DNFP (Day 24)
By admin. Filed in Sudan |
The Dinder National Fabulous Park (DNFP) experience has been described by some as the “Biggest EFI massacre in TDA historyâ€. Warning bells had already gone off in my head when I learned that we would be riding 140k in dirt today. Even on the best of roads, this was going to be a very hard day. We definitely didn’t have the best of roads. What we encountered was 140k of brutal, pounding, corrugated roads, with just enough loose sand to prevent proper traction from occurring. Lots of people spent the day falling over, but more importantly, less than half the riders were able to finish at all. That’s even when the total distance was reduced from 140k to 118k.
There were two reasons for experimenting with this new route this year: one was to keep us off the dangerous paved roads south of Khartoum; the other was to experience the supposed abundant wildlife in the park. No group has ever been allowed to cycle through the park before.
I consider myself to be quite lucky with the wildlife. We were supposed to be riding in groups through the park, but I found myself on my own for long periods. It was while I was on my own that I came across maybe 50 baboons hanging around the road. They scattered when I stopped to take pictures, of course. At another point, when I thought I missed the lunch stop, I headed for the dry river bank to look for other riders. Instead, I found a group of wildebeest that ran into the tall grass when they saw me.
I had strained a muscle in my calf in the morning, and almost stopped riding at lunch. Most of the people at the lunch stop were actually waiting for a support truck to carry them the rest of the way. I decided to scarf down some lunch and try to get through the park. Back on the road, some quick math told me that it wasn’t going to be possible to get to camp before 8PM. By then I would have been swept off the course anyway. 6km past lunch, I decided to stop punishing my body with the road and get on the sweep truck. That’s literally on the truck, since there was no room in the truck.
Past the lunch stop, we were all riding with armed guards since the park officials were worried about possible attacks from lions. The truck I was on was riding behind the last few riders at 8km/h, so when we had the chance to switch trucks, a few of us jumped into the back of another pickup truck. Not too far down the road, we stopped to help another truck and waited there until the sweep vehicle eventually passed us. Eventually, Paul showed up in a newly-rented dump truck. It had become clear that there weren’t enough vehicles in the park to carry all the riders and bicycles that had to be carried to the finish, so this random utility vehicle had come to our rescue. Even that vehicle broke down twice on the way to the end of the park. We worked our way over the rough roads at high speed with sharp thorn branches scraping our arms and faces to the end of the park in the dark. Each rider we passed was required to get on the truck. Most were disappointed. Some were understandably upset at losing their hard-earned EFI status. Once we reached the impassible river bank at the edge of the park, we all unloaded and walked to our trucks waiting for us on the other side (they had gone around the park).
We arrived at camp after 9PM (well past my usual bedtime) and I had no idea where my bike was. None of the staff did either. Eventually, I found another rider who had stayed on the sweep truck with it and pointed me to my bike bag. (My bike was carrying things I needed for the evening: dishes, medications, toilet paper, etc.) My bike was actually loaded on top of our lunch truck, and is inaccessible until morning