My room wasn't actually sealed, the wall was about 8ft tall but there was no ceiling so this meant I could hear everything going on in the whole Guest House and that locking bugs outside my room was absolutely impossible. The lovely mini beasts I was treated with during the night were not Bed Bugs or Cockroaches or even Mosquitos. They were flying armoured Beetles about the size of a red Lindor ball but these flying tanks would not fill you with a smooth chocolatey sensational oh no. These beasts would buzz around the room and then land with the force of a decent flick from a middle finger. The majority of the time they would land on the Lino flooring which would just make a loud noise but every now and then I had the pleasure of feeling a flick to the leg or back.
After i woke up and got my things together I walked back to last night's food place for a hearty breakfast. I didn't go for fish, I stuck to Nsima and beef but it filled me up nevertheless. Knowing how delicate Nigel was, I hesitantly pushed down on the pedals to peel away for another day riding. I hate it when the chain slips anyway but when you have a crowd of around 20 people watching you, you don't want to give them anymore reason to point and laugh!
Nigel's condition was rapidly worsening and I had issues with him whenever the terrain changed. The ride seemed all uphill and so I had to use the lowest for the majority of the day. Even though some hills were shallower than others, Nigel's chain wasn't having any of it and the gears probably weren't to happy with me either!
I didn't have the displeasure of the chain slipping every few rotations by staying in the lowest gear but my legs were going like a hamster on speed. I was working at least twice, sometimes three times as hard just to cover reasonable ground. So with legs going ten to the dozen and most of the terrain angling uphill, I was hoping for a decent view. No chance. The grass either side of the road was so high still, I could see absolutely nothing. I can't say the experience was all too pleasurable as the pinching set in early and with increase in rotations, I wasn't far away from creating a bush fire!
35 miles down, but it felt like 50, I stopped for some more food. I had to cycle more in the second half of the day but I was hoping that maybe the terrain would level off and I could make up more ground in the second half of the day. I stocked up on more Nsima and took in lots of water.
I was heading for a small village named Shingela. As always, no clue what it was like and no clue how the road was to get there but it was the route and I needed to stop somewhere! The sun was really beating down and to keep hydrated and high spirits, I made more of an effort to drink my water regularly. This led to a few more stops than usual and having to fill up my bottles with different things as bottled water is very hard to find in the really isolated villages. I had fruit punch (tasted like pure syrup which I actually liked) and then when I got to Shingela all they had was lemonade and lime. They had nowhere to stay either but thankfully I had been chatting to a guy at the fruit punch stop and he recommended a campsite past Shingela called Karibu.
I had no idea how far Karibu was and I was already exhausted but I had no really inviting choice other than to carry on going. My so called easy day turned into 8 hours of cycling twice my usual speed and ended with me running on sugar fumes from fruit punches and fizzy drinks. Just as I shouted to Nigel saying "We've missed it! There's no way Karibu is this far away from Shingela!!" I saw a tiny sign for "Karibu - 1km" I don't think my emotions have switched to extremes so quickly! I had a slight downhill over a bridge to Karibu in which I burst into song an then I arrived at one of the most remote "restaurants" in Zambia.
Karibu was not a campsite. It was more of a bar with large surrounding grounds that could be used for anything! I think because of this, I didn't get charged fr camping but I was still allowed to set up my tent in an unfinished building next door to the bar. Tonight was not my first night in an unfinished cement house so I knew I was in for an uncomfortable night's sleep but the security guard recommended I stayed enclosed in the walls so I didn't bother arguing.
After I set up camp I walked around to the bar to enjoy the last few minutes of sunset with a couple of local vets. Dr Zulu was more chattier than the other guy but we talked and laughed for an hour or so about the differences between Zambians and English (there are alot) I ate yet more Nsima and went to bed well fed and exhausted.
I ended up covering another 100 miles but the majority was uphill and hard on the legs because of Nigel's dying chain. The only way I did it was by drinking loads and eating even more, I'm not sure I can keep that up for another 3.5 weeks, my budget won't allow it!
I guess we will have to see...
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