Paris Dakar Stage 56 to ??

Stage 56 of 60, day 66 of 71: 144 km, 333m, 4:37, ~80 shifts, ave speed 31.1, max speed 56

Today was good and bad. Good was riding through the amazing city of Nouakchott and arriving in camp in a much more lush area than we’ve recently seen. Bad was my bike breaking; it can’t be ridden any more until the fork is replaced. Good again was our amazing mechanic Ype, lending me his bike for the rest of the tour❤️

Riding this morning was almost a little surreal. Knowing the planned route to get through the city was basically impassible due to chaotic construction, people headed out on different, improvised routes. Daniel, Wytze and I took our own. After maybe 2 km I noticed my handlebars could bend upward, a very bad and scary sign. Unfortunately I had no realistic choice but to continue, carefully.

I consciously decided to just not worry and have a great time. About then the road turned to crap, sandy, and the traffic got super chaotic. Somehow though it was relaxing, and I ended up just riding with the flow, loving it all. Neil Young was echoing through my head and breath, over and over these slow, enigmatic lyrics fun to think about.

I want to live with a cinnamon girl
I could be happy the rest of my life
With a cinnamon girl

A dreamer of pictures, I run in the night
You see us together, chasing the moonlight
My cinnamon girl

Ten silver saxes, a bass with a bow
The drummer relaxes and waits between shows
For his cinnamon girl

(That’s all I could remember)

Anyway it was a surprisingly fun ride. We rode through a crazy market, goats everywhere, cars that you can’t believe can move are coming at you from all directions, exhaust smells, filthy, chaos, alive and somehow amazing.

Construction was also crazy but after 16 km we were finally back on the route, with a paved road. There was a bakery right there so we had pastries and drinks, then headed off on the highway.

We rode easily with a tailwind to 60 km where I said we had to stop. There were camels including a nursing mom!! Katie had given me a personal mission to photograph a camel nursing and I thought I could, although they were a ways away.

We stopped again at 75 km so as not to miss lunch, got the message it would be just ahead, went up, waited, and Ype arrived and set up lunch. Then I asked him to look at my bike and he verified what I suspected, I should not ride it. He gave me his instantly, and soon, we were off. It was under 60 km and went quickly, with another drinks stop. Camp was down a 2 km long dirt road, in a meadow(!) with trees (!) around.

We set up, had dinner, and I finished this post. Thanks very much to Daniel again for his hotspot, and for riding with me and for being awesome 😎. Thanks to Ype for being awesome and lending his 🚲. Thanks to Wytze for having so much fun today and looking out for me. I will miss you guys so much, very soon.