Woken by Suzanne getting up in the near-dark. Doze, tea, digestive biscuit…. Then it's 8 AM already. Julie’s back tyre blew out yesterday evening when I put her bike together after her flight. Looked faulty, as well as being an odd size; better ask Musa if he can buy something similar.
Coffee. Aaaah! Amazing that you can buy Lavazza in The Gambia, but then you can get many surprising things, like Asda smoked salmon and even yesterday’s supermarket sandwiches sometimes. And London papers, a day late; they’re recycled from incoming flights and delivered to your door….
Right. Check our web site and the JustGiving page — quite a few new donations. Good. Update the ‘Five Days to Go’ post to ‘Four… etc’ with new figures. Lots of emails. Nothing too serious. Time to produce a good copy of the briefing document we’ll discuss when everybody gets together on Thursday evening. About 20 points, three or four still unresolved, including whether the Gambian Police will give us a motorcycle escort or not (if they do, it probably won’t be free and poor Nana will have to go and meet with them, I fear). And then there’s the fact that Saturday will be ‘Set Settal’, or ‘clean the country' morning, so no cars are allowed on the road without a special permit…
Document is done, and sent off for approval. Must remember to circulate its predecessor, which sets out transport arrangements for the trip up to Basse, including who’s travelling with whom, then and on the ride itself. Oh, and what the sleeping arrangements will be, both at Basse and Soma.
Enough typing! Get back to the bikes. I think I’ve worked on everyone’s now except for Nana’s and Peter Noble's, and he doesn’t arrive until Thursday afternoon. Today (apart from Julie’s back tyre) there’s the nice old steel Bianchi I bought on Monday as a spare for use on the trip. Neither Musa nor I spotted its dodgy back wheel rim, but that can be solved by putting in my own spare, though it has more cogs on the cassette. Otherwise it’s not bad at all — really pretty good for forty quid. I give it some second-hand handlebar tape (white — not a good choice for dusty Gambia) and notice that the steering head bearings are really loose. And in fact it turns out they’re shot, so when they're tightened up, the bike will only go straight ahead. But I’ve got a spare for that too — a nice Campagnolo one — though fitting it without the proper tools is a bit of a struggle, involving the deep freeze, a large hammer and a tree stump.
And suddenly it’s 2 PM. Musa arrives with two tyres, but they’re far too narrow. He goes off to look again, but not before he’s confirmed that Lamin’s seat-post has broken where it holds (what used to be my) saddle. He thinks he can get one of those as well. We’ll see.
Now it’s 3,30 PM. Did I have breakfast? Can’t remember, but I think not. Too late now; sardines and mayo on brown and a nice cup of tea for lunch. And some orange juice. And an apple. Better.
The boys are back. A wider tyre, but with knobbly tread, so slow on the road. OK as a last resort, but Ed has some on a bike he doesn’t use which sound better. I’ll drop in on him when I go and see if the big ‘Slow – Cyclists Ahead’ signs to go on the back of the following medical support vehicle are ready. Oh, and Nana has some handlebar tape that’ll come in handy, so I'll drop in on him too.
I’m getting good at the handlebar wrapping, I think. New tape for the two Gambians, to their obvious delight. And on Suzanne’s, as she’s already damaged her ulnar nerve. A bit of extra padding may stop it getting any worse.
Lamin’s seatpost is not fixable, even with the bits Musa’s bought, so he gets my old one and he’s off for a 15 km run (not cycle) followed by some training on the beach, after which he’ll come back to check bike sizes. Will it be the Bianchi or the Merckx? He should stick with the latter really, for now, though the Bianchi is a better fit. We’ll do some juggling after the ride, perhaps.
Nip out. Signs are ready and look great! Get key from Ed and steal his front wheel from his flat (with permission). Back home, slightly delayed by Gambian Army contingents (mixed male and female) doing a full-pack fun run along the road outside. A few are carrying logs like telegraph poles and others what might be sandbags. Some of the women look pretty tired. The guys grab their packs off them and carry/drag their colleagues along. Esprit de corps looks high. Thinks: that could be us on Saturday, or Sunday, or both.
Home, cuppa, biscuit. Poised to send out this morning's documents. Internet collapses.
Back to the bikes….
 |
The forty-quid Bianchi, after its service. Teatime...
Lamin will be riding it, after all. |
Remember, £16 pays for a monthly blood clotting test for a child on anticoagulant medicine after surgery. Just £25 covers the cost of an echocardiogram in Dakar (hospital bill alone). Then £80 is enough to get one child and a relative from The Gambia to Dakar for an echocardiogram (including hospital bill, transport, subsistence, and accommodation). And £180 will obtain two visas (child and carer) for travel from The Gambia to the UK for surgery.
And finally of course — that’s not really ‘it’ at all, and perhaps in the end the riding itself may turn out to be the least important part. Cycling is a rich source of metaphor for life (it was Einstein who said ‘Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving’) and we’ve already begun to make plans for next year.
