This morning was a little cooler and so I could enjoy a nicer lay in. At around 8 o'clock Antonio gave me a knock on the door to tell me breakfast was ready. A small bowl of plain pasta to start the day and then the rest of the day was up to me to decide what to do and how to move on.
I started my Boxing Day by hand washing my clothes. They were still absolutely filthy from pushing across the desert on Christmas Eve. The socks especially were caked in thick sand and I could've gone through at least 5 bowls of water but the nearby water pump is broken so we are using the polices stockpile wisely. After giving my clothes a long overdue scrub it was on to Nigel. Today was turning into a life maintenance day but the cleaning and fixing was good to help me weigh up all my options.
I untied my fix from two days and assessed the broken rack properly and this time whilst sat in some shade. The top half of the rack is completely unattached from the bottom half on both sides so the parachord has been acting like a weld. It has worked very well and so I made sure my two braces were tightly tied to both halves of the rack and retied what I have done previously.
One side needed a bit more chord to fill out the join so when I reinforce it with an another attachment I got from another rack, the whole system is pretty stable. It is certainly no weaker than my fix in Khartoum and I'm not intending on cycling such atrocious roads like in recent days so I will again see how it goes until Nairobi. I'm pretty sure you can't get a more broken rack than the one I have!
After fixing Nigel and once again feeling very happy with myself, I gave him a good clean. Like my clothes, Nigel was filthy and he took a while to get back to a half decent standard. I have some good cleaning tools that can get into every nook and cranny and when Nigel was done I was on a roll in my Boxing Day of productivity!
My panniers have also taken a hit, either from the odd scrape with cars, my spectacular crash and Christmas Eve it was a cactus that proved the final blow for one of them. I fixed the front pannier back to its original state but one of the rear ones has a clip that is beyond repair. It's not essential though so there was no need to worry. As I took everything out of one my panniers it appeared that my spectacular crash had affected something internally. The cap on my paprika had decided to come off and so in my pannier of medical equipment and bit and bobs, the whole contents were now lined with a film of orange dust. (I didn't even like the paprika in the first place)
As if the orange sand wasn't enough on Nigel, now I had to clean paprika out of my first aid kit! As I cleaned through the pannier I gave my plastic folder of important documents a curious check and discovered a sneaky little 50 dollar bill! This is good news as it opens up more options for me if I'm able to change it with some of the guys. Even if I'm not, I still have an extra 50USD that I can change at a later date!
After operation life maintenance was completed I still had to decide on what to do. The next place of civilisation was Lodwar, about 200km away. The road to Lodwar is much like the road to Omorate and so would take me 3 days and water is not a guarantee en route. After that the road from Lodwar to Kintale is also very dangerous with potholes and recently human dangers (tribes). The time of the year is not ideal with the amounts of traffic and what can happen due to slow moving traffic, like hostage situation etc.
Over my lunch of ugali and goat spine (surprisingly you can find good bits of meat in between each disc if you're careful not to cut yourself on the sharp bone) I was talking John about my options. He confirmed the police vehicle will be driving to Lodwar before the 30th and there was no problem with me staying until they could take me.
I felt huge relief. He said that the tourist police would be doing the same with anyone that was crazy enough to be in this area so its what they could do for me also. Getting to Lodwar would be great to then get some money and access the route. John recommended from Lodwar I should catch the bus to Kintale so that will be the thing to look at but for now, finding a hotel in Lodwar and contacting home is first on my list.
I have no signal whatsoever here, I'm basically in no mans land and so everyday I have worried that my family will be worrying and not enjoying their Christmas as much as possible, I hope that's not the case.
After lunch i had nothing really else to do. It is generally quite quiet here and the officers were milling around dealing with things in Swahili so I chilled, listened to music and got the recovery that I have not been able to get on previous rest days.
For dinner we finally finished the rest of the goat. He served us well and he was complemented with some more ugali but this time with a bit more of a broth which made the ugali a bit more enjoyable to eat. I learnt a few more Swahili words and nailed 1-10 after getting told it once yesterday. For all those die hard Lion king fans that have enjoyed my references so far, I confirmed that Hakuna Matata does mean "no worries" and if you really know your Lion King I even went for "what does Asante sana mean?" I didn't say the whole line from the film, (Asante sana squashed banana) but I can confirm it does not mean, "you're a baboon and I'm not!" "Asante sana" means "thankyou very much" so now if you're given a squashed banana, you can reply with Asante sana.
I finished the day with another good chat under stars with my brothers Antonio and Isaac. The Mosquitos were really biting though as there was no wind so the chat didn't last long before I returned back to the semi secure net.
I am so blessed not just to be in a secure area that will provide me with transport to Lodwar but to have met two really really good people. Same age, same interests and in such a short space of time, have felt like a true family when I'm so far from home. They're another two that have been invited to my home and I would hope arguably more than anyone, that one day they're able to visit England.
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