After waiting 3 days for my bike to catch up to me (and my luggage), I was able to head out today for my first ride in country (first day I would have had anyway).
Here's some random things I learned from Day 1 out by myself in the middle of nowhere:
1) There's some steep stuff here. Really steep.
2) I'm going to need new brakepads.
3) The people are the friendliest folks anywhere on earth, as far as cyclists go. Or maybe to funny looking white guys on white bikes. Either way.
4) Donkey's, Sheep, Goats, Chickens, Camels scare that crap out of you when they mosey out of a bush before you.
5) Dogs however...are another matter.
6) I learned that not all dogs run the same speed. Just when you think you've outpedaled three German Shepards (how'd they get here?!?)...uphill...a fourth Chrissie Wellington Dog comes along and outruns the rest.
7) None of which is good if the grade is 15%...uphill.
8) I wondered how I would explain to the Saris guys that their brand new $2K wheelset on loan from them to test has sets of German Shepard holes in the carbon.
9) I found the Dead Sea. I think it's still dead.
10) The military checkpoints are fun on a bike. They were mystified by bike computers (in a good way). It was like I just showed them the Internet for the first time.
11) I never expected I'd end the day with my P3C lying on top of thousands of cucumbers in the back of a pickup truck....but that's a story for later.
More to come...
-
My tiny little slice of the internets:
dcrainmaker.com