incident around half past seven (new time zone, I'm an hour ahead of
BST now so am on GMT)
Im afraid I wrote little this day. This is because it was so tough.
This time it wasn't the terrain but the distance and the monotony of
the roads. I covered 212km, which is only possible by getting going
early and stopping late with virtually no stops. If you're on long
straight roads with no views the monotony can be broken up a little with
regular stops to rest under trees and watch things go by. If you
keep still long enough out here all sorts of creatures start to come
out of their hiding places. I couldn't afford this luxury. I just had
to keep going. To make matters worse I'm now pretty sure my iPod was
stolen by airport baggage handlers. Unless it's in my bedroom at home
(Tommy, Zoe, Matt?) since I can't find it anywhere. I wasn't sure when
I would next get power so didn't feel able to listen to podcasts on
the iPhone.
In short today was nearly too much. I nearly gave up a few times. I
passed two towns on the map which turned out to be almost non-
existent. At least from a cyclists point of view. You see if I'm
covering a long distance I can't afford half an hour to detour a few
km down a side road and am forced to just press on, drinking warm salty water.
From the point of view of the mental battle one of the worst things I
did was around lunchtime. It was whilst checking out one such side road.
All I'd been able to find was a truck stop. The owner was there, but said he
wasn't opening for another half an hour (too long for me). As I plodded back
up to the tarred road one of the enormous lorries with a huge trailer slowly began pulling out alongside me. I
grabbed the tailguard and was pulled along for about ten metres. It
felt great (can I point out this was a side road - I was not cheating
- I have still cycled all the way) I was in two minds whether to hang on whilst he
picked up speed and get a free (though probably quite dangerous ride). Luckily perhaps the lorry in question pulled over for some reason and
didn't appear to be going any further for a while. I carried on, but
from then on was haunted by the power I'd felt in my hand when I'd
held the massive vehicle. Now I didn't just dream about food, sleep
and cold drinks, I also had to fight the dreams about grabbing passing
lorries.
The distance forced me to continue throught the heat of the
day. It was getting really tough. One of the emails I'd recieved
yesterday was from my friend Rakhee. She had a really tough time a few
years ago (much harder than my mere bike ride) and had sent me some of
the quotes which kept her going throught this. Rakhee they really
helped. For me the killer quote was Lance Armstrong's 'pain is
temporary, failure is forever' that meant I just could not stop.
I eventually reached Ghanzi, once again about two hours after dark.
I'd booked to camp at Thakadu lodge and was overjoyed to see the sign
by the road. I'd heard it was a great place, but as I turned down the
road to get to it I went straight into deep sand. The lodge was three
kilometers down this track. I couldn't do it. It was too much (yes I did
cry). I turned back onto the main road to head into Ghanzi to find a
place to stay. I hate doing this after dark. I get very scared.
Luckily there was a place about 500m down to road. I pulled in there.
Handed over money put up my tent and went to sleep. I ate nothing I
was too tired.
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