Distance: 77.62km
Ride time: 3:15
Climb: 141m (No longer in Ethiopia)
Best thing: First half was all downhill. Plenty of scope for big dogging it.
Worst thing: False impression of how hard rest of ride to Nairobi will be.
Best song of the day: Jib Ride by Haik Naltchayan
So, the first day of the off road section was a pretty gentle introduction. Only a couple of real corrugated sections and no real climbs. According to the rider briefing tonight, we'll see the first of the bad stuff tomorrow after lunch.
The very first section was so easy that I felt inclined to photo people as they went by. Here is Gisi saying that she isn't enjoying it.
I was kind of joking in camp that we would be at lunch in two hours and done before noon. If it had been a truly bad dirt road, this would have been ridiculous. As it turns out, I was pretty much on the money for me. For the faster guys, it was an even quicker day. Even the slower guys on mountain bikes are starting to work out that they can push the boat out on the dirt sections - small compensation for the 11,000km of paved road though.
One guy was asking whether he should be landing the jumps on the back wheel or not. I was pretty confused about why he was asking - was he thinking about doing more mtbing when he got back, and had confused me for someone that might know? Turns out that on the concreted depressions he was getting an inch or two of air. This is probably not enough air for him to be worrying much about technique. More than I was on my steel tank though.
Talking about which, now that I have my 2" tires on, my bike looks pretty ridiculous. It still rolls along pretty well, but I don't think that I would like to ride it on anything remotely technical. It stops like an oil tanker and turns like, well, an oil tanker or something else that doesn't turn very well. Maybe a Land Sea Dreadnought.
Apart from the obvious differences of riding a mountain bike off road, some little things about my bike are getting more obvious. When I stand on a loose climb, my weight moves waaaay more forwards then on a mountain bike. I kind of wish that I had gotten my act together early enough to get a suspension fork for the Surly. I think that it would make a huge difference on these sections. I kind of like turning up on a fully rigid though. Like a badge of pride / stupidity.
Not much else to say about the day today. Pretty relaxed, plenty of hills and stuff to see. The hills here aren't the soft rounded deals like in Ethiopia, apparently we are in the rift system now so we are seeing a lot of uplift type stuff. If I can get my act together, I'll take a photo for all the rock type people back home.
A bunch of people on the ride today saw baboons, rebels and little dik-diks and what not. I just saw hills. Tomorrow we might see giraffes though, which would be pretty cool.
Sunset at camp. We are in big sky country now, that's for sure.
Dan's Camping Tip: Make sure that you don't have anything on the bite valve of your camel bak when it is in your tent. Unless you want a wading pool to sleep in.
Ride time: 3:15
Climb: 141m (No longer in Ethiopia)
Best thing: First half was all downhill. Plenty of scope for big dogging it.
Worst thing: False impression of how hard rest of ride to Nairobi will be.
Best song of the day: Jib Ride by Haik Naltchayan
So, the first day of the off road section was a pretty gentle introduction. Only a couple of real corrugated sections and no real climbs. According to the rider briefing tonight, we'll see the first of the bad stuff tomorrow after lunch.
The very first section was so easy that I felt inclined to photo people as they went by. Here is Gisi saying that she isn't enjoying it.
I was kind of joking in camp that we would be at lunch in two hours and done before noon. If it had been a truly bad dirt road, this would have been ridiculous. As it turns out, I was pretty much on the money for me. For the faster guys, it was an even quicker day. Even the slower guys on mountain bikes are starting to work out that they can push the boat out on the dirt sections - small compensation for the 11,000km of paved road though.
One guy was asking whether he should be landing the jumps on the back wheel or not. I was pretty confused about why he was asking - was he thinking about doing more mtbing when he got back, and had confused me for someone that might know? Turns out that on the concreted depressions he was getting an inch or two of air. This is probably not enough air for him to be worrying much about technique. More than I was on my steel tank though.
Talking about which, now that I have my 2" tires on, my bike looks pretty ridiculous. It still rolls along pretty well, but I don't think that I would like to ride it on anything remotely technical. It stops like an oil tanker and turns like, well, an oil tanker or something else that doesn't turn very well. Maybe a Land Sea Dreadnought.
Apart from the obvious differences of riding a mountain bike off road, some little things about my bike are getting more obvious. When I stand on a loose climb, my weight moves waaaay more forwards then on a mountain bike. I kind of wish that I had gotten my act together early enough to get a suspension fork for the Surly. I think that it would make a huge difference on these sections. I kind of like turning up on a fully rigid though. Like a badge of pride / stupidity.
Not much else to say about the day today. Pretty relaxed, plenty of hills and stuff to see. The hills here aren't the soft rounded deals like in Ethiopia, apparently we are in the rift system now so we are seeing a lot of uplift type stuff. If I can get my act together, I'll take a photo for all the rock type people back home.
A bunch of people on the ride today saw baboons, rebels and little dik-diks and what not. I just saw hills. Tomorrow we might see giraffes though, which would be pretty cool.
Sunset at camp. We are in big sky country now, that's for sure.
Dan's Camping Tip: Make sure that you don't have anything on the bite valve of your camel bak when it is in your tent. Unless you want a wading pool to sleep in.
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