Water Water Everywhere

Hi all it's actually me at least

We all know water is a sacred resource out here and it's actually the reason why lots of he kids either don't go to school, or why they get ill on the way there/back, as they have to drink from streams. Well yesterday, for many of us, that was a reality too. The hotel ran out of bottled water before we left and most of us are using 5-6L a day - I set off with 1L and 500ml of lucozade, having given 1/2 of mine to someone else. I got pretty dehydrated.... pee was like orange juice! A couple ended up on drips at the 'lunch' stop - water and a Mars bar (TM) if you are lucky.
Part of the Touch Africa project is to give kids a 'Life Straw' which filters 99% of the bacteria out of dirty water. Today we got involved in another TA project - helping to wire, roof and paint a school right up my street - Busman's holiday!

This afternoon we are maintaining the bikes and trying to stay off the pop....it's very blustery and drizzling, so the roads are like ice and the only chance to go down to a beach isn't really great. Too rough even to spot any whales today.

Bruises and blisters on the palms are quite unpleasant, but still in much more of one piece than I expected and the legs have held up well, so at least that cycling has paid off.

There are a great bunch of people here - all mucking in to lift, pull, shove and generally hoyck the bikes over all sorts of obstacles and mud pits. These little Hondas are amazing, they really are bullet proof - a bit like Joe's camera, a guy in my Orange team. He lost his head cam going in to the grand canyon (we were trying to stay out of it) but of course I ended up following him. On the 3rd time of trying to get my bike up a 4ft wall of granite, my rear wheel somehow spat out his camera - still working. He bought me a few beers for that one! I was however extremely exhausted after that and didn't really recover until we had a little race up an air strip just before we got to the Hotel. He's not lost it though, after losing the holeshot to Ed, I managed to just take the flag by a whisker! good fun

Tomorrow is going to be another really tough technical day, before 2 really long & more scenic days, although our team leader does have a habit of just taking us off-piste now & then.
Cheers Gaz