Day 68 - March 18

Today was another tough day.  Well actually it was a tougher day than the last 4 at the start.  

At the first I was pounding down on the pedals trying to eat up the distance.  The mileage for the day was 80 miles with 850 meters of climbing.  On hill 2 I felt it in the legs.  I thought...  I just can't do this.  I don't have it in me.  I had just fought and accumulated over 370 miles in 4 days.  Each one of those days was a fight to book those miles.  Each one of those days I battled and won in the end.  But today, this morning, in the first 8-10K I just didn't have the fight in me.  There did not seem to be anything in the tank.

But a funny thing happened then.  I resigned myself to not fight the road but to give in to it.  I dropped it down a couple of gears to an easier level.  I let the conditions of the road wash over me and determine the pace.  I sat up and looked around me and realized...  I am cycling in Africa!!!  It doesn't get any better than this.  Look at what is all around me.  Not a road to be conquered but a scenery to be taken in.  Wow...

With that new found perspective nature began to reveal itself to me.  A bit up the road I saw a collection of baboons.  These were unlike many of the other baboons that I have seen.  These were not used to seeing humans.  They took off quickly upon seeing me.  Then further down the road a jackal crossed in front of me not even 30 meters.  The locals say that means really good luck.  My future will be blessed with good luck! :)

Then I saw a colony of ants crossing the road:

These were army ants.  The guide said that they eat just about anything in their path.  He also said their bite is very painful.

And even a bit later in the day I saw more baboons and monkeys.  See what a day

One thing that nature had in store for me that I wish it hadn't was TseTse flies.  These little aerobatic nightmares were incessant beasts.  They would constantly buzz you, land on you and bite.  The bite... Holy S#*% did they hurt.  They would land on your backside on your bike shorts and bite you right through them.  It would stand you up straight.  I learned that if you traveled in excess of 28-30 kph they had a hard time keeping up with you.  The problem is getting to that speed and maintaining it on the loose dirt and sand road.  But try as I did, I kept a pretty good pace for the last 20 miles.  If you slowed down or god forbid stopped, you would have a half dozen to a dozen of these biting machines circling you.  No fun whatsoever.

Here I am at the afternoon coke stop.  We have been traveling in the outback and have been challenged to find a Baridi Coke.  (Baridi is Swahili for cold). These were so exquisitely cold that I had three.  My mouth is watering right now thinking of how good they tasted.

 

Here is the poster they had on the wall at the coke stop.  A good motto for this trip!