Finally back on tarmac road – didn’t think I would be pleased to be back on tarmac – but I really am! I am in so much pain – wrists and ankles hurting and the worst saddle sores ever! This makes sitting on the saddle difficult naturally but as I said before standing also makes your feet hurt!! So – yes all in all I am kind of happy to be back on the road!!
As I ate my porridge this morning I wondered if we would be back riding as a group again today. In the end 5 of us left together. The road was not actually that great – fairly bumpy tarmac – laid with big stones so not exactly smooth! After 10 km or so we passed Kendra and a few others. At about 30 km Dennis catches us – he left about 20 minutes after us so had been chasing all morning to catch up. We reached a bridge and decided to break for a coke stop – much to the annoyance of Dennis as he hadn’t needed to chase so hard to catch us if he had known we would be stopping!! Never mind! This bit of road was said to be dangerous – we had been warned there could be bandits in the area – but I hadn’t really thought much about it. There were a lot of people at the coke stop – many already there when we arrived. It was rather nice. The scenery has changed and we heard stories of people spotting giraffes crossing the road which would be amazing and ostriches off to the side. So we are definitely on the look out for wild life as we cycle along! It is very remote – not really a proper road and certainly not very much traffic using it. So we carried on as a group to lunch. We all agreed to do a 2 km stint at the front – which worked quite well – except for a certain person who only seemed to manage 1 km at a time. I pointed this out and stopped Jorg from taking over until he had done his full 2km. My legs hurt and had no power but everyone was hurting – that is why we were trying to share the load. Bastiaan sped off at the front and looked back at me – I just shook my head thinking “Please don’t go that fast – I am hurting like hell” So he slowed down – it was killing me going up the hill!
So – we roll into lunch together, exhausted!. And the first thing we hear is that Kendra has been shot!! Shot?! Oh my God – unbelievable – nothing else – just shot. Thankfully we then hear another report saying she is OK. Thank God – no more details. I immediately tell everyone I think we should cancel the race – it is unsafe with bandits on the road. Just as we are discussing this Tori and Adam are about to leave – so I shout at them to come back. We decide to ride together as a group for the afternoon. Not to worry about the race or the possibility of being attacked. More riders arrived at lunch and we received more news – other riders have apparently been mugged and robbed but no-one is shot – this is at least a lot more reassuring. Though the whole situation seemed unbelievable. Then a group of about 20 riders arrive – there was the option now to get on the truck if you felt uneasy about riding. But EFI – even if the race was cancelled we still needed to ride the distance. So to make room for the others at lunch a group of about 9 of us set off for the remainder of the day’s ride and head off down the road.
It was a long day of about 150 km so we had quite a bit of distance to cover still. There was a headwind in the morning which had slowed us down considerably so we already knew it was going to be a long day – especially as we are all hurting still. Jorg and Dennis are the only two with lots of energy and seemed happy to push the speed.
The views are amazing – with the mountains close by. Everybody was saying this is how they expected Africa to look – I guess that’s true – definitely looks more like Safari country here. With giraffe and ostrich sightings and the villagers in their tribal gear it was all pretty cool stuff!
But the afternoon was going to be hard – over 100 km and not feeling too good! The miles are clocking by slowly even though we do get a tail wind and are able to speed up a little – it’s just that I feel drained of energy! After about 120 km I decide to let the faster riders go for it and slow down a little – we are back in a built up area which seems quite safe after the drama of the morning. We didn’t feel as if we were in any danger. We did also have a second coke stop which helped somewhat although it was difficult to find the motivation to get going again after the rest! The miles are still dragging but camp is supposed to be 8 km the other side of the next village which came upon us sooner than expected. Everyone is feeling really tired and dropping back. Tori is hurting, Paul is hurting, Scott is hurting, Adam is hurting and I am hurting!! Only Jorg and Dennis seem to have any energy left!
Finally we see the flag – such a relief! Thank goodness! There was also a car wash sign just before so we made plans to go there later. It looked like a really nice hotel campsite but as soon as the ride was complete I ran off to try to get a hotel room!!
I was waiting in the reception area with Dennis and Tori, having secured the last few rooms, when Ruth cam bursting in looking for a room. We tell her sorry but there aren’t any left and she is like:” I’ve just been shot at – I need a room!!” And eventually we hear more of the story regarding the day’s events. After hearing what happened to her we were only too glad to offer her one of our rooms which reassured her but then Sharita announces that TDA has booked one for her already. So that is good! We are still worried about Kendra though because she was out in front of the group that was mugged and we still do not know what happened to her. Sharita then explains that she was hit very hard by a rock and is in the hospital with a suspected punctured lung. She had been coughing up blood so they were checking her out.
I had forgotten to say that in the afternoon there had been a huge military presence on the road – every second car seemed to be an army truck – they had been mobilized from a nearby British base to patrol the road!
We didn’t really hear much more so after checking in we went off to get some food and then took our bikes to get cleaned at the car wash. The whole time we were a bit vague as to what was what. Eventually Kendra turned up and she was able to tell her side of the story. It was all very scary and I could hardly believe what she was saying. But I am just glad that she and the others are all OK. An unbelievable experience and we offer to help her in any way we can. She eventually goes off to bed and Scott and I chat for a while about the day’s events.
We have a briefing from the Tour leaders – nothing like this has ever happened in the 8 years of the Tour. They had had escorts before in this area but had been told that it was safe from recent reports. The Kenyan Wildlife Service blamed it on the recent drought in the area - desperate farmers had resorted to these sort of attacks on that particular road. Several trucks had been held up recently – so this was not the first time – and the authorities had a vague idea who was responsible.
Time for bed after a crazy day!!
Paul says he has not gone into detail about Kendra’s and Ruth’s stories as he feels they are theirs to tell not his – but you can read Kendra's account at the following link and more are posted on various other blogs. Kendra is doing really well but is not allowed to ride for a few weeks! She fully intends to stay with the tour!
Kendra's account.
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