Farm Camp to Pine Camp

Distance: 116.0km
Ride time: 4:52
Climb: 1757m

Best thing: starting to feel strong on the hills after being sick.
Worst thing: even when I am strong, I am still fat.

Even more hills than the day before. The burgers in Gondor are finally starting to release their greasy, uncooked fingers from my guts, so I really enjoyed some of the hills.

As Stuart, GIzzy and I were heading out Chris, the tour mechanic, asked us to wait up for him. Riding in a four is easier than a three, so we were happy to wait. After 30 minutes or so though, Marcel came steaming by and Chris jumped ship to ride with him. We'd picked up Simon though, so we were still a four.

The first major climb of the day, I decided to push a little bit and kept it in the big ring. I pulled away from the rest of the group and managed to stay ahead for most of the ride into lunch. Simon caught me on the very last part of the second climb into lunch, and Stuart and Gizzy were only minutes behind as well. So, pushing it then feeling knackered wasn't a super smart move.

Those guys were a bit wasted after lunch, and Gizzy actually said that she didn't want to ride with me that day. Oh well, it was a pretty nice day to be riding solo on such a nice day.

Lots of hills and a section of unpaved road made me pretty tired. The campsite here is awesome, it is in a pine forest, so plenty of shade soft ground for camping. I'd would have preferred an extra rest day in a place like this than in Gondor.

The more I ride in Ethiopia, the more it looks like the farmland around Yass to me. I'll try get some photos the next time I am bushed and riding super slowly. Maybe I have just forgotten what Yass looks like though.

Nothing much else had happened. One of the riders that was sick in Bahir Dar caught a minivan and caught up with us. Yellow Billed Kites are all over the place here - they are pretty cool to see. The cook threw a fatty piece of gristle into the air and the bird caught it easy as pie. I got hit by my first decent sized rock. I'd stopped to see if a stopped rider was ok and some kid loitering outside a primary school walloped me good. A later rider got hit with a rock on the hard so close and so hard that they need a couple of stitches. Hardcore.