Mega miles - Wally Words

Wow, dudes! We had two 140+ km days. The last one was on a pretty straight forward road and we pumped the miles steadilly. Up any hills I just run out of puff as the women, the camerman and whoever else is cycling powers ahead of me and patiently wait on top for me. Fortunately the hills do not appear to be too long, but the one 22% incline road sign had me worried. I occasionally stop and cough (and loose some of my breakfast...) and catch my breath, then get back onto the bike in a tree climbing gear.

Last big stretch we averaged well over 22km/hr average, and I was totally stuffedwhen we arrived with my eyes stinging with the very salty sweat running off my eye brows! Living with CF makes my sweat very salty, and getting that stuff into your eyes is like diving into the Dead Sea for those who have ever done that. The Dead Sea is 8x saltier than regular sea water; you can float in it and read a newspaper.

Just to recap some of the things we do. Troy drives the car almost always lately and with the aid of a navigator tries to find lunchspots and accommodation for us. Troy's job is probably the hardest of them all. But wait, there is harder; David does the navigation with the book and the GPS. He plans the day, briefs and discusses with Troy as to where to go, where to meet us etc, and takes blame for every wrong turn and unnecesary hill! David takes the job very seriously, unlike me who would just stumble on turn by turn as they happen. When Troy gets to a hotel he SMSes the GPS coordinates to David so we can find him with (relative) ease.

Heather's job is primarilly to keep track of what happens (too much to all write about really!) and after her day's cycling venture out into the new (scary) cities looking for internet cafes andput up with youths listening to bad music which they turn up when they see her coming. Heather often uses the laptop to prepare the blogs to minimise time in the cafes, and carries photos (which she takes as well) and content on a USB stick. Heather does regular shops too as she ventures into the towns, aided by Cindy or Lucas. First afternoon in Romania she went out with Cindy and us 'men' got worried about them when Cindy did not answer her SMS, and subsequent panic ones. Turned out she had left the phone in the hotel.

Lucas is constantly on the go trying to fil each and every moment. From open coal mines to castles, but always looking for our interactions with locals -which are generally not planned. He has to recharge heaps of batteries and empty the SD cards (on which we record the 1080i video footage from our stealthy cameras!) when we get to the hotel room. He often tries to ride with us and charges ahead to shoot us coming up hills, or hangs back to shoot scenery and then race to catch up again. Not bad for someone who had trouble even mounting his bike at the start of the ride! Lucky he is young and has the endless reserves of power. When he is not cycling he is navigating with the driver.

Cindy helps rotate with the driver and navigator and gives massages to us at the end of the day. The massages do not end up in 'happy endings' and our wives/partners can be reassured. In fact there is absolutely nothing romantic about riding these distances and the resulting pains and aches focus your attention to food, shower and sleep (where does the beer come into it?). Cindy helps out all round, with everything from navigation to cleaning eskies and shopping, sharing Heather's bedroom, and keeping us all entertained.

Me? I feel I do very little except ride. The team says all I need to do is survive to Istanbul. I try do my bit where I can, help David translate the trip book we got from Hans and Marjan - without it we would have had enormous difficulties!

CF: No-one along the way knows about CF and we cannot explain what we are doing... We are seen as some corporate flash touristy thing with MONEY. No concessions or discounts, and not really raising much awareness really. The movie 'Coughing the Distance' is going to do that (read: donate and help us fund the post production!)! I saw a man in Romania along the road just sitting there, as all old people seem to do, but he had oxygen tubing on! I stopped and explained what we were doing. We both coughed and we understood each other. Heather filmed it, I took a photo of him (will post later!). He said he had been on O2 for 12 years (?!) and offered us drinks but we had no time to spare. I tried to give him money which he totally refused (his family stood by watching with horror as he denied the $$) so I hid it under his tubing in the window.

Today we found a nice hotel on the Danube and an internet cafe! The gypsies we see along the roads here have no need for internet or TV, although I have seen them with mobile phones! Nough for now, over and out!

Walter----