The desert takes its toll (Days 21-22)
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South of Khartoum, the roads were not what they had been the rest of the way through Sudan. They were as narrow as they had been throughout the country, but in much worse condition. They also featured something the rest of the country’s roads didn’t: traffic. The traffic wasn’t very forgiving either. I had to jump off the road several times. With my narrow road tires, I wasn’t able to stay in control at one point and fell hard into the dirt. I landed on my arm, so my shoulder was hurt. Aside from that I mostly just had road rash. The driver of the vehicle that ran me off the road stopped and helped me up. After making sure I was OK, I think he gave me a lecture on how to ride on the road. At the time, I just assumed he was telling me to wait for a ride, so I thanked him and rode on with one arm.
Back at camp, I rigged myself a sling with a strap from my duffel bag. I had joked that I could set up my tent with one hand tied behind my back. It turns out that I can. Everybody had similar problems with traffic, and told stories of having to jump off the road to avoid being run over.
One rider had flown over her handlebars and suffered a concussion when an enthusiastic local jumped out in front of her. She had to be taken to a hospital and checked out. Needless to say, she lost her EFI status. Another rider had fallen and cracked her helmet and sported some serious road rash. Out of curiosity, I took a look at my helmet. Sure enough: split all the way across. The decorative plastic covering was all that was holding it together. Once the nurse was available, I had her check me out. Nothing broken. I had a rotator cuff injury, which is muscular. It will be painful for a number of weeks, but should heal. I got an injection of anti-inflammatory medication that seemed to help almost immediately.
The next morning, my shoulder was OK to ride, as long as I was gentle with it. It ached throughout the day, but it wasn’t intolerable. Today I started noticing problems with sun sensitivity as well. It’s a well-known side-effect of doxycycline. I hope it doesn’t get much worse. My skin stings when it comes into contact with something, and tingles everywhere else that has been exposed to the sun.
After lunch, I noticed that I could easily be riding on rural roads back home. Everything about them was identical, from the quality of the surface, to the consistency of the shoulders, to the number and type of defects, to the weeds growing along the roads. A little later we had a turn-off and rode through some small towns filled to the brim with children. Most of them were enthusiastically happy to say hello. Many also wanted to high-five, and would hit our arms or our bikes if we didn’t do it. I nearly ran over a kid that grabbed my handlebars. One group of crafty little brats built a speed bump and then crowded in from both sides of the road and started hitting me and throwing things. One boy threw a glass bottle that broke right next to my front tire.
Back at camp, I learned that one of the female riders had been severely harassed by a group of teenage boys. This led to a passionate discussion at the rider meeting of what can be done when we encounter these sorts of things. I also learned that my iPhone will no longer charge, even with the SIM card removed (an obviously less-important topic).
During dinner, a bus arrived and people started piling out and running around our camp. Then we were treated to a karate and gymnastics demonstration by a couple of local groups. We took pictures of them performing, and then they took pictures with their mobile phones of us eating our dinner. Nothing breaks up a monotonous stretch of desert landscape like a random karate demonstration.
After dinner, one of the riders wasn’t acting quite right. He said he was fine, but just had empty answers to anyone’s questions. Closer inspection revealed that his helmet had a large crack and had had a lot of scrapes around his neck. It appeared as though he had been hit by a car, but had no recollection of the event. His condition deteriorated quickly after that. He obviously had a serious concussion and was driven back to a hospital. This was scary for all of us to watch.