out visa registration I have ever come across, taking various bits of paper from one office to another over the course of about 2 hours. But it still felt good to be in Sudan and making good progress on our journey.

Brand Nubian experiences...

For a number of reasons, Monty Python has become a running theme on this trip so far. Duncan played the Galaxy song on his iPod on our 3rd night in the desert as we lay gazing up at the stars and the scenes in some of the films are things we can talk about when there's nothing else (Quite a common occurrence in the desert). I feel that Mrs Brown in the Meaning of life kind of sums up what being in the desert for so long is like: "Makes you feel sort of insignificant doesn't it?"

So it was nice to finally hit the Nile and see things like vegetation! Unfortunately I probably got a bit carried away and ate and drank everything I could lay my hands on, causing me to be up all night on Friday being sick. Probably from one of the roadside watercoolers.

I'm still not 100% but we're in Aswan now and we'll be catching the ferry to Sudan this afternoon, so the punishing cycling regime that we had been observing can mercifully go on hold for at least a while. With temperatures in Sudan topping 45 degrees at the moment, I think that this will be the case for the foreseeable future!

The Nile is probably the most striking thing I've seen since I've been in Egypt to be honest... when we've been riding alongside it, the palm trees and slow moving expansive water create a timeless atmosphere that makes me think about the significance that the river holds, both past and present. Taking a quick dip on the way into Aswan was something I will never forget.

I have a feeling that the ferry will be an experience to remember as well and it's difficult to imagine exactly what will be awaiting us over the Sudanese border, but I guess that's part of the fun. Not sure when I will be able to update next (maybe not until we reach Khartoum) but since I can't upload photos onto the computer I am using, I thought that I would put this in instead as it has been going round our heads for the last few days!

Just deserts... part 2

Apart from having almost every roadside cafe worker trying to charge us double for our food & drink (something we've had to quickly wise up to), the people we've met in the desert have been extremely helpful, and the value of waving and smiling at people and greeting them has on occasion been invaluable.

On Monday morning, we quickly put away about 55km at a good pace. Then we started to struggle a bit. Usually there is (apparently) a decent northerly breeze that should have gently assisted us in our journey. Not on the afternoon of Monday 15th Feb 2010 though. In the blistering 39 degree midday desert heat, and heading into what I can only politely describe as a "strong wind" I can comfortably speak on behalf of my companions in saying that the realities of this soujourn began to hit home. Even in downhill stretches, it was like riding a bike through treacle. At one point we were all laid out at the side of the road for about an hour just to try to regain a bit of energy.

We hammered into the wind for maybe another 25km at a snail's pace and found a roadside cafe where a family took pity on us and gave us some bread and cheese. I then introduced myself to the group of policemen that had come to see what was going on... We were extremely relieved that they were happy for us to camp next to the police station!

We awoke the next day and got back on the road at 7.30am (with police escort). The wind picked up again and when we finally got to Hurgada we were absolutely shattered. We got talking to a local businessman, who said he could find us a reduced price appartment. $35 for one night not bad at all...

He was only one of the many people that have helped us along the way, but I am now too tired to even try and mention them all here. Back on the road tomorrow (Wednesday) as we need to make the ferry from Aswan(another 400km+) down the Nile to Sudan on Monday 22nd.

Looking forward to a good night's sleep... in a bed!

Just deserts... part 1

Ideally I would have updated this a couple of times by now, but the Red Sea coastal route has thrown us more than a couple of surprises (other than non-existent internet cafes) as you will see!

Having sorted ourselves out in Cairo, we finally headed off last Friday at 2.30pm local time on the road south-east towards Ein Sokhna. Happily this was a big wide road that allowed us to get used to our fully-loaded bikes whilst staying clear of the sometimes crazy traffic! We managed 56km before the sun started to get low and we found a big piece of concrete piping to pitch our tents behind and get some rest.



We set off the following day at 10am towards the coast and managed to make it all the way to the Red Sea, where we were hassled by some security staff... they did eventually let us sleep at the beginning of what we had been warned was our most dangerous stretch of road. Fortunately we were able to navigate this bit of the road early the following morning before the traffic really started, but it was obvious how dangerous it was when half way along we saw a coach which had had its front ripped off in a crash. Fast-moving trucks pulling out into the middle of the very narrow coastal road to overtake is basically the way it went for about 20km.

One gigantic windfarm and lots of tourist building along the coast... sadly not much of it was finished though so stopping points were rare. That Sunday we went on to cycle for 154km through one of the most barren areas I have ever seen, which probably caused us to have minor delusions of grandeur as to what we might be able to achieve... but we put our heads down that night feeling pretty good, having found a comfortable camping spot.

Cairo!

Cairo has been a great place to kick off this adventure - we can pick up pretty much any of the stuff we might need for the 1st part of the trip here, but at the same time it's definitely not London, so we are slowly but surely finding our feet in another part of the world. I woke up to a lot of messages telling me that their trip to work had been interrupted by my picture staring at them from page 3 of the Metro! Sorry about the attire... not my idea :) We've been looked after brilliantly since arriving at 9pm local time last night thanks to one of Lindsey's travelling contacts (Justin) who lives & works in Cairo. He's arranged for us to use an apartment for a couple of nights while we settle in which allows us to spread all of our stuff out so that we can jettison any unneeded bits and pieces that we might have packed. We need a couple of days to sort out our Sudan visa which requires, amongst other things, a letter of invitation from the British Embassy, but I hope to post one more time from El Rehab before we start cycling. Stay tuned!

Last few hours...

Picked up my bike yesterday from Cycle Care in High Wycombe. Bike looks sturdy which is good! Am about to get a lift to Heathrow and then on to Africa where the fun should start.

This is my facebook page which will also allow you to follow my progress, hopefully with some podcast updates at some point! Please join if you can.

See you when I get to Egypt!

5 days to go!

Hello! This is my first ever blog post, so please bear with me... I hope to update it as often as possible as I bike the 7,000 miles (give or take a few hundred) from Cairo - Cape Town that I will attempt to ride, starting on February 9th 2010. If I can work it out, I will add photos, videos and anything else that my currently limited technical skills will allow me to do. I sincerely hope above all that it will not be boring, so please feel free to let me know if it is and I'll have a go at amateur lion-taming or something. Nothing interesting to report so far unless visas, vaccinations or learning to set up a blog appeals to you, although I have met the people at the charity that I am raising money for, who have been very helpful. They are a small London-based team that directly supports projects that help disadvantaged children, primarily in Asia and Africa. I hope to visit one of their projects while on my travels if time allows... please do consider a donation to them if you haven't done so already (link).