Yesterday afternoon, November 14, 2023, six of us loaded our bikes and luggage into two taxis. We had learned from the group going the day before to make sure the drivers take the highway (toll road) as the normal road had four police stops and took a really long time. It turned out the highway was no better due to traffic and construction, but we made it.

The new airport in Dakar is really modern and comfortable. It doesn’t even feel like you’re still in Senegal. Check in was painless, even with big bike boxes and lots of luggage. I could check in my Bike Dreams tent that served me on the tours last year and this year. We pooled our last CFAs and bought beer and snacks to share. Boarding was easy and the flight was on time and even landed in Paris a little early.

It was funny, flying for five full hours, following the route we just rode from Paris, backwards.

Everything looks so clean and bright at Charles de Gaulle airport. It’s amazing. You can drink from the water fountain, the internet is fast and it’s a very different world. I am ready to head for San Francisco in just a couple of hours!

The tour finished yesterday afternoon and I’m not quite sure which feeling is strongest: relief, sadness or excitement about going home. Probably the latter! The Chez Salim hotel where we’re staying is very comfortable with spacious grounds, multiple swimming pools, food, beer and a money changer. I think it’s everything I need for a relaxing day of good-byes, decompression and packing.

It was a mellow day. Wytze found a place on Google for lunch, so we went with Ype to check it out. It was a hot walk and the place was closed for the day but they offered us beers. We sat on the back deck in the shade, looking at the view of Lac Rose. I had seen photos of the lake when it’s pink, in the dry season but that’s not now and it looks normal.

We walked back and had a swim in the pool, then a so-so pizza lunch at the hotel restaurant. After that, it was time for Wytze to head off to the airport in a big taxi with a large number of bikes on the roof. Saying good bye was hard – who knows when we’ll get to ride together again. Ype was pretty relaxed since he doesn’t have to start driving back to Holland until tomorrow.

I worked on packing my bike for a while, until Wytze texted saying they had been stopped by the police. I got the receptionist to call the taxi driver’s boss to try and get things fixed. After 30 minutes they finally got moving again. They ended up getting stopped three more times but making it in time for everyone’s flights.

There were still about 15 of us around at dinner. We all ate together, then Andre, Joan, Kris and I went swimming at 10:30 to end the evening.

Stage 60 of 60, day 71 of 71: 79.1 km, 233m, 3:04, ~40 shifts, ave speed 25.8, max speed 42

I don’t even know what I really feel now. We woke up as normal, packed up as normal, ate breakfast in camp as normal. Then we pushed our stuck van out of the sand and started riding as normal.

It was a mellow little ride on a dirt road for a while then we picked up the regular paved track to Dakar. We rode through villages, along the highway, over a million speed bumps. All normal. Before lunch we stopped for drinks, in this case coconuts whacked open with a machete. Then we had lunch as normal.

We rode some more and stopped for drinks again, as it was getting hot as normal. But from this stop my Garmin said 11 km to go. We attempted to get everyone together but it didn’t fully work. But we all rode those last 11 km and at the end I was in the lead and turned down the wrong driveway, so classic. We found the right one and suddenly everyone was cheering and it was crazy. There was much high fiving and drinks and snacks, then champagne and wow. It was overwhelming.

I hugged everyone and there were pictures. We started working on stuff like drying out tents that we had packed up a few hours ago soaking wet. Daniel and I got a little bungalow with A/C. I gave back Ype’s bike and got mine and my bike box and packing stuff.

We had showers then I headed for one of the pools (!) and the water felt so good. Harry arrived with an armful of giant beers and we just relaxed by the pool for a long time. Jonny brought another round. It’s still hard to comprehend.

We chatted and hung out all afternoon and evening until a big group celebration dinner at 8. It was super fun, ending with a summary of the trip by Rob and presentation of a souvenir gift from Wilbert. The gift was a wire bicycle made in Africa, with a Paris Dakar map. Wytze gave a nice talk about lessons learned on the trip. He ended with a quotation from me, “It’s a simple life but we live it like kings and queens.”

I will say that it feels really really really great to have finished this tour. I still can barely believe I was lucky enough to do it. I will miss it and I won’t miss it. I can’t wait to get home although a tiny part of me wishes we were continuing on somewhere.

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!!

Our 11th and final rest day was November 10, 2023. I slept very well in our little bungalow. We had the inner door open all night – the outer door is a screen that lets in the wind and the sound of the waves. We had breakfast at the bar, bread and omelet. I helped Jan with a computer project, to make sure he has his big 180 km ride from two days ago recorded on Strava. Otherwise, it didn’t happen!

In the late morning, 16 of us took a guided boat ride in the Senegal River. We filled the small boat. We headed up river a bit, with talks about the National Park and the ecosystem. We came back down and landed on the other side. We could walk a short way across the sand to the Atlantic Ocean. I immediately went swimming with Wytze, Kris and Michael. The water felt great and it was really fun body surfing and playing in the water.

I loved the crabs and we saw jellyfish and lots of birds. After we got back Wytze, Daniel and I called Andrew and had a good video chat. Then we went to see about lunch. They had one meat choice, plus vegetarian lasagna. We had large beers while waiting, then more beer with lunch. When I finished, Beau called from Kyoto and I had a great call with him, although my phone dropped the connection a few times. After a nap I sat out on the rocks by the river and chatted with Katie for half an hour too.

In the evening everyone came to the bar for dinner and the owner entertained us playing his guitar and singing. He was great, singing songs like Hotel California with a German accent. Dinner was really fun, lots of beers, so relaxing. We talked about what was our favorite/least favorite camp and it was surprising how many different answers there were. We’ve been through a lot together, and it’s about to end, but we still have two more days to ride.

Stage 58 of 60, day 68 of 71: 65.7 km, 57m, 2:23, ~50 shifts, ave speed 27.4, max speed 53.3

After breakfast we had a mellow 8 km ride on the rough dirt road to the border. The crossing was a boring two hour wait to get out of Mauritania, then a short ride through No Man’s Land (a bridge over the Senegal River), then another boring two hour wait to get into Senegal. The vendors were annoying although they sold many of us SIM cards and I and many others traded in all our Mauritanian Ougiyas for CFA (Central African Francs which are used in Senegal).

Finally we and our four trucks could roll down the smooth asphalt. Lunch was 10 km along the road to St. Louis but Wytze, Daniel and I pulled another rogue move and just waved as we headed into town at 40 kph. It didn’t take long and riding in a new country was great. Senegal seems more prosperous than Mauritania. We followed the Bike Dreams route even when it went on a silly dirt road around the edge of town. Soon we were at the famous bridge to the old town and rode across.

We had already picked out a restaurant. It was somehow a huge relief to sit down and relax after the border experience. The place was called Chez Dasso and advertised Slow Food and Organic. We eventually ordered then asked if they had beer since it wasn’t on the menu. Of course! So we had our first strictly legal beer in almost six weeks. While waiting I had a video call with Katie outside. Lunch came, two different seafood dishes and one chicken. It was really enjoyable, then we headed over to a patisserie for dessert, very tasty.

We also needed more francs and the banks seemed to all be closing. We noticed a dingy store that also advertised money exchange and tried it. Best money changing ever! The rate was the real one, not seen at the border, 1 € = 650 CAF. No paperwork, no questions, just type on the calculator and count out the bills. Nice.

Then we rode back over the bridge and did the last 23 km to the Zebrabar campsite. It’s made by a Swiss guy, 27 years ago and is pretty nice. Daniel asked if I wanted to share a bungalow so we got a beautiful little house, right on the beach. Before anything I had to have a beer with Jan and it was so nice reminiscing about the Andes Trail and this trip.

Next up was a swim in what sort of counts as the river but is more of a lagoon. Salt water, perfect temp, small waves. It’s more humid here so this really felt great 👍 Then showers and a little laundry.

We talked to our neighbors, one German guy had spent 8 days driving here, was staying two nights, then is going to drive back! I said, “You’re crazy!” He agreed then heard how we got here and said “But you’re really crazy!” Eventually we heard the fire truck horn meaning dinner was served so we walked over and ate burritos and potatoes and salad. I got us each another beer too. After dinner we hung out at the bar which is self-service in the evening.

Daniel and I retired to our house, for me to write this. We’re so far from cell towers that my phone barely works here, but Daniel’s is slightly better so once again this post is courtesy of his hotspot.

Tomorrow is another rest day, then just two more riding days to Dakar!!!

Stage 57 of 60, day 67 of 71: 92.6 km, 293m, 4:37, ~70 shifts, ave speed 23.7, max speed 47.4

At breakfast it sounded like everyone had a really good sleep. It was pretty quiet, the wind was low, there was no sand! I sure slept well. Simo caught something and couldn’t ride today but everyone else is healthy.

After breakfast we headed out to the main road and turned south, again with the wind. The road was smooth and it was perfect riding easy with Wytze and Daniel. It was rolling, interesting terrain, past little villages that looked a little more prosperous than further north. We saw lots of cattle, goats and tons of camels (no nursing ones though).

We stopped for drinks. I paid with a 500 and was really happy he could change it since that was all we had. I didn’t notice that I paid 90 for 3 drinks, that’s €2.25, too much. We went outside because the shop was filthy and the guy brought out our watermelon. Wytze had pointed to it to ask how much so he assumed we wanted it too. We got a big filthy knife from him, washed it, and cut up our melon. It was great. Later Richard bought one to share and Ype pulled another one out at lunch after I told him this story which reminded him he had one too.

Then we stopped at a rare thing: an intersection where we had to turn. We had some drinks and Daniel got an offer from a local: his bike and watch for the guy’s Mercedes. He bought it 10 years ago for €1500. We had a lot of fun and eventually he gave four of us a short ride. We thought of trading Ype’s bike for it and then proudly showing Ype his “upgrade” at lunch.

On to lunch. At 55 km, the pavement ended and it was all dirt from there. Lunch was at 62, a bit hot but not too bad. Then we had another 32 km of rough (sometimes comically rough) dirt road. It was pretty fun though, with lots to see.

We had some checkpoints to pass through, but they didn’t give us much trouble. We heard one of the vehicles had guys with weapons, pointedly loading clips, cocking and being menacing. But they were all pretty nice to us.

We pulled into camp and started on snacks and soup. We spent the afternoon hanging out chatting, but there were a few problems. Our NZ and Ozzie riders hadn’t all gotten their Senegal visas in advance as they are required to do. Two went early to the border today and were not allowed in. They plan to taxi back to Nouakchott tonight to get their visas tomorrow. The rest of us should be good for visas on entry. Then we realized Jan hadn’t been seen all day. He had no Sim card so we heard 3rd hand that he had made a wrong turn but was ok. He ended up safe, arriving during dinner, having ridden 180 km. Ype had a hard time driving the road and arrived much later. Dinner was early at 4:30 because at the old bush camp from last time there were so many mosquitos and bugs. But our camp is like last night: no bug problem. We sat out until dark and had three more of our 0% beers.

Bob is our best photographer and took some amazing shots today. I especially loved his spiders, taken in camp.

We’re only 8 km of dirt road away from the Senegal border, but we rode right along it today. A great side effect of being so close is that my phone can connect to towers there and now works.

Right after breakfast, we plan to ride as a group to the border and cross with the trucks as usual. It will probably be confusing and not work very well but we only have 52 km to ride after crossing so it should be ok. Here’s hoping! Only three more stages to Dakar!!!

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.

Our 10th rest day was November 6, 2023. It was so nice to have another rest day. I woke up feeling rejuvenated and able to cycle…but didn’t have to! Breakfast in the hotel was lackluster, then Daniel managed to get our laundry done by the guys on the roof for a tiny amount of money. During the day I talked to Katie, read, did some Strava programming, did a session of Bike Love and took a nap. It’s a hard life!

We had a long relaxed dinner. We ordered three different seafood dishes and each ate 1/3 of a plate, then passed to the left. We had beer with dinner and chocolate mousse after. We bought some oranges on the way back, but skipped the ice-cream. It was a fun day and I’m looking forward to getting back on the road tomorrow, although the stage is over 140 km. But the weather is supposed to be a little cooler, so it should be ok.

Stage 55 of 60, day 64 of 71: 122 km, 175m, 3:45, 63 shifts, ave speed 32.4, max speed 54.1

All the days in Mauritania feel the same, go to bed really early, very tired, but it’s almost too hot to sleep. It finally cools off a little at 2-3am. Get up 6-7, get ready, eat, get on the bike and ride off in the relatively cool morning air (not actually cool). Ride for too many hours, battling winds, traffic, rough road surface, thirst, and bidon water that feels like it’s 50+°C. Certainly it’s uncomfortably hot when I pour it on myself. Get to camp, drink, eat, repeat.

Today was all that again. On the plus side, the road surface was better and we ended in a hotel in Nouakchott, the capital city of Mauritania. It’s one of the largest cities in the whole Sahara, with 1.2 million people. Mauritania is pretty big, a million square km, but only has 4.2 million people total.

We rode along until we came upon a shack with drinks. The locals have truck batteries hooked up to a solar panel, powering refrigerators full of cold drinks! They are super happy when we show up as it’s generally a group of four or more riders with each person buying multiple drinks. We had a couple of stops, then made it to lunch at 70 km. It wasn’t noon yet but it was getting really hot already. An interesting side note – I’ve noticed quite a few times that basic arithmetic here is not comfortable for people. Every person we buy from struggles to multiply a number like 30 by 4 or even easier ones. Some are very thankful when we whip out a phone and show them on the calculator. I didn’t notice this any of the other countries we’ve visited.

After lunch, we cranked out in a paceline, diagonal because all day we had a side wind. Wytze, me, Daniel, Bart and Kris. After a while a couple of others we were passing inserted themselves into the front row, kinda rude, and after realizing they wouldn’t leave, I suggested to Wytze we take a holiday, our code for slowing down. 44 to 38: that did the trick, then right away we found the best drink stop ever. Unlimited drinks, huge selection, cold, in a clean shop. We celebrated our success in not blindly continuing or escalating a speed war, neither particularly safe.

After a good long stop we had only 15 km to the hotel. We did get stopped at a checkpoint where they wanted name, birth date and passport number. Wytze gave a fake one and I just nodded when one guy asked if the other guy had already taken my info – I was going to be Jimi Hendrix if it came down to it. The rest faked it or showed actual id. Then we were in town, on a long, flat road. Finally we pulled in at the Hotel Hayatt, not a typo. We were ushered in and asked to park by the pool. Perfect! Whip off helmet and shoes and dive in! That felt really really really good! I don’t know the temp, around 39-40°C in the shade, but burning in the sun.

We sat around in our bike clothes in the cool water for a while, then slowly drifted to rooms for proper showers etc. I went down the street to the surprisingly good super market and got a liter of water, a liter of orangina and something super duper rare: an ice-cream bar!

We relaxed in the afternoon, basically staying in our air-conditioned room, loving it. About 7pm we had our interesting cultural experience of the day. Daniel had made a friend two days ago at a drink stop who invited us to his house when we arrived in Nouakchott. He is a Deputy of something in the government and travels to Morocco and Senegal. He called and said he was on his way to pick us up. There he was, same Toyota Land Cruiser, and we were off. It turned out dinner at his house was tomorrow and it was only tea tonight. When we said we needed food, he knew just the place, the Palacio. Driving the back streets, some unpaved, like he totally owned the city, we went there but it was a drive-thru fast food place with a long line. Long story short, we tried two other restaurants, one from Google and one from trip advisor; both were non-existent. Daniel found a third and it was real. It was weird but we got in and sat outdoors in a nice garden. We ordered salads and main dishes – Daniel and Wytze went with the waiter’s recommendation: camel stew. I had monkfish with rice and veggies. It was a nice dinner, then we tried to pay but no, he had to pay. Only he didn’t have enough. We felt weird about having this guy pay most of our €60 dinner of which he ate only a tiny amount, but there you go. I’m not sure what will happen tomorrow, we might have a “required group dinner” or something, or we might go to his house. There was something more than just the language barrier – communication was just hard.

Enough about that. Today we have another rider profile. This time it’s Kathy Lovell, an amazing woman from New Zealand who I didn’t have the pleasure of meeting until we all got to Paris, what feels like a lifetime ago.

Kathy, where are you from and how old are you?

I’m from New Zealand and I will turn 70 years old in 2 weeks – 21 November, have one daughter and 2 grandchildren.

Tell us about your bike…

I ride a Merida, 28mm tyres, XS Frame size as I weigh only 48 kg and stand just under 1.5 metres.

What motivated you to sign up for Paris Dakar?

I started my sporting life as a runner. Ran a 2 hour 48 min marathon [!] in 1989 and won NZ cross country champs in 1990 [!]. Have done quite a few kayak paddling tri-athlons, including winning the North Island Coast to Coast [!] which goes from one side of North Island to the other. Took up cycling in 2010 after my husband died as a way of meeting more people and having something to look forward to in the weekends. We had travelled a lot – worked in China, Malaysia and Mongolia [!] so I have very fond memories of those times together. Decided I had to keep travelling so first went to cycle Madagascar in 2018, Italy 2019, Balkans 2021, completed 100 Cols in France in 2022 as well as riding around Netherlands. Registered for P to D in 2018 for start date 2020 but Covid stymied it for a few years. I had always wanted to do a big ‘event/adventure ride’ and had not been to Africa.

Do your friends think you’re crazy?

Many cannot believe the extent of this ride but admire me for doing it.

What else do you want people to know about you?

I’m not sure what’s next – am seriously considering riding the Danube River from source to sea. Have ridden the Rheine. But my 11 year old grand daughter is a NZ champion artistic roller skating so I am really keen to support her further. In 2014 I went with 10 other women to Kari Kola in Nepal to teach the women to sew. Took 9 sewing machines, huge quantities of fabric, accessories, scissors etc. It is now a micro industry for them and they are doing well from it.

Wow, thanks Kathy! What an amazing life you lead!