Another hot and long day on the road. In the morning we made a short detour thru urban villages away from the main road. Then back to main road away from the coast. The day was very hot and water consumption high.
Again I spent a lot of my time with stops next to the road. The people are so inviting that I can’t just greet an continue. A motor cycle group passed me and greeted me as if I was also riding a Harley and wearing a leather jacket. A later met them again at a stop and a had a nice session with them. The highlight of the day was young Lisa at a shop 25 km away from camp. She was very good in English and a nice conversation developed. I’ll will post photos in another blog.
Make a short riding day, a long one! Hot, quiet and remarkable good. Many stops and exceptional contacts
This was elapsed time wise one of the longer rides today. First of all, we were told that the next place to sleep at is very, very, very basic. Thus I decided to not arrive prior to sunset, to not see the rooms at daylight. And second, simply because I enjoyed it so much that I had to stop more often then on other days. I have several highlights to report on in separate posts. Keep your tension and be patient.
A short riding day, awarded with an arrival at the Indian Ocean.
A hot, but enjoyable day. A huge drop from 1150 m to sea level made the ride fast and scenic. At the end, the streets get very busy and air turns bad from smoke and exhausts. The bypass wasn’t probably really faster or less frequented than the main road.
A long and demanding ride. The distance was actually a bid shorter than given the night before, however not with a ‘penalty’: 530 extra meters to climb.
The moderate early morning temperature constantly increased to their max. at 37°C, until the heavy afternoon rain set in. This time there was no buffer to seek shelter without risking to ride into darkness. At kilometer 123 we crossed the Equator into the southern hemisphere. Now things will change:
headwind becomes tailwind
climbs become descents
dirt becomes tar
water supply becomes beer
Muslim prayers become lullabies
…
and therefore we all can sleep 2 hours longer than usual
A fabulous ride. The best so far. We took a back road away from the main road, thru little villages in the forest and green fields. Spectacular views and amazing contacts with the locals which over-compensated for the bad road.
Stay tuned to find some videos and photos later today or on Monday during our rest day. Tomorrow will be a tough day: 183 km & 1880 m climbs. Weather is said to ‘rain all day’
Another day with a huge climb and a long rewarding descent. The climb felt harder than yesterday.
The rewards seem to continue. It was a ‘short’ riding day. I arrived at the hotel at about 1 pm, and almost missed it as I was cruising through town. It is one of the days you don’t want to stop riding, because you think you gonna miss something
A typical Cristiano ‘first day out of the camp’ ride: “Ascent to heaven”. A constant climb from the first kick. Air temperature was good, but humidity at 100% after the drizzles stopped. The road on the first km had seen much better days, but is still considered paved in TdA terms. Getting on the main road the long climb started. Traffic was dense but most of the cars and trucks did not take too much risk to save a few seconds …
