Day Four
Another 5:30 am wake up call, only this one didn’t seem quite so bad – my body was obviously getting used to being woken up at ungodly hours. Plus, of course, I’d slept since about 8pm the previous night. I tried in vain to stomach breakfast but for every mouthful I forced down, I could feel it sitting in my throat waiting to come back up. Oh the joys of travel bugs!!!
There was absolutely no way I was going to let my stomach stop me from taking part in this challenge though, so I clipped on my helmet, pulled up my gloves, stuck two fingers up to sickness and off we went.
After a few hill climbs (mountain climbs!) we stopped at the viewpoint over the Rift Valley. It was just beautiful, stretching for miles and miles. The sky was blue, the sun was out, I felt a little bit like bursting into song ala Julie Andrews in The Sound Of Music (I’m missing the cute little pixie crop though so I resisted). Henk collected us together and informed us that after all that hill work we now had a blissful 9km (5 mile) downhill.
We cheered in unison. Oh how naïve.
It was half way down, wondering if I might need a change in knickers, that I realised the downhills are just as bad as the uphills, only in reverse! Steep doesn’t even cover it and you’ve got the added chance that one of the locals might suddenly step out into the road or, even better, herd their cows out into the road just as you’re approaching at 30mph (which is pretty fast on a push bike), just to mix things up a bit.
Worse still was that it seemed that I was actually just being a big wuss, totally reinforced when Mags, our 70 year old Welsh member (an absolute pleasure to be around as she had a cracking sense of humour) whizzed past me, practically pirouetting on her handlebars, totally unafraid of the vertical drops (I so want to be like her when I’m 70….heck I want to be like her now!).
When I got to the bottom, I peeled my hands off the handlebars and attempted to shake my hands loose again (remember the Friends episode when Chandler
What goes up must come down and vice versa unfortunately, so once again at the bottom of that big old hill, we were faced with a big old climb – 4km (2 miles). The heat of the day was upon us and my stomach was empty. Everyone was tired, but we’re women and women don’t give up (that’s why we’re so good at nagging! You’ve got to have commitment people!).
It was tough, I’m not going to lie and for every few metres I did I had to get off the bike to drink or to heave a little bit. (God I was so attractive during this challenge – heaving, sweaty, clad in some serious lycra…..shudder!). All things must come to an end though and finally, finally, the top of the hill was in sight. Suddenly adrenaline kicked in and I powered it to the water stop, thankful at last to have a breather.
I decided enough was enough and went to seek out the doctor for some magic pills to stop me feeling sick. God love the wonders of modern medicine. Things after that became a lot easier thankfully. Elated after the hill climb and starting to feel a bit more human I found my energy again and cruised (sort of ) to the lunch stop.
This was infact our final stop of the day. We completed 35 miles and were then transported to our next hotel, which was about a two hour drive away in Baringo, a small village next to a fresh water lake.
The roads were pretty horrendous and at various points we had to get out so that the buses could navigate through what can only be described as craters, without the extra weight. I suspect also that we were made to get out incase the buses accidentally tipped over going through.
We arrived at the Soi Lodge late afternoon. Yet another interesting room. I lay down on my bed as soon as we arrived, only to sit up a few minutes later to find a cockroach had been eyeing me up about and inch away from where my head had been.
As the hotel was practically on the lake, we were offered a boat trip for about a fiver to go and see the hippos and crocodiles that lived in it. Again the scenery out on the water was just beautiful. It was exactly what you imagine when you think of Kenya
There was a bit of a panic when our driver wedged us in some bushes and then had to get out to push (knee deep in crocodile infested waters – I’ve never been one for horror films, let alone witnessing the real thing unfolding in front of me), but we survived…hurrah…and eventually came across the hippos. Despite their seemingly gentle nature, hippo’s are actually a tad violent so when had to keep our distance, especially after mommy hippo lunged for us as she protected her baby, but it was magical to watch them.
There was much excitement when a croc swam past, although I managed to miss it just by a millisecond as I was on the wrong side of the boat. I’ve seen other people’s pictures though and I reckon that monster had quaffed a few poor unsuspecting creatures in its time…talk about big!
Dinner that night was highly entertaining – not the meal I’m sorry to say, lovely food but still our bog standard menu of rice, potatoes and veg – as the staff put on a little show for us, dancing and singing and bringing out a giant cake to celebrate our achievements. I challenge even the most dance-shy person not to want to shake their money maker in Kenya
After our presentation, Ann gave a few motivational speeches. Each day we all nominated someone for cyclist of the day and if I remember rightly it was Kath who scooped the prize that evening. Kath lost her leg after a holiday, but she’s one of these people who refuses to let anything stop her, a true and utter inspiration to us all I think.
Henk ended the night by telling us that we had to be up mega early to transfer to Kabarnet the following day and we headed back to our rooms to shower and pack, just as the electric conked out. We showered by torch light and sporadically packed throughout the night when the power decided to switch itself on again for a few minutes, all the time growing nervous – tomorrow we faced THE HILL.
No comments:
Post a Comment