Day 20: Cycle to South Lake

After the rain last night, as darkness fell, we were joined in camp by Rob & Sarah from Zimbabwe & Edinburgh. Resolution to ourselves: let's make sure not get benighted, ever! We left them to it, admiring their high spirits and resolve and we went to sleep by 8.30 pm.

This morning started with a healthy climb out of Suswa crater then a rapid descent to Suswa village, where had a 2nd breakfast of omelette and sausages. And a mandazi. The reason being that we had a proper climb ahead. We had done it in practice and conked out for lack of sustenance. 
We needed to get up and over the left side of the mountain here. It does not look very high but over the day we climbed 850 metres. Even once at the top, there is a lot more up and down and sand. Woe betide the sand! You have to pedal 5 gears higher then normal (i.e. legs racing) and struggle to keep the front wheel straight.

But then we barrelled down the hill to Lake Naivasha, gazelle and zebra jumping out of the way, and then along the road to Carnelly's Camp. We have taken a banda! This is the last one for the foreseeable future, so we dried tents and washed clothes.

We also have to filter water for tomorrow, as Tom won't buy plastic bottles. It often requires a bit of a juggle. Here demonstrated by an upturned ice cream pot and an ashtray as a counterweight because the flat cement runs out ...

You can see where we went on the map today on this Relive video here. I have other footage on my GoPro but struggling to transfer to my phone.

Technical Corner
A few people have asked how we navigate. Do we point in the general direction and hope? Or is it more organised?

Behind all our routes on the cycling is our guru Eric Nesbit of https://www.riftvalleyodyssey.com/ He knows all the back tracks of Kenya like the back of his hand and has cycled nearly all of them. So we have told him that we are happy with 65km a day. Now that he knows we really do mean that, he has stopped giving us 80 or 100km days.

Eric sends us a file called .GPX which we then upload to Tom's GPS and it gives us a route to follow. Tom has the GPS on his handlebars. If Daniel does not beleive where we are going, we stop and he uses the same file and checks it on his phone on an app called MapOut. And it gives the same answer! We have a line to follow but it is often a guide rather than a must. "On the ground" the track has often changed, sometimes by up to a kilometre, due to a new fence or a washed out track.
Send in your question to Tom on +254 728 218 183 and we'll try to get on to it!

Comments

  1. Al HayMay 9, 2022 at 10:52 AM

    Great write up gents. Very good housekeeping skills with all those tent drying pics. And I enjoyed that technical section. Keep these posts coming in please !

    ReplyDelete

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