The road to Khartoum has been paved with skeletons. It is really strange cycling through this part of the world in a news vacuum when all hell is letting loose next door. Because we have being heading south at a fair old click through the desert, we have had no access to TV or radio till Khartoum – and if the staff in the trucks had it they didn’t share the news. Not it seems that there was much except continuing riots.

All I could gather was from guys selling cokes in tiny stalls at the side of the road who were minded to play the whole revolution in Egypt thing down. Baseet (simple/nothing much) was the universal comment with a certainty that it would all be over pretty soon.

A more worrying sign was a convoy of tanks we saw moving north the day before yesterday. But all IS quiet here in Khartoum. A protest scheduled for today didn’t appear to materialise and life is going on pretty well as usual.

As for the Tour d’Afrique – well, 3x 150 km days did knock me about a bit. But am getting into it now and am focussing only on the next 25km and a break! I rode with a much faster group on the third day and that was fun – hell but fun.

Things to see included a long line of dead camels in the desert, goats climbing trees, and as always the most spectacular stars at night.

Khartoum is a great city and I wish we had a bit more time. The suq is amazing – stuffed full of everything from gold to hair gel and bikes to incense. Tomorrow is looming with 8 days of unbroken riding ahead.