I made the most of the last day of rest before the next stage, which is a 7 day stretch of 932 km riding, lots of climbing, and there are going to be some rocky and gravely roads.
Relaxed morning, after breakfast we went into town to get some more insect spray, sunscreen, and money. I am having to apply insect repellent all over to avoid being bitten. Any spot I have missed has a bite mark. Brett has yet to be bitten.
As soon as we hit the town we were once again joined by touts. We went to the pharmacy to get sunscreen – the best option was 20 SPF but better than nothing. I got two tins of insect repellent. Then back to the hotel – success no bracelets or paintings purchased.
At the hotel we got our bags sorted into daily and permanent. The permanent we only get on rest days. Daily bag is very full, not much in the permanent apart from refills of medication.
After packing, I had a nice swim in the pool, followed by a beef wrap for lunch.
Then back to the Masai camp in the late afternoon to set up the tents and get ready to ride tomorrow.
We were booked into the hotel tonight but with the logistics of getting to camp by 5:30 am tomorrow, and relying on transport turning up we thought it would be easiest to get back to camp tonight.
We packed up and caught a taxi back and arrived back at the Masai camp around 4:30 so had plenty of time to put up our tents and get ready for the next day.
After setting up the tents and sorting out the gear for the next day we went over to the camp restaurant and joined Shirley and Dan for a beer. They advised us to order dinner right away if we wanted it before 7pm, and only to order stuff cooked on site. Apparently the pizza is made at the lodge up the road and Dan ordered one at 4pm the day he arrived and went to bed without it having arrived at 7:30.
So we ordered chapatti and vegetarian spaghetti, thinking that shouldn’t take too long. They wouldn’t let you pay when you ordered and didn’t give you a number or anything. We ordered at 5pm, our order arrived at 6:45 and our table got the 2nd lot of food out of the kitchen. I have no idea what they were doing. as they appeared to be working all the time. It certainly wasn’t chopping up vegetables. The spaghetti was boiled spaghetti pasta, no seasoning, and apart from two scraps of carrot there were no vegetables. The chapatti arrived a few minutes later.
A couple of riders at the table went up to pay and left. We stayed on chatting to Shirley and Dan for a while about their safari to the crater. They saw lots of animals and enjoyed it. Then the bill for the whole table arrived, including those who had paid. We paid ours and refused each time we were asked to pay for the riders who had left and already paid.
When we got to camp I hadn’t noticed that one of the big trucks wasn’t TDA, it was Overland Safari tours. Well the Overland tour group were up partying loudly in the restaurant, with accompanying loud music and laughter until after 2 am. They then spent the next 30 minutes staggering drunkenly past our tents, discussing how we were biking, which seemed to them to be terribly amusing and accompanied by much laughter. To add to the background were motorbikes in a seeming constant stream going past.
I had bought Bose series 35 sound cancelling head phones which were about $500, but I didn’t test them stupidly before leaving home, and they are reducing not cancelling, so you can still hear the music through them. My iPod is not working – I have got it plugged into the recharging cell and nothing is happening.
It’s really hot and sticky, and whilst tossing and turning I am trying not to stress about the 170 km ride with lots of climbing with a 5:30 am start.
Kaye's Awesome Adventures 