After arriving at camp, I went down to the Nile again to wash—this time alone. The water was muddier due to the wind, but it still felt good to wash myself and rinse my clothes.

Back in my tent, I was about to change into more decent clothes when I lifted my head. Five centimeters from my face—between my inner tent mesh and its outer layer—a spider the size of my palm (!) enjoyed some warmth and wind protection. Back home, I would have screamed aloud. In Africa, playing the drama queen wouldn’t go down very well.

“Tallis, are the spiders dangerous around here?” I thought I better ask the expert before coming up with an evacuation plan.—“Why?”—“Because there’s a big one in my tent.”—“Let me see,” and a bunch of guys ran to my rescue; or to satisfy their curiosity, armed with phone cameras.—“That thing is huge,” they all agreed. Tallis, entirely unimpressed by imminent danger, expertly captured the spider within a broken plastic bottle.—“Is it a dangerous one?” I asked.—“No, don’t think so. It would probably hurt, but it wouldn’t kill you. It’s usually the smaller ones that are more dangerous.”—How comforting!

“So what are you going to do with it now?” Ed wanted to know.—“I’ll bring it back outside camp,” Tallis commented nonchalantly, “and then I’ll let it run so you can take a photo.” We followed him outside. As soon as he had set the spider free onto the ground, it started crawling back into the direction of our camp. “Shouldn’t we kill it?” I dared suggest.—“No, you can’t kill a spider,” the boss corrected me.

“So what have I learnt today?” I wondered aloud hours later to Ed and Wynand while staring at my screen.—“Never kill a spider,” Tallis’ cheerful voice appeared out of nowhere.—“Not sure I’d agree with that,” I hesitated.—“Doesn’t matter, just don’t,” he laughed. Well, I struggle to come up with a better story, so that shall be my lesson learnt today.

Stage 13: Fakra — Nile Ferry Camp (Sudan), 144km

Road & traffic condition:

The usual.

Weather:

Chilly in the morning, crazy headwind after lunch, comfortable in the afternoon, cool and windy at night.

Culinary highlights:

Pleased that we haven’t run out of the protein stuff yet for lunch. Tuna, cheese, tomatoes, cucumber, gherkins and mustard for me—yummy!

Followed by fruit salad with peanut butter—my new dessert favorite. And dinner still is a big pleasure every day. Chicken, carrots, tempura-style eggplant and potato/pumpkin today.

Group highlights:

Packing up our tents in crazy wind in the morning, and shivering while having breakfast—no more complaints about the heat! “The good thing about the wind is that it keeps the flies away,” Tallis advised, “believe me, the flies are worse.” Well, we were fighting some crazy headwind for 30km after lunch that brought us close to despair. Luckily, I could team up again with Paul and Wendy for that stretch. Taking turns to fight the wind together allowed me to keep my sanity. Then, after a hill, the wind stopped all of a sudden—lucky us! But instantly it got hot again, and flies appeared out of nowhere. I can safely say now that I prefer heat and flies to fighting against the wind—while cycling that is!

Personal highlights:

Spider alarm!