Day Four - Isiolo to Nanyuki

Distance: 70.58km
Ride time: 4:28 (includes french toast eating time)
Climb: 1417

So. Today was pretty funny. I was still feeling and looking like a very sick thing. I had started Cipro the night before though and I was already feeling heaps better. It is like some sort of magic drug.

I guess I was looking bad enough that Gizzy thought I might loose EFI that day, so she decided to ride along for moral support. If anyone has ever had me give them moral support, you'd have a good idea how Gizzy does it. Basically she rides alongside either laughing at how slow you are going or not letting you stop. At one point into the massive 40km climb, I really wanted to take off my rain jacket because I was too hot. I got to the point of stopping one point unclipped when Gizzy said "I think that we can make a break at the T-junction". That junction was another 6km up the road. When we got there, as well as taking off my jacket I took a drink of electrolyte drink. Gizzy: "What are we going to stop for a picnic here?"

Pretty funny stuff.

Eventually we made it to the top of the climb. I tested the limits of Cipro drinking a whole bunch of different types of juice. Delicious, delicious juice. Not the reconstituted powder juice we could buy before, but proper juice in little cartons. I should say that Ethiopia had good juice though - mango, pineapple and avocado. So thick that you have to eat it with a spoon.

The good news was that I didn't give up on the ride, even when I was going 6km an hour. The even better news was that it was french toast for lunch. The best news was that we were camping at a hotel next to a British Army base. It was a proper hotel that knew how to make food and had electricity (almost all the time). The room was so big, we watched Always Sunny in Philadelphia in style while writing blogs and doing email. Civilisation is grand.

Plus, with Cipro I can eat again - so I had a mixed grill, a homemade coke spider (order vanilla icecream and a coke) and then we had awesome sausage and pasta salad for normal, TDA dinner. Excellent stuff.

Cipro and being ridiculed by a tiny little German definitely got me through the day. Gizzy was so hyper from laughing at me by the end that she was like a little crazy person. Frightening stuff.