Comments on: The Dinder Experiment: A Shitshow Goes Sideways

By: Kelsey

Kelsey — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 19:09:54 +0000

I realize my experience in Dinder was VERY different but I took that picture of Simon bouncing around the back of a bakkie. Shouting at the Minister of Tourism and a corporal in the Sudanese Army to release the advanced riders out of “lunch” where they had been held back for photo ops and then jumping into a total stranger’s car while we made our way back to scoop up cyclists.

By: Steve Smith

Steve Smith — Fri, 03 Sep 2021 08:55:09 +0000

I rode the TDA in 2012. My diary entry for the 2nd “Dinder” experience, from Dinder Canal to Stone Village, read: “What a hellish day! 95kms of non-stop corrugations.” And reading further: “Most of my thoughts throughout the day were ‘remind me again why I am doing this?”!!
However, I commented at the end of the day that “it’s amazing how wonderful a simple donkey-shower can be”, and “how great one can feel when it’s all over.”
And isn’t this last comment the essence of why we do this ride?? Riding through Africa is never going to be easy. And at the end of it all, it’s the really tough days that stand out, etched forever in one’s mind. And the irony is that it is THESE days that are going to be spoken about and recounted forever.
The following day, from Stone Village to Doka, the first 40kms to the lunch stop was truly brilliant riding. Excellent mountain-biking territory, fast and exciting, and at lunch one felt exhilarated. But then the afternoon was “yesterday all over again”, where the refresher stop had “a trillion flies”. It was here that Herman commented, in a forlorn, beaten, dejected tone: “All the joy of this morning GONE!” Whilst I agreed with him, it certainly made me smile.

By: Eric Olverson

Eric Olverson — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 17:44:16 +0000

Providing those T shirts was such a touching gesture It made me smile at the time…and still does. I no longer have the bike I used but I still have the shirt.