A crucial
part of every day are the coke stops. Whilst we have continued to cycle
through the desert the towns and villages that we have passed have been limited
so in the directions we are given each day, the opportunities to break for a
Coke stop are marked. These offer a good opportunity to break up
the distance with a bit of shade, interact with some of the people living in
the apparently hostile landscape that we are travelling through and inject some
very welcome sugar into our over worked bodies.
47km – Village
82km – Lunch
109km – Coke stop
147km – Police check
148km – Camp
Another
example of directions for the day:
Wind Farm to
Desert Camp
[Wind Farm was in fact a desert camp, renamed because of the huge Haboob that blew in – local terminology for blowing an f’ing gale. Optimistic as always, we assumed that the Haboob would blow itself out in an hour, so we asked a Sudanese man hanging out in his hut when it might end – his response was ‘never’!]
[Wind Farm was in fact a desert camp, renamed because of the huge Haboob that blew in – local terminology for blowing an f’ing gale. Optimistic as always, we assumed that the Haboob would blow itself out in an hour, so we asked a Sudanese man hanging out in his hut when it might end – his response was ‘never’!]
0km – Right
out of camp [crucial instruction to follow – an Irishman and a Kiwi left to
their own devices managed 5km back the way we had come the day before]
47km – Village
82km – Lunch
109km – Coke stop
147km – Police check
148km – Camp
The
resonance with one of the charities which we are supporting is not lost on us
(see our previous blog post on Cola Life. Click here for more about ColaLife, or alternatively see more on our Charities Page.
The ability to source Coca Cola (often not as ice cold as we
might like – but who is complaining!) in almost any small village, collection
of buildings, or even just a single roadside shack is astonishing.
See below for a particularly remote stop:
See below for a particularly remote stop:
 |
| A remote Coke stop |
These are
often manned by a group of men or boys who seem rather intrigued by us
The oral
rehydration salts which Cola Life seeks to distribute to these places to combat
dehydration is also something that we are recognising the importance of on our
trip. Admittedly we aren’t making things easy for ourselves, cycling 140
odd kilometres a day through the heat, but we have started taking sachets at
the end of each ride to keep our salts up.
 |
| Coke crates |
The Irishman must have been given a hard time based on national origin for that error!
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