With many thanks to Peninsula Beverage for their South Africa 'country' donation
100%
Current Amount: £23205
Target: £23205
Welcome to Rob's Blog. Read all about Rob's progress with Tri4Africa....
> A long overdue wash
Day 45, 4972km, Cape Barbas, Western Sahara
Smelling worse than a piece of road kill after 5 long sweaty days of desert riding without a wash I finally got a shower this evening after we checked into the first bit of civilisation we had come across in 160km. Fortunately the noses of the French guys I have joined have long since lost their sensitivity to such bodily odours and I will probably ride with them for a few days en route to their final destination, Dakar.
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> French friends
Day 44, 4810km, somewhere in the desert, Western Sahara
Hearing a rumour that there were some French cyclists ahead of me today I dropped plans to resupply and get a much needed wash in a bid to track them down. Had to put in some 30kmph plus spurts to keep my ankles from a pack of dogs that hounded me for a km helped and I caught up with a couple on a tandem and friend late this afternoon. It's great to have some equally unhygenic and carefree company to take away from the desert...
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> Desert supplies
Day 43, 4640km, 125km south of Dakhla, Western Sahara
With distances between petrol stations and settlements now sometimes 100k or more I'm having to take every available opportunity to load Bertha up with essential supplies, including up to 9 litres of water, particularly as my speed is so determined by the unpredictable winds. The excellent news is I've discovered the Moroccan equivalent to malt loaf, although not as dense or fruity it's still reassuring to have its...
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> A stroke of calamari
Day 42, 4484km, Between Boujdour and Echtoucan, Western Sahara
I've ended up camping with a group of calamari fishermen on the coast who have just treated me to a freshly caught and fried catch followed by tea sweet enough to dissolve your teeth on sight alone. With them not speaking French let alone English, the international language of football has come to the fore, unfortunately this didn't help when positioning my tent which by the smell of it, is adjacent to the...
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> One route to West Africa
Day 41, 4326km, Lemsid, Morocco
Considering I'm on the only route between north and west Africa it is amazingly quiet. Other road users include robed Arabs in classic landrovers, trucks and vans carrying all manner of goods and other adventurers in 4x4s, motorcycles and even the occasional retired German couple in a mobile home. There is a real sense of comraderie that comes with the shared thirst for adventure, and more often than not for water, in travelling though such a hostile...
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> Welcome to the Western Sahara
Day 40 - 4109 km Tarfaya. Sand dunes, camels and police check points were all in abundance today as I made good progress into the disputed Western Sahara. At times this morning I was flying due to a combination of the infamous sahara winds shoving me in the back and more significantly my new areo-dynamic hair cut. By afternoon though the tables had turned as I changed direction and the wind intensified, lashing my face and freshly exposed nape with stinging sand and reducing my speed to a...
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> Time for a Moroccan cut
Day 39, 3918km, El Ouatia, Morocco
Needing a timeout from the relentless cross and head winds ripping across the barren landscape I had been cycling through and wanting to be finally accepted by Moroccan society, I stopped in Tan Tan at lunch for a hair cut. Aware that I was starting to look the part of a travelling hippy all too convincingly and with an ecosystem developing to rival the bio-diversity of Africa, this cut was long over due. Chancing upon a salon the...
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> A lesson for the road ahead
Day 38, 3802km, Guilmin, Morocco.
There are only two things that can make your urine as intensely coloured as mine was today, serious dehydration and Berocca, oh and maybe organic beetroot. Seeing as neither of the latter were on the breakfast menu I think the sun really took its toll. Having underestimated the anti-atlas again I ran out of water at one point and was just contemplating the warm carton of UHT in my bag when some village folk came to the rescue. I'm now sleeping...
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> On the cheap
Day 37 - 3666km, Mirhleft, Morocco.
Yet again the campsite is only 1-2 pounds cheaper than getting a hotel room which costs around 5-6 pounds after some negotiating. They`re hardly luxury and I`m trying to avoid looking too closely at the brown stains on the wall in my current room but after a hard days cycling I`m not complaining. And today was a particularly tough one with the Anti Atlas Mountains and head winds coming as an unpleasant surprise to slow my speed and...
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> Lost phone and dashed hopes of a malt loaf top up
Day 36 Agadir, 3512km Morocco.
Sorry to dissappoint you but there are no near death tales of armed robbery to go with my lost phone, I simply left it in a hostel. To make matters worse I have detoured to Agadir to pick up a resupply of malt loaf only to discover it hasn`t arrived yet and tommorrow is a public holiday - truly gut wrenching, no man should have to brave the sahara and negotiate police check points without its fruity goodness and barganing value!
It was...
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England!
Triathlon Completion: Day 255 - Sat 12 June
-20,293km Rustenburg, SA
Click here for blog, videos, photos & GPS location
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"The World Cup's most extreme fan"
ITV4 [12/06/2010]
"World Cup Countdown"
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BBC Breakfast [05/06/2010]
"The incredible Rob Forbes"
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Inside the Travel Lab [05/06/2010]
"Swimming to South Africa"
The Sun Newspaper [27/05/2010]
"Fan swims to World Cup"
Rob on BBC Radio 5 Live:
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Cheers!
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Well done dude
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Well done!!...
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Well done - what an...
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Make-over
