Sunday, February 13, 2011

How 'bout a boring one? Anyone?

With all the bantering and bambling this far, you might be asking yourself at this point, "Is this not a bike trip?" "She hasn't actually mentioned cycling once has she?"

It is true, amongst the road side adventures, and unexpected encounters there is also a great deal of riding going on over here.  Quite an epic amount actually. At this point I am seriously impressed with all of those fighting through the 40 degree heat, desert roads, and mountain climbs and still holding onto their EFI status (the Every eFFing Inch club).  In either contrast or conjunction, as the days have grown longer,and the riding ever more challenging, a new group has formed with an attitude I can really relate too, the EFCB club (Every eFFing Coffee Break).  Oh yea, this is the way to do the TDA. Any road side distraction, we'll take it!

I thought at this point I might step away from entertaining stories of adventure and shed some light on the reality of my life over here.  I thought I'd write a real dry toast blog on what a Day In The Life looks like for us staffy's.   

It is somewhat of a miracle how each day comes to be with all the logistics of travelling through unpredictable places.  Each day we have our specific duties related to our job tittle, and then on top of that we have an 8 day rotating schedule that dictates where and how we spend the time from one camp to the next.  The medics and mechanics do more sweep riding than the other staff, but we all have our turns with sweeping and all the rest.  Myself and Elvis spend more days running straight to camp and sorting logistics on the other side, but either way, every day is different, and keeps each day a fun new mission.

The Sweeps:X2
Quite simple.  One staff is the sweep rider in the morning until lunch, the other, from lunch to camp.  The lunch sweep hops in the lunch truck first thing in the morning, sets up and prepares lunch for the riders, blasts some hillarious and pumping tunes from the lunch tanker then tags off with the morning sweep and rides in to camp for the afternoon.  The sweep rides behind the last rider, with a first aid kit and satalite phone, keeping enough distance behind the last rider as to not make them feel they are holding up anyone's show.   Sweeping can be quite fun, as you're typically riding at about half the speed you'd otherwise be riding and as such is quite relaxing and gives a great chance to chill and check out the places you're going through.  On the other hand, when it's hotter than hot, you're riding down dusty dirt roads in the desert and you've just finished your 10th liter of water for the day, and you just want to be in camp, you might feel as thought this is some cruel form of slow and painful turture.

Accomodation.
Yes. This is a good one.  You're up early, depending on the day and terrain, you might be taking off before sunrise.  You've got a GPS in front of you, flagging tape in one hand and a clipboard and pen in the other.   Off you head in our 4x4 runabout, heading for the hills, taking notes of all new additions to the route, and where much needed recources are available, such as water, gas and good markets.  Water: kind of a big deal in the desert.  At every turn, you jump out and flag the route, which for a few days this past week meant tying flagging tape the tallest peice of grass distinguising one dirt track into the sunset to another.  Fun.   Once you get to camp, you sort out whatever needs to be sorted in order for 2 massive overland trucks to come park and set up a kitchen to feed 100, set up the finish line flag and keep an eye out for the 1st racers.  You help out in the kitchen and keep a keen eye out for attendance of all cyclists coming in.  Once all the birdies are in the nest, high five with co staff and settle into dinner.  Not all riders in?  1 hour to sunset?  Load up some jerry cans with water, grabs some snacks, hop back in the runabout and go see how we're going on the road.

B.S.
Yes we even have an official BS day.  This of coarse stands for something, something known as breakfast and sanitation, but BS really hits the nail on the head.  You get up at least an hour before sunrise to sort out the breakfast scene, pack up real early and be ready to just be in the kitchen until the last rider goes.  Next you hop in one of the big overlanders, drive to camp and set up our 'toilet' situation for all the riders.  Oh this is a good day let me tell you.  Hah... someone's gotta do it.

Kitchen Day!
Another fave.  A departure from the all-rider-all-the-time world of TDA. After breakfast, hop in the truck with the cooks and head to the market!  Fun.  Always an adventure, and guaranteed to be a bit of a mission.  Once you've successfully purchased more food that you can actually fit in your truck, you head to camp, start chopping veggies, telling stories of adventures past, bad jokes, inappropriate stories, lots of laughs.  Kitchen is always where the best party is.  This is a good one.  Dinner is a happy time at camp.  The food is always delicious, the heat is passing, the day is done.  Calm of the day sets in.

Unscheduled.
Everyday there is a mission, a unique circumstance to the day, an unexpected logistic that without this daily duty could turn into a gong show.  But no, expect the unexpected, shoot for the escape hatch and pull out your unscheduled card.  
Example of my day on this duty last week.  A hot hot day on dirt roads through the desert, a long day and predictions were that riders would need lots of extra water.  Adele and Claire get in the runabout at sunrise, rips ahead of the racers, get dropped under The Tree of the day with 4 jerry cans of water, a pile of grapefruits and see ya later.  We wait until the first rider shows up and spend the rest of the day refilling riders water for their last 20km of riding.  Folks were pumped on this, let me tell you.

Web and Waste.
Another goodie.  You are the garbage man and the journalist!  What a combo.  You deal with the waste of the tour in the morning.  I won't bore you with the finer details here, but it does involve a large burn pile.  For the rest of the day you ride, take photo's of the day, get some quotes, and good stories, and turn it all into a story for the TDA blog.

All right, there it is. Stay tunned for 'Why I love Ehtiopia' coming to a bambling blog near you.

3 comments:

  1. How critical is first aid training to the job? Did you have any prior? Sorry for the boring question.. loving the blog posts.

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  2. Heya VicBikeNerd, a month later your response comes... Yes! First aid is certainly a daily affair around these parts. I have my advanced wilderness first aid. We also have two marvelous medics on tour from whom I've been learning heaps from, and who have a rather well stoked medical bin to get us through. During the rest of the day however, riding sweep, or manning the lunch truck, I've certainly had my share of 'medical moments' to say the least.

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