Day Two - Farm Camp to Wildlife Services Camp

Distance: 79.94km
Ride time: 2:53km

Best thing: Learning how to peel and cube a mango.
Worst thing: Nothing really.

Best shuffled song: Illusionary Lines by the Hilltop Hoods

"From now on you won't be ferengis. You will be muzungas" - Sharita

And with that, we set out to cross the border between Ethiopia and
Kenya. It seems pretty strange that we are done with Ethiopia. It's
been such a crazy country. It seems like so much stuff has happened
here compared to Sudan. The hills. The burger sickness. Hating the
kids and the whole country. Learning to deal with the bad bits and
enjoy the good bits. The awesome mando day, full of hills and rain and
awesomeness.

I don't know. In some ways, I am sad to see the hills go - I was
really starting to enjoy climbing, albeit at my slow, fat man pace. On
the other hand, I won't miss the rocks being thrown and the constant
crowding around the perimeter line. I guess it is what it is. If you
can get over the bad bits, there is some great riding to be had, and
some great things to see.

Sharita, one of the joint tour directors, rode through here solo and
unsupported. After the mayhem at our camps, I can't imagine how she
did it. I asked one of the Indaba guys, and they just said "You
haven't seen Sharita when she is angry, have you?" Sounds like the
judicious unleashing of anger is part of the trick, but I don't see
how that could work for weeks at a time. Would it still be fun? Even
if you are just pretending to be angry?

The ride to the border was so short today that it is barely worth
mentioning. The neatest thing about it was the few climbs up towards a
heavy, leaden sky. It always seemed on the verge of raining but never
did.

Two big events in camp though. Firstly, the truck that we left behind
in Gondor has arrived with its new engine. Janet was pretty happy to
see Ferdi, who stayed behind in Gondor with the trucks, and I imagine
that the Indaba and TDA staff might be a little battle damaged
tomorrow morning. We are going to keep the replacement christmas tree
truck as well as the just back dinner truck. The reason for this is
that the fixed truck no longer has a bike rack on the top, so it can
carry fewer people and bikes, and now that we are in Northern Kenya we
are going to need that space.

Which segues nicely into the other big event: tomorrow we are hitting
the worst roads of the tour. Rock, corrugations and sand. When people
were complaining about Dinder, one of the TDA people is rumoured to
have muttered "What are they going to do when we get to Kenya?" I
suppose that we are going to find out. So around camp everyone is
changing to their beefiest tires and doing all the bike maintenance
that they have been putting off.

Exciting times, that's for sure.

Oh yeah, and we are now in Kenya.

Peeling a mango if actually pretty easy. And mango salsa as part of a
breakfast burrito for dinner, in Kenya, is pretty awesome.

Dan's Camping Tip: Don't spend 2 weeks wondering why water sometimes
drips water from your tent poles into your inner before looking at
your fly and realising it has velcro straps to stop exactly that
happening. Briefly: know your gear.