laatste voorbereidingsperikelen

Nog een paar dagen en dan is het zover. A.s. maandag vertrek naar Dakar. Deze week staat nog in het teken van de voorbereidingen, best wel druk nog..

Op het laatste moment heb ik alsnog het visum van Ghana bemachtigd en heb nu dus 5 prachtige stickers in mijn paspoort. Dat moeten wel hele soepele grensovergangen worden met die mooie plaatjes. Tijdens mijn verblijf in Den Haag om het visum te regelen nog even de laatste spulletjes aangeschaft en ben er nu redelijk klaar voor. Ik heb genoeg reservemateriaal om ter plekke een hele extra fiets in elkaar te puzzelen...Waarschijnlijk dus veel te veel en zal ook nog wel het nodige zijn vergeten maar dat zien we dan wel weer. Bij het inpakken zal ik nog wel wat keuzes moeten maken.

Enig probleempje is dat ik de pendalen van mijn fiets met geen mogelijkheid los krijg, ook niet met grof geweld. De rest van de fiets was al gedemonteerd en klaar om de fietsdoos in te gaan, en met pendalen past t niet. Dus alles maar weer monteren en even een ritje naar de lokale fietsboer maken. Mocht het niet lukken dan maar het hele crackstel demonteren.

Buiten dat verloopt alles dus redelijk voorspoedig al zullen er best nog wel wat problemen opduiken maar die zijn er om op te lossen.....

Some facts about the Harmattan

One thing which we ll have to face during our cycling trip through west africa is the Harmattan.The Harmattan is a hot, dry wind that

blows from the northeast or east (so head wind all the time !!!) in the westernSaharaand is strongest in late fall and winter (late November to mid-March, and thus just while we ll be cycling there). It usually carries large amounts of dust, which it transports hundreds of kilometres out over the Atlantic Ocean. So we ll probably encounter this phenomon which will make orientation a lot harder

. So how will we cope with this thing ? Probably not :-) but just in case i ll bring my gps, some maps, long cycling trousers and long sleeved shirts, a buff (a cloth to protect face and mouth), my skiing glasses and just the adventureous spirit; go with the flow ! Don't worry about things you can; t change. Easily said but not lightly done, i know.... but we'll see what happens and just have another bite in the dust !

visa and stuff

Time is closing in

A month from today we will depart on our big cycling tour through west africa leaving from Lac Rose, a small lake 30 km out of Dakar, Senegal. I keep a close eye on the temperatures of some places we will visit and i recon it will be a 'hot' trip! Its still around 38-40C in most places.

So today i received most of my visa, Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin and Togocan be checked off the list. Only one to go now: Ghana, so this will be another return trip to The Hague. It all went nice and quick but its still quit costly.

Other preparations are going smoothly as well and the longchecklist is almost done. Had to buy lots of things such as a new tent ( not to small), sleeping matrass, lots of spare parts for the bike, tires, spokes, medicines and other stuff from the drugstore, first aid kit, extra cycling cloths, mapsetc. etc. Alsoa buff and even my skiing glasses will come with me in case the harmattan, a local sahara sand storm, rears up. yep we will have to be prepared for all sorts of circumstances. Other handy things in that matterare the Iphone app of the SAS survival guide, which we can use in case off emergency (snake bites, broken bones, lack of water, sand storms and other nice things). After some websearching i managed to get some GPX maps of west africa for my GPS, so i wont have to get lost.

But as training is concerned, all the preparations have taken up so much time that cycling hasnt happened a lot lately, to say not at all. I only was able to squeeze ina two to three times a week indoor training and some running. Cycling has to happen in the weekend now that the dark days of autumn have set in, as well as the rain and storms which go with this period of the year. But alsoHilda and the kidswant to see some of me, in the days before departure. So i guess my fitness level will have to improve during the trip...there are plenty of Km's ahead of us to do so.

For now, some two weeks to work, a week off for some more preparations and then off to Africa !

New link - follow me live via sateliet

Today i am testing my new Spot Connect through which i can be followed live through satelite signal. I placed the link on this site. I know !! a little training trip is not very interesting to followbut for those who are interested you can track my down live when i am in Africa later this year. http://www.spotadventures.com/user/profile?user_id=76447 .I can place picures on the site which automatically will be placed on the spot where i am at thattime. I also can send out OK messages or other custom and type-and-send messages to e-mail or cell phones even from places where cell phones dont work and or without wifi.

Let me know if it works and if you are interested in receiving the messages so you will be updated regularly about my where-abouts. I will add you to the group !

preparations for the timbuktu tour.

just two months anda fewdays until the start of theTimbuktu Tour so i started my preparations for the tour. The flight is booked, arrival in Dakar November 14th, i received the visum for Mali and got my first injections against rabies and other tropical diseases. Still 4 shots to go.

Besides that i got a brandnew gadget, the Spot Connect http://findmespot.com/en/. With this device my Ipodconverts into a satellite messenger so i can send messages even in areas without cellularrange and it sends out GPS messages every ten minutes to a website so i can be followed live from anywhere in the world. I will place the link to this siteon soon. Iteven sends out sos messages whenever needed. So its not only a nice-to-have gadget but also a piece of mind for home. (but to be honest, i really like the gadget part of it:-))

As for training...cycling has been a bit slow lately. During our holiday in northern greece i had some really nice training in the local mountain-gravel roadswith 35c. and even in some parts where there was no road at all so that was a tru practice for the african plains, especiallyas theareaappeared to be full of snakes.

Afterourvacation, back to work which slowed down training. But yesterday i joined the100kmRide for the Roses in Aalsmeer with 10.000 other cyclists, acharity ride for KWF Kankerbestrijding which raised 1,5 million euros for this good cause. In spite of the huge crowd riding was pretty fast at some stretches (topspeed 48km/h) and at times was not the leisurely ride i expected. Although it was not a race, some thought it was and then you go with the flow. Not so good for my knee though, which isslightly overtrained andworries me a bit for the time to come.

So next few months i will have to intencify training, mostly in the weekends. A further update on my training-schedule and preparationswill follow soon.

New Bike

Today finally my new bike arrived !. As i am on the road so much more i decided to order a road bike but had to wait for three long weeks. Now its finally here.Doing roadtours on a mountain bike is ok but its still like competing in a formula 1 racewith a tractor ! So i ordered a tru racebike: dutch brand: Sensa Romagna with Shimano 105 brakes, shifters etc. Not too expensive but of good quality for the purpose.

So as from now bicycling on the road will be so much easier and i will be able to keep up with the fast groups and improve my average Km/hr which is now 26km/h in a 110+km tour on the mountain bike. Tomorrow its my bike's maiden voyage: a 100+km tour through Noord Holland. I will bring some champaign for thisoccasion.

In the meantime training goes well. Tomorrow will be the sixt time this week, just one less as planned. With the new bike i will spend some more time on the bike and see less of the gym.

Follow @ronjonker

New schedule Timbuktu Tour

The new schedule for the bikeride through West Africais out. The route will be a 1.000 km longer totally 5.500 km adding approx. 9 days. We will stay in the southern part of Mali and have a little detourthrough Benin and Togo in stead of the loop to Mopti, Djenné and Timbuktu.

The detour has lots of new highlights and will take us through some interesting national parcs , towns and villages in those countries. Ilike the change making the tour more interesting with more variety in landscape, peopleand climate.

Some more facts: Longest dayride: 147 km, 31 days > 100km,13 restdays, 7 countries, christmas in Burkina Faso, Newyears day in Benin. Nice, I always wanted to sing christmas songs under a palmtree !!

Here is the schedule (as far as a schedule is possible in africa anyhow)

Distance (km)

0 Friday 18-Nov-2011 Arrival Senegal Dakar

1 Saturday 19-Nov-2011 1 Senegal Reserve de Bandia 52km

2 Sunday 20-Nov-2011 2 Senegal Kaolack 128km

3 Monday 21-Nov-2011 3 The Gambia Farrefenni 88km

4 Tuesday 22-Nov-2011 4 The Gambia Georgetown 118km

5 Wednesday 23-Nov-2011 Restday The Gambia Georgetown

6 Thursday 24-Nov-2011 5 The Gambia Basse Santa Su 94km

7 Friday 25-Nov-2011 6 Senegal Tambacounda 125km

8 Saturday 26-Nov-2011 7 Senegal Goudiri 121km

9 Sunday 27-Nov-2011 8 Mali Diboli 79km

10 Monday 28-Nov-2011 9 Mali Kayes 91km

11 Tuesday 29-Nov-2011 Restday Mali Kayes

12 Wednesday 30-Nov-2011 10 Mali Diamou 61km

13 Thursday 1-Dec-2011 11 Mali Bafoulabé 104km

14 Friday 2-Dec-2011 12 Mali Manantali 140km

15 Saturday 3-Dec-2011 13 Mali Kita 103km

16 Sunday 4-Dec-2011 14 Mali Kati 145km (nice birthday present)

17 Monday 5-Dec-2011 15 Mali Bamako 53km

18 Tuesday 6-Dec-2011 Restday Mali Bamako

19 Wednesday 7-Dec-2011 Restday Mali Bamako

20 Thursday 8-Dec-2011 16 Mali Sido 128 km

21 Friday 9-Dec-2011 17 Mali Tiéfala 131km

22 Saturday 10-Dec-2011 18 Mali Sikasso 115km

23 Sunday 11-Dec-2011 19 Burkina Faso Sindou 110km

24 Monday 12-Dec-2011 20 Burkina Faso Banfora 51km

25 Tuesday 13-Dec-2011 21 Burkina Faso Bobo Dioulasso 85km

26 Wednesday 14-Dec-2011 Restday Burkina Faso Bobo Dioulasso

27 Thursday 15-Dec-2011 22 Burkina Faso Nisséko 115km

28 Friday 16-Dec-2011 23 Burkina Faso Boura 108km

29 Saturday 17-Dec-2011 24 Burkina Faso Koumbo 104km

30 Sunday 18-Dec-2011 25 Burkina Faso Nazinga Game Ranch 83km

31 Monday 19-Dec-2011 Restday Burkina Faso Nazinga Game Ranch

32 Tuesday 20-Dec-2011 26 Burkina Faso Tiébélé 90km

33 Wednesday 21-Dec-2011 27 Burkina Faso Tiougou 118km

34 Thursday 22-Dec-2011 28 Burkina Faso Ouagadougou 127km

35 Friday 23-Dec-2011 Restday Burkina Faso Ouagadougou

36 Saturday 24-Dec-2011 Restday Burkina Faso Ouagadougou

37 Sunday 25-Dec-2011 29 Burkina Faso Koupéla 137km

38 Monday 26-Dec-2011 30 Burkina Faso Fada-Ngourma 97km

39 Tuesday 27-Dec-2011 31 Burkina Faso Pama 104km

40 Wednesday 28-Dec-2011 32 Benin Tanguiéta 99km

41 Thursday 29-Dec-2011 Restday Benin Tanguiéta

42 Friday 30-Dec-2011 33 Benin Koussoukoingou 88km

43 Saturday 31-Dec-2011 34 Benin Djougou 104km

44 Sunday 1-Jan-2012 35 Benin Bassila 86km

45 Monday 2-Jan-2012 36 Benin Agoua 100km

46 Tuesday 3-Jan-2012 37 Benin Tchetti 79km

47 Wednesday 4-Jan-2012 38 Benin Abomey 89km

48 Thursday 5-Jan-2012 Restday Benin Abomey

49 Friday 6-Jan-2012 39 Togo Asrama 85km

50 Saturday 7-Jan-2012 40 Togo Kpalimé 95km

51 Sunday 8-Jan-2012 41 Togo Atakpamé 103km

52 Monday 9-Jan-2012 Restday Togo Atakpamé

53 Tuesday 10-Jan-2012 42 Togo Badou 79km

54 Wednesday 11-Jan-2012 43 Ghana Nkwanta 81km

55 Thursday 12-Jan-2012 44 Ghana Bimbila 87km

56 Friday 13-Jan-2012 45 Ghana Tamale 147km

57 Saturday 14-Jan-2012 46 Ghana Busunu 112km

58 Sunday 15-Jan-2012 47 Ghana Mole National Parc 60km

59 Monday 16-Jan-2012 Restday Ghana Mole National Parc

60 Tuesday 17-Jan-2012 48 Ghana Bole 104km

61 Wednesday 18-Jan-2012 49 Ghana New Longoro 140km

62 Thursday 19-Jan-2012 50 Ghana Sunyani 103km

63 Friday 20-Jan-2012 51 Ghana Bibiani 90km

64 Saturday 21-Jan-2012 52 Ghana Kumasi 90km

65 Sunday 22-Jan-2012 Restday Ghana Kumasi

66 Monday 23-Jan-2012 53 Ghana Ofoase 126km

67 Tuesday 24-Jan-2012 54 Ghana Agona Swedru 104km

68 Wednesday 25-Jan-2012 55 Ghana Accra ( Kokrobite ) 81km

Great training day !

Todayhad lots of sun and hardly any wind. So a perfect day for a nice bikeride through beautiful Noord Holland. Its the best place especially in spring. I made it a 106km ride through the touristic scenes of the Zaanse Schans, Volendam and Alkmaar. Windmills and tulipfields ! Had to struggle a bit through a crowd of tourists atDe Dijk in Volendam but other than that riding went well with a nice avg. km/hr. and low hart rate.

Next time, i wont forget to bring any money as the fried fish in Volendam smelled really good, especially because i forgot to take my bread for underway. Luckily i had a few energy bars and gels with me.Afterwards it appeared that i had it with me after allas Hildaput it in my camelback, which i didnt know. thx hil !

Next training: tomorrowmorning 9 am: bootcamp !

Tomorrow an update on the new schedule of the Timbuktu Tour which now is 'slightly' longer than originally.