January 31--Racers fight blisters, scabies, and dehydration as they near final third of race
By James Bowyer

Dr. Frank Mabesoone has had a busy day. He is one of the official Raid doctors and his makeshift hospital in a tent on the banks of the Umkomaas River has been flooded by broken Raiders.

"Please tell the doctor I will buy him sushi if I get onto the river," says Kojiro Shiraishi from East Wind, the 12th-place Japanese team. The skin on the soles of his feet makes them look like two huge, prune-like blisters.

While the doctor begins cutting away the dead skin, he offers some advice: wear dry socks, use talcum powder, and try to rest. The remedies will probably be ignored and the pain endured as Shiraishi carries on with the adventure.

The ragtag teams continue to limp into the third headquarters a day and a half after the leaders. They bring with them a list of complaints. Foot problems are the favorites, followed closely by dehydration.

A member of the Italian team is carried into the tent cursing a brutal sun. Around him other victims of the day lie dully, attached to rehydrating drips.

"Can my team carry on?" he asks to no one in particular before falling asleep. Like others, his voice is heavy with regret at the idea of letting his team down. Those who drop out are well aware that their teams will be out of the official running of the race.

"It feels like a hammer is knocking on the inside of my head," was how a Swedish journalist described a bout of tick-bite fever.

Also incredibly uncomfortable is scabies. The microscopic mites, says the doctor, are being carried by about half the teams that came off the mountain. The parasite burrows into the skin and grows as a rash. Antihistamines, the obvious treatment, only seem to encourage the pugnacious creatures.

At a dent in the river-rafting section, teams sit two up front, two in the middle, and one at the back to ride the rapids of the Umkomaas River.

The recent rains have helped teams make good time on the 37-mile rafting section. Ertips pulled hard and made an impressive lead of almost two hours on its closest rivals, Infopoint/Hewlett-Packard and Team Endeavor.

But hidden rocks continue to be a danger. A puncture could set teams back up to an hour, with a repair taking at least 40 minutes for glue to dry--time that teams cannot afford to waste, considering that less than two hours separate the first three teams.

The front teams are expected to complete the rafting section early tomorrow morning and begin the third to last stage of the race, the 100-mile mountain-bike ride along the road to the Indian Ocean.

Quotes for the day

"Travel light, freeze at night." --United States team Kelty-Cabela's philosophy on making quick time.

"I've had all the blisters a person can get--eventually the body adjusts." --Team Kelty-Cabela's Anjelika Castaneda.

James Bowyer is a freelance journalist living in Cape Town, South Africa.