Day 65 - March 15

Day 2 of the back to back centuries!  Yesterday was a 52-11 day, meaning I felt strong and ready to take on the day.  Today, not so much!  Today was a 30-32 day, meaning I needed all that the bike had in gears and more to get through the day.  It was a tough one...  the mileage was just at 100 miles but the climbing was 1,630 meters, which is a helluva lot of feet (over 5,300... more than a mile of climbing).  At mile 83 I ran out of water, at mile 86 I hit the wall, at mile 89 I put on some tunes to help me get over the wall and at mile 96 I got a luke warm 7-up and then I drank a whole two liter of ice cold water.  I was so thirsty and dehydrated, I could have drank another.

They have these speed bumps on the road when you are coming near a town or village.  They consist of 4 lines of asphalt about 4 inches wide and 4 inches high.  They do not stop or slow down cars or buses or trucks or even motorcycles.  But they do play havoc with cyclists.  They put 4 or 5 sets of these as you go into town and 4 or 5 as you leave town.  And when I say town, sometimes it is only two buildings.  I blew out a tire when I hit one at a pretty good clip.  I had a collection of locals helping me change the tire.  That added to the fun.  :)

The scenery of the day was great.  It was somewhat overcast with broken clouds through most of the day.  This was good because it would have been oppressive had the sun been out in full force.  The clouds and the sun breaking through made for some awesome effects.  At one point in one of the very steep climbs I looked back on the valley from where we came.  It was almost magical, rays of the sun had broken through and highlighted portions of the fields.  It was as if they had been painted with several different hues of green.  It looked like a patchwork quilt had been laid out on the valley floor. Breathtaking!

Another beautiful aspect of the day came at the summit of one of the afternoon climbs.  At the top there were unique rock formations.  Huge boulders had been left stacked upon one another by glaciers in the area thousands of years ago.  

This is a picture of what I saw.  

In between the rock formations was a dip.  Through that dip you could see the great Rift Valley.  It appeared as if the valley stretched on forever.  I felt like I could see for a hundred miles.

This is a water hole that we came across.  The Maasai brought their cattle and sheep to drink.  They also took the time to get their monthly bath.  There were several young boys who had been partaking of the water to cool themselves off.  They also availed themselves of the opportunity to run around in the birthday suit nature had provided.  So there were a number of young boys running up to the road buck naked.  No, I didn't take a picture of that!   :)

Oh yes, one more thing....  today marked the halfway point in terms of kilometers!