Day 180
Sleeping location: Scrubland 2.738N 35.649E, Kenya
Distance (km today/total): 49 / 12577
Estimated climb (m today/total): 200 / 91700
Problems of various sizes: 4
Distance (km today/total): 49 / 12577
Estimated climb (m today/total): 200 / 91700
Problems of various sizes: 4
Day in three words: Lazily leaving town
We didn’t actually leave until noon, as a result of staying up so late and having so much food to pack away, by which time it was raining some more. We dashed to leave town before the road became too flooded, only to find that there was a bridge on this section of the river and we needn’t have worried at all. We had earmarked a hotel on the other side as we were both fancying some more R&R and it was still raining, but it turned out to be way out of our price range so instead we just stopped there for a semi luxurious lunch. After ordering a hodgepodge of interesting looking items we were forcibly joined* by a local man named David who then proceeded to bang on about this that and the other for the 75 minutes it took for our food to arrive. He was the sort that loved the sound of his own voice and always wanted to sound clever, to the extent that he would ask a question that he thought was clever, receive 20% of an answer, then start talking about something else entirely. He also absolutely loved talking about Brexit and returned to it three times, despite the fact that we were both clearly feeling very glum about the fact the Brexit Day was 2 days away.
After all this, plus a little extra time waiting for more rain to stop, we effectively didn’t leave Lodwar until 3pm but decided to crack on towards the next town of Lokichar and see how far we got. As we left, or just after, I discovered four problems of varying seriousness (in descending order of seriousness):
1. Headphones have stopped working, so no music or podcasts
2. After restarting the phone to try and solve problem 1, realised that I now needed the PIN code for my Kenyan SIM card, which I had thrown away, so I had no internet
3. Saddle making an alarming creaking noise over every bump
4. Drivetrain making horrible noise and crunchy feeling in feet in middle four gears. This would be higher but it actually disappeared of its own accord after about 30km
All this made cycling through the intermittent rain, on a road which alternated between new tarmac and horrible sandy dirt every 5km, less than fun. The new tarmac was very new because they were still building the road, so we did manage to extract some fun from sneaking onto the half-built sections and riding those. The landscape was a sort of desert scrubland that was now strangely un-desert-y after being drenched from the last couple of days.
We rode until sunset and then looked for somewhere to camp. It was quite flat so cover was in short supply, but we found some behind some of the mysterious “heaps of sand pushed by a bulldozer” that we had employed so often in the Sahara. We were quite close to a spot where they parked up the road building machinery overnight and there were some men sleeping there; they came to say hi but nothing more sinister. Despite our wealth of food we still ended up making instant noodles with peas, but we did manage to add soy sauce and honey for a touch of class. We slept with the tent outer on for the first time in ages as it was threatening to rain (and did) but thankfully it was pretty cool and we didn’t steam alive in there.
*He said “do you mind if I sit down” whilst sitting down
We didn’t actually leave until noon, as a result of staying up so late and having so much food to pack away, by which time it was raining some more. We dashed to leave town before the road became too flooded, only to find that there was a bridge on this section of the river and we needn’t have worried at all. We had earmarked a hotel on the other side as we were both fancying some more R&R and it was still raining, but it turned out to be way out of our price range so instead we just stopped there for a semi luxurious lunch. After ordering a hodgepodge of interesting looking items we were forcibly joined* by a local man named David who then proceeded to bang on about this that and the other for the 75 minutes it took for our food to arrive. He was the sort that loved the sound of his own voice and always wanted to sound clever, to the extent that he would ask a question that he thought was clever, receive 20% of an answer, then start talking about something else entirely. He also absolutely loved talking about Brexit and returned to it three times, despite the fact that we were both clearly feeling very glum about the fact the Brexit Day was 2 days away.
After all this, plus a little extra time waiting for more rain to stop, we effectively didn’t leave Lodwar until 3pm but decided to crack on towards the next town of Lokichar and see how far we got. As we left, or just after, I discovered four problems of varying seriousness (in descending order of seriousness):
1. Headphones have stopped working, so no music or podcasts
2. After restarting the phone to try and solve problem 1, realised that I now needed the PIN code for my Kenyan SIM card, which I had thrown away, so I had no internet
3. Saddle making an alarming creaking noise over every bump
4. Drivetrain making horrible noise and crunchy feeling in feet in middle four gears. This would be higher but it actually disappeared of its own accord after about 30km
All this made cycling through the intermittent rain, on a road which alternated between new tarmac and horrible sandy dirt every 5km, less than fun. The new tarmac was very new because they were still building the road, so we did manage to extract some fun from sneaking onto the half-built sections and riding those. The landscape was a sort of desert scrubland that was now strangely un-desert-y after being drenched from the last couple of days.
We rode until sunset and then looked for somewhere to camp. It was quite flat so cover was in short supply, but we found some behind some of the mysterious “heaps of sand pushed by a bulldozer” that we had employed so often in the Sahara. We were quite close to a spot where they parked up the road building machinery overnight and there were some men sleeping there; they came to say hi but nothing more sinister. Despite our wealth of food we still ended up making instant noodles with peas, but we did manage to add soy sauce and honey for a touch of class. We slept with the tent outer on for the first time in ages as it was threatening to rain (and did) but thankfully it was pretty cool and we didn’t steam alive in there.
*He said “do you mind if I sit down” whilst sitting down
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