It was such a welcome break - definitely could have done with another day. It was a bit of a rush getting taxis back down to camp - we were late arriving and some of the riders had left already by the time we got to camp. Had to shove everything into my locker - had all sorts of snacks and bits that we had bought for our 8 days on the road. There was mud everywhere and people struggling with their lockers. It was raining as we set off but not that cold so I didn't bother with a jacket. I was happy to get wet! The first 10 km was uncomfortable but I made myself feel better. We are riding again, it's Africa and it's fun! English weather - bad roads in the rain - only warm! I cheered up and soon felt good on my bike. I realised I had forgotten to take my Cipro this morning ( must remember later) Anyway I was riding with Scott and Paul with Scott doing most of the work although I was trying to help. I determined we should all be made to help - unfortunately whenever Paul got to the front he slowed things down too much which he knew Scott would not like as he didn't want to lose time to the guys in front. So in the end Scott would end up doing most of the work and pulling us along. Not really fair.
Suddenly, at about 55 km, big Bram comes flying past with a whole load of Tanzanian riders we didn't know about. So I jumped on the back of their wheels, which was great - we sat on their train for about 15 km which took us quickly towards lunch. One of their group had a flat just before lunch so they pulled off. All morning we care riding through a Game Park and are on the look out for zebra. The landscape was really cool, lots of luxury lodges along the way. We could see tracks in the mud from a herd of antelope - very cool! There were also loads of villagers out in their tribal gear - always impressive. The road was fairly bad but that didn't really matter - the rain eased off aft about 25 km. Bit of a shame really as I was enjoying the rain.
At lunch we gained Steve, Tori and Jorg for the group which was great until Scott' tyre blew up with a loud bang giving us all a shock. Surprisingly everyone stopped and hung out while he fixed it before vomiting together. We had been told that construction was due to start at 110 km and sure enough just at about 109 we met it - pretty close! It consisted off perfectly buffed smooth gravel ready to be rolled with the final layer. We rode a couple of km on this which was great and then we met the road - which was perfect. The first section was so new it had not even seen any cars yet! Horst joined us at thus point and we sped up quite a bit. Moving at about 35 - 40 km/h which was good - meant we were getting the day finished! Then Scotts tyre blew again and once again everyone stopped to help him change it. Right about then we met up with another Tanzanian rider who immediately took the speed up to about 45 km/h for a short while. It was quite difficult to keep up, so we asked him to slow a little but Paul encouraged him to go faster again to about 44 km/h, but he got tired at that speed. In the end we alternated between spells of 35 and 40 km/h for a distance. At least we completed the blast section pretty quickly and soon arrived cat camp. We had previously decided the rule for arriving at camp was to ride to the Finish flag and then turn into camp to badge out. So Scott and myself rode to the finish and then turned right to head down into camp when Paul suddenly cuts off down the bank in front of us. As I am voicing my thoughts about this I suddenly look up to find Scott has come to a sudden stop and i almost career into the back of him. He had noticed the rope around camp just in time - whoops - could have been nasty for the two of us!
Camp was on a football field - not the best and fairly wet when we arrived. However the sun came out and we managed to dry things off and had a sleep in the afternoon. Later we were entertained by a football match as we changed tyres and cleaned our bikes. Innate so much extra food and snacks in readiness for the next 8 days that I need to reorganize my locker! Dinner was curry tonight - more bones than meat - and there seems to be a bit of a party going on. Hopefully they will quieten down soon so I can get to sleep! Hopefully it will also rain and cool things down a little -! Good night!
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