Fraser's blog

Thanks for the message, Gold Cup Girl! Will give you a ring when I know what my plans are! PS - what was Sarah's verdict on Current Bloke? (If anyone is wondering, this is just a very odd way of sending messages to someone who for some reason or other is not going to the office for a couple of days).

Yet another sunny day - yet another good ride in the Vosges. Flying back to the UK tomorrow, should in in Bristol on Thursday night, then around and about for the weekend. Still no date for taking off to Amsterdam and beyond though.

Stonking ride today in the Vosges. Slightly overdid the "don't eat much breakfast and then ride for five hours without eating anything other than dark chocolate", but it was fantastic all the same. Deep snow over 1100m meant that I had to walk for a few km, so it was fortunate that the weather was sunny and warm. Some great downhills, but not altogether convinced by a full suspension bike with a grabbing front brake, diving forks and and a semi-slick rear tyre that liked to lock up.

... the lack of Internet access. More information is emerging about the conditions in Danan? Appartently the compound used "to be barren. Now it has plants & a very nice veranda, so the prison-ward feel is completely gone!". Fine, but internet access is by sat phone only, so no pictures, no html, not attachments etc etc. I guess blogging is going to have to be kept to a minimum too

Given that the last couple of possible missions have not happened due to events beyond either my or MSF's control, I've refrained from telling everyone that I might be heading off to the western part of Ivory Coast. Should this prove to be a case of third time lucky, I´m likely to be off in the next couple of weeks: Just enough time to swing up from Barcelona to see my brother in Alsace, then a quick flight back to the UK in time to say bye to the people most important to me, then, via Amsterdam, out 'on mission'. Tomorrow (or rather later today - it's that nocturnal Barcelona lifestyle) I have a nice long journey (flying to Geneva, then train to Basel) to read through a wad of printouts with titles such as

No Escape - Liberian refugees in C?d´Ivoire

and

EU Crisis Management - A Humanitarian Perspective

and

C?d’Ivoire: "The war is not yet over"

As well as some more practical ones from MSF that start with sentences like "Bon venue en C?d’Ivoire!!!!" This time it might really happen.

What creature made these prints? Click to see the answer