Ride time: 3:50
Best thing: Another day closer to the border of Kenya.
Worst thing: Still plenty more days in Ethiopia.
Best shuffled song: I Made a Friend by The Cruel Sea.
After a bit of a rough night, Stuart, Sunil and I headed off for what
should be a short day. Gizzy was feeling pretty bad and decided to
take it slowly.
We put in a pretty good effort for the first 20 or so minutes. Marcel
still caught us up pretty easily though.
While I was second wheel, we headed through a village. I saw a large
group of people spread across the road and pulled to the inside so
that we could see that we would need space to get through. Riding more
aggressively like this has worked pretty well in previous villages.
Not so much in this one. As we went by, a guy that I thought was
moving out of the way didn't move and I clipped his shoulder.
I went down and one of the other riders came over the top of me to
crash out as well. I only got a few grazes and a slightly banged up
knee. The other rider has a pretty swollen wrist. He rode out the day,
but will still need to have an x-ray when we get to a larger town. I
feel pretty bad that my poor judgement might have screwed up his
chances at EFI and a race win.
While I was riding after the lunch stop, some punk farm kid threw a
rock at me. I have kind of reached the point at which I take that kind
of stuff with good grace. I put my bike down and took off after the
kid. As soon as he and his layabout friends saw me running, they all
start screaming and yelling. I chased the kid back to his little hut.
He hid in the corner and his mother started yelling at me, then the
kid, then hitting the kid, then yelling at me some more.
While that was happening, the dinner truck was coming up behind. They
saw all the kids take off, then my bike on the ground, then me
sprinting after the kid. One of the Indaba guys came up to see what
was wrong. When he got to the hut, the mother straight away stuck out
her hand and asked for money.
I dunno what I was hoping for when I starting chasing the kid, but it
wasn't very satisfying. Other riders have been taking their shoes,
sticks and schoolbooks away from them. They probably won't forget
that, but it seems pretty harsh. Maybe they need a Tyler Durden here
to Raymond K. Hessel them.
Despite all that, the riding here is still good. It is not as
interesting now that we are out of the hills, but it is nice to be
going a consistent speed and watching the kilometres ticking over.
The lakeside beach camp was pretty nice, plenty of grassy areas to
camp. Plus, a bar / restaurant selling cold cokes and spaghetti. And
electricity. And warm showers. Pretty good all around really. Even the
3km of dirt to get down to the lake wasn't too bad - all rideable on
the drops except for a few patches of sand.
One of the things that struck me was the size of the lake. Heaps and
heaps of fresh water.
When I got in, there was a big bunch of Ethiopians coming down to
enjoy the lake. All good, except they didn't take any of their litter
with them and on the way out, one of them grabbed some of the other
riders' gear. Then, later that night, someone came back and grabbed
whatever they could get their hands on out of one of the other tents.
Pretty crummy.
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