The lady at the bar made me a huge breakfast. A big bowl of curry with 4 boiled eggs cut in it and a heap of rice on a separate plate. I sat and ate it under a gazebo overlooking the vast green fields of nothing as the sun rose. Not bad!
I set off a little bloated but I knew I would burn it all off eventually if today was anything like yesterday. The road was bumpy and it didn't take long for the sore behind to take over thoughts and give me real hassle. I kept high spirits till a town called Chongwe where i noticed that the side wall on the rim of Nigel's rear wheel had split further. This was rubbing against the brakes and making an annoying noise but i thought it would be ok until Lusaka and then i could see if i could fix it there so I left it. I wasn't too fussed about it and I think the main reason I turned into Mr Grump was the lack of lunch.
I stopped for some food at a petrol station even though I knew I was pretty close to Lusaka, I just needed some biscuits to get me over the finish line i think. The road turned into beautifully smooth, velvet tarmac about 5 miles from the city centre so I was in a great mood as I coasted downhill to find my hostel. Standing tall on the pedals and letting the cool breeze soothe both sets of cheeks I was feeling pretty chuffed with myself that I had just completed another 5 day stint through the bush of Africa. Just as I started thinking about what I might do on my day off, the rear wheel answered my question but deflating almost instantly.
If Nigel had done that before I had biscuits then I may have been a little more annoyed but as always seems to happen on this ride, I was only a few miles from my destination so I wasn't too fussed, I just got off and enjoyed the walk in. Where my wheel had split had seemed to split my inner tube so unfortunately i couldn't just forget about the wheel, Nigel needed a new one!
I managed to find the hostel straight away and although the prices weren't exactly "hostel," I looked around and there were more people than just me and i could see a finely stocked bar so I thought I may enjoy some social time for the first time in a while and not even consider examining Nigel.
The first person I met was a guy called Dane from Bolton who worked at the hostel and he turned out to be the first of many people! In the evening I met a very cool guy from Johannesburg called Morne who was there on business and we hit it off straight away. From there we met a group of 10 Norwegian girls (Team Norway #2) who volunteered down in Livingstone and the rest of the night was really boring so I won't bother going into it...
I was very happy to finally arrive in Lusaka after that little hiccup in Luangwa Bridge which ended up turning out for the better. Nigel's problems are far from solved though and it seems yet again, my rest day will be spent hurrying around town looking for bike parts. Joy!
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