Day One - Marsabit to Field Camp

Distance: 95.3km
Ride time: 6:23

So, this ride was pretty nice. I am still slow as all get up. Between the cold and a bunch of niggles, I can't generate much power in my legs. This has been pretty good practice for high cadence riding. Well, higher than my usual stomping mash.

We had a tiny bit of climbing on the wet dirt roads (I forgot to say that it rained pretty heavily the night before) then headed all the way downhill to lunch at 55km.

This wasn't totally straightforwards though. There are still plenty of corrugations (no lava rocks though) and the mud was out of this world. On some of the uphills, I had to scoot along - the mix of wet mud and cow crap
was so slippery that I couldn't spin my way up. In other places, my fat tires didn't have enough frame clearance to shed mud fast enough. I had to get off a bunch of times and push mud out with my fingers to be able to turn the wheels again. I thought that the Gravity 12hour was bad that one year, but this was something else again. If a few big trucks hadn't gone through and squished a lot of the mud out of the way, the road would have been impassable. With a clear path though, it made the riding pretty fun.

It actually felt a bit like proper mountain biking, picking a nice path and maintaining traction. I should say, trying to maintain traction though - at one point I had to made an impromptu dismount off my bike. It was pretty sweet though. Something has loosened my too tight pedals, so I unclipped and jumped sideways off my bike like a freaking ballerina. The sort of thing that I couldn't do if I tried.

Straight out of lunch, I came across a sorry sight. A massive water hole in the road with two bogged trucks. One of them was the normal cattle trucks that we see charging up and down the road, loaded with people in the back. This was being pushed out by an army of Kenyan dudes. The other was the old dinner truck (since replaced) heading back from Gondor to Nairobi. It looked well stuck, the front wheels dangling in water (I guess - water here is nice and muddy) and the fuel tanks resting on a rock. No one pushing that sucker.

Our three trucks made it here ok though. According to Ferdi, the driving was "fun".

I saw the Spanish girls in their impractical, free van on the muddy road. I thought that they had stopped to take photos (of me looking stylish, naturally) but it turns out that they were just broken down. Again. Luckily for them, one of the TDA staffers has developed a bit of a soft spot for them. He rides along behind the van. If there is a hard section to drive, he does it for them. If they break down, he helps out. Pretty cute stuff.

Dan's Camping Tip: If you put your tent up early in a big open space, a corollary of Murpy's Law says that the loudest snorers, smelliest farters and most unrelenting whiners will camp around you.