In Kenya!

....and as someone said today, the UN may have left due to potential election unrest, but the TDA is here! I don't know if that is true about the UN, but the possibility of trouble meant we covered 500+ kilometres by bus (and this was NOT a Red Arrow coach, the AC was most of the windows opened, but then the dust came in, more than half the distance was on "roads" which were corrugated, deep sand, full of holes or all that together) but now we are in a very charming town called Nanyuki where we will chill for 5 days to catch up with the schedule, then, we hope, continue on our bikes. We were bussed through that northern Kenya section, with armed military guys on each vehicle for protection, to avoid issues which may have been made worse by the election, which is today. Our first bus day we saw some huge rallies in what seemed to be small towns, there is a real feeling of this election mattering very much to everyone so I think it is good we are out of the northern region.

I tried writing some draft posts but they never did get sent so I will catch up on what is new. First, a correction, we are done 2 of 8 sections, not 6. We are now doing "Meltdown Madness", so called due to 1. the unrelentingly bumpy lava rock which I am pretty happy we didn't have to ride through, 2. The heat with no chance of shade all day long, and 3. the fact that some riders have a meltdown due to the above. Even though we didn't have to ride it, I did manage to get ahead of myself and have a meltdown back on one our last days in Ethiopia. Yes, those infuriating children finally wore me down, and there I was, walking my bike along the road, a pathetic sight, sobbing pitifully - I had reached my breaking point. Just one too many stones hitting the target and yelling wasn't making me feel better any more. I had begun the day feeling tired and crabby and looking back I am sure I was dehydrated as it was one of those nights where we were lying in the tent, sweating buckets, hoping for any little bit of breeze which never did blow.

I managed to make it to lunch, but had no appetite so I wasn't too surprised when about an hour and a half into the afternoon ride I could feel myself starting to fade. I got slower and slower and finally told Sandy, that's it, I am done for today. I knew I just didn't have it in me to tackle the long hill or the unpaved section coming up. So we sat in the shade and waited for the lunch truck and that is it, no EFI for me, but the funny thing is, once I decided not to go on, EFI didn't matter any more. I was hyper aware of EFI while I still had it, but now that I don't I haven't given it a thought. About 5 minutes after we arrived at camp on the lunch truck, I puked up the large bottle of water I had just glugged down and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening horizontally. After all that, I gave myself the day off the next day and had the experience of riding the dinner truck to camp along with a few other invalids. I felt much better after my day off and have been perfectly fine ever since. I think it was dehydration and heat exhaustion...lots of days it gets into the 40's in the afternoon so oral rehydration salts have become my new essential.