Paris Dakar Stage 59 to the last camp

Stage 59 of 60, day 70 of 71: 108.2 km, 489m, 3:48, ~50 shifts, ave speed 28.4, max speed 43.8

We woke up in our bungalow listening to the waves. Breakfast was normal in camp, then we headed out. Once we got to the paved road, the smooth surface lasted a long time. There was a gentle tailwind so the rolling hills were easy and not boring.

We went easy, planning to stop around 30 km to let Ype get ahead. But there was nowhere to stop so we ended up at lunch around 70 too early. There was no shade so we continued 3 km to a town. It was really a small village but had cold drinks at one shop. We bought quite a few, then Daniel found a lady who had a portable stove to cook us omelettes, right on the side of the road.

We settled in, moving a bench and table into the shade. Wytze bought baguettes and canned sardines and we combined it all into a great picnic lunch. We topped up our water, said goodbye, then headed out.

It was much hotter now, Jan’s Garmin said 49.8°C but it’s known to be inaccurate. We pulled into the next village 20 km later and got more drinks. As we were leaving, Kris saw a pile of 100 watermelons and said, “I wish we could’ve had a watermelon.” So we stopped and bought one and shared it, very nice.

Here the road turned to crap, very potholey and rough. Sometimes it was better to just ride the dirt alongside. But we hadn’t gone far when we saw Wilbert’s van and he told us we were camping nearly 20 km early, 2 km down a dirt road right there. So we went, and found a field of weeds with some acacia trees. We helped set up tables, benches and shade, then hung out for a few hours. 9 local kids found us and were very interested, we must look so outlandish to them. We did our normal thing of soup and snacks.

We had our last camping dinner of the tour at 6, quite nice, everyone seemingly happy and looking forward to restarting our very different lives. Someone asked how far we had ridden and I had the answer: 7,005 km so far, at least on the route I followed which was close to the originally planned route. Dakar tomorrow!!