Day 176
Sleeping location: Just S of Kataboi, Kenya
Distance (km today/total): 28 / 12438
Estimated climb (m today/total): 0 / 91200
Water scavenged: 15 litres
Distance (km today/total): 28 / 12438
Estimated climb (m today/total): 0 / 91200
Water scavenged: 15 litres
Day in three words: It never rains...
Our sheltered position was good for being hidden but also cut off any potential breezes, so it was insufferably hot in the night and neither of us slept well at all. Back on the “road” progress continued to be very slow and hard. It was either sandy or bumpy or sandy and bumpy, and speeds over 10kph were unheard of. Obviously it was still stupidly hot, and to add to the general sense of difficulty I had an upset stomach and also had some considerable pain in my “saddle interface area”*.
We stopped in the first village to pick up some water as we had both exhausted our meagre supplies** in the morning heat. Bottled was essentially unavailable but we managed to buy a 10L jerry can of river water for 30 shillings (25p). Here we also discovered that Kenyans generally just say “bob” instead of “shillings”, like a Victorian chimney sweep. Whilst we filtered the water we ate some fried donut things and watched a sheep lick Rebecca’s front rack clean and then accidentally give her a hug afterwards. Rebecca tried to “forget” her shoes here, as they were mostly buggered but someone could probably get some use out of them, but a woman ran after us to try and return them. She was given them as a gift for her kindheartedness. After burning through most of the jerry can water we filled up again using a local pump in the afternoon, which attracted a lot of curiosity from some locals. The rivers are totally dry but clearly take a fair bit of water when it does rain, so there is presumably a lot of groundwater that can be tapped into.
Towards the end of the day we reached the slightly larger village of Kataboi, with its (to us, by this point) impressive selection of shops. To add further to our difficulties I managed to knock the tension bolt out of my saddle and had to sit with a crowd of children to fix it whilst Rebecca did the shopping. After the job was done I had fun:
-Pretending to “get” them and making them run away giggling
-Realising they copied you if you said things in a certain way, and making them say “Leeds United”
-Kicking one of their little woollen balls and accidentally getting it stuck in a thorn tree, then throwing stones to get it down to a grabbable point, then impressing them with my standing jump
Straight after Kataboi we found a decent spot and made camp. We had bought a few beers and some dried fried fish that was basically fish scratchings, and we enjoyed these whilst watching the sun set, then made a significantly better spaghetti dish than the previous night. We initially went without the tent because of the heat issues and because there was a wind keeping the insects away but after it dropped Rebecca decided heat was better than mosquitoes and put it up. I stayed outside and was kept awake by the whiny little bastards. Damned if you do...
*This does not need to be, and will not be, discussed further
**Still had loads of home brew alcohol though
Our sheltered position was good for being hidden but also cut off any potential breezes, so it was insufferably hot in the night and neither of us slept well at all. Back on the “road” progress continued to be very slow and hard. It was either sandy or bumpy or sandy and bumpy, and speeds over 10kph were unheard of. Obviously it was still stupidly hot, and to add to the general sense of difficulty I had an upset stomach and also had some considerable pain in my “saddle interface area”*.
We stopped in the first village to pick up some water as we had both exhausted our meagre supplies** in the morning heat. Bottled was essentially unavailable but we managed to buy a 10L jerry can of river water for 30 shillings (25p). Here we also discovered that Kenyans generally just say “bob” instead of “shillings”, like a Victorian chimney sweep. Whilst we filtered the water we ate some fried donut things and watched a sheep lick Rebecca’s front rack clean and then accidentally give her a hug afterwards. Rebecca tried to “forget” her shoes here, as they were mostly buggered but someone could probably get some use out of them, but a woman ran after us to try and return them. She was given them as a gift for her kindheartedness. After burning through most of the jerry can water we filled up again using a local pump in the afternoon, which attracted a lot of curiosity from some locals. The rivers are totally dry but clearly take a fair bit of water when it does rain, so there is presumably a lot of groundwater that can be tapped into.
Towards the end of the day we reached the slightly larger village of Kataboi, with its (to us, by this point) impressive selection of shops. To add further to our difficulties I managed to knock the tension bolt out of my saddle and had to sit with a crowd of children to fix it whilst Rebecca did the shopping. After the job was done I had fun:
-Pretending to “get” them and making them run away giggling
-Realising they copied you if you said things in a certain way, and making them say “Leeds United”
-Kicking one of their little woollen balls and accidentally getting it stuck in a thorn tree, then throwing stones to get it down to a grabbable point, then impressing them with my standing jump
Straight after Kataboi we found a decent spot and made camp. We had bought a few beers and some dried fried fish that was basically fish scratchings, and we enjoyed these whilst watching the sun set, then made a significantly better spaghetti dish than the previous night. We initially went without the tent because of the heat issues and because there was a wind keeping the insects away but after it dropped Rebecca decided heat was better than mosquitoes and put it up. I stayed outside and was kept awake by the whiny little bastards. Damned if you do...
*This does not need to be, and will not be, discussed further
**Still had loads of home brew alcohol though
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