After two days off it was time to go again. I got up early and was ready quickly – just couldn’t eat any breakfast though. We rode out of camp and down into town again – I hadn’t written down the instructions so was a bit unsure as to whether we were going the right way or not – finally somebody said yes – back the way we had come but turn right instead of left at the T junction to continue on our way. That was good – it actually made sense – so felt better after that! However at this stage I was shivering like crazy – didn’t feel good – wasn’t looking forward to the day’s riding!
Scott and I ended up in quite a good group – about 10 of us – we worked well together. There were no major climbs – just rolling hills all the way to lunch. At lunch we saw Dennis leaving with Paul and Horst ahead of us – but I am trying to recover today so not bothered about racing those guys!
We set off in a smaller group in the afternoon – about 6 of us again through rolling hills until we reached a pretty good climb. Hendry was pushing the pace and I was able to sit with him. My heart rate was a little high but two days off seems to do that. (being ill probably didn’t help either!) Scenery is really cool – a lot greener vegetation, crops growing, lots of villages, really busy, donkeys, carts, people – and of course all the kids. Everywhere they just keep shouting “You, you, you …” – it’s driving me nuts!! If they said “Hello” it would be OK but no they just keep screaming “You, you , you..” So I was a bit fed up with the kids today – at least really annoyed with whoever taught them to say “You, you, you ..” all day long!
On the way up the climb I was going fairly well and then suddenly could see someone ahead of us – and immediately think to myself, “Paul, Horst or Dennis?” Well if its Dennis its definitely worth me catching up with him so I speed up – turns out to be Francis – I hadn’t even realized he had left lunch before us – so that was a bit of a pain!! Good though – we caught him at the top of the climb – which was followed by a really nice downhill – wide roads, no traffic – we were moving pretty fast at about 50/60 kmph. There was just myself and Hendry at this stage. The others had stopped for some photos. When we got down to the bottom of the hill the wind got up and it was kind of tough. I just wanted to be done! My belly didn’t feel so good! I just wanted to be at camp so I was pushing to be finished. Hendry was good – he was strong and seemed to pull more than I did. The headwind was annoying but at least it was mainly downhill and so we finally made it to the Farm Camp…. (go figure…)
Camp was at the side of the road – all taped off – this was the second time we had camp roped off like this. All the locals would stand around and simply watch us!! There were tribes of kids racing around the perimeter with sticks – plenty of adults there as well. We also had two toilet tents for the first time – which was a welcome addition – nice not to have to take the shovel and dig yourself a hole!
So – my toe this morning was awful – I kind of poked at it and it wouldn’t stop bleeding – not good – has been a week now and doesn’t seem like it is healing. So I went back to the medical truck and they gave me some stronger antibiotic cream – I also persuaded them to give me some antibiotics as Scott and a few others had recommended they would help me feel a lot better. Right now my belly is bad, I have a blocked up nose and I am super tired so I am going to bed!!
When I got to camp today I put my tent up quickly and had a lay down for 2/3 hours. Struggled to eat dinner and missed yoga – but the sun has now finally set and I am ready for bed. Tomorrow we have a short ride – only about 60 km so we should be done in less than 2 hours!! Good night!!
No comments:
Post a Comment