After a good sleep I packed up Nigel early and set out for a long day but fingers crossed a productive one. Yesterday I sorted an early breakfast at the cafe next door to my motel room to ensure she had all the ingredients for me to start my day right. I arrived at the door and she was still sweeping the floor with everything turned off. It was 7am and she said she opened at 6am but today they had no money to buy food so she was waiting on the manager.
Good start! I thought. I had to resort to buying 8 buns and I sat by a tree like a loner as a group of guys over the road stared, pointed and laughed at me. Breakfast bullying that is! Not my kind of morning to begin a long day but I've had worse I guess.
The ride was decent. The noises Nigel was making was not but it was nothing that slightly louder music couldn't drown out. As far as scenery goes I was pretty limited. The grass on both sides of the road was a good 6ft tall and so I had tunnel vision for much of the day. I wasn't too keen on the long grass to be honest, the road would meander quite tightly and the speed the cars and trucks were going, I found it hard to make myself visible for drivers so instead had to be prepared to dive in the grass if things looked a bit tight.
The only consolation was the fact that there weren't many cars but sometimes made it more dangerous. It also really annoyed me that I could cycle for hours and hours and not see many vehicles but when two pass, they always pass directly where I am. This HAS to be the guy driving on my side's fault. He can see where I am so all he has to do is speed up to get around me before the oncoming car arrives or SLOW DOWN AND WAIT!!! Noooooo, they both always cross exactly where I am and so I had to take a serious hit from a tree branch that reaching low over the road in order to keep out of the car's way.
I ducked down as if I was winning a photo finish and took the branch full on the bike helmet but that was much better than the other option which would've seen my ride ending in Zambia.
I went through a series of mood phases today just like most days really. One of the hardest things to do on this ride is stay emotionally stable. One small incident can complete flip your mood and my mood must've yoyo'd 5 or 6 times today. I was constantly umming and arring about whether I could make the mileage up today. One hour would be extremely flat and productive and then the next hilly and slow. My gears and chain are shot to pieces. I have a very limited selection of gears as if I put any kind of pressure on the pedals, the chain slips. A slipping chain is up there with Flies, Pyramid People and Ethiopian Customer Service as one of the most annoying things I've experienced on this ride and I have a new chain but I'm so close to the end now, I want to see if I can stick it out.
I got to the top of a climb around 20 miles before the town I had decided to stop at. Progress was good but I didn't want to over do it so I thought a quick snack would help push me through the giant wall that I've hit a few times when nearing the end of the day. As I began my descent there was a bit of a pop, that oh so familiar noise of rushing air shortly followed by the fast deflation of the rear tyre.
You're kidding me, two spokes and a puncture in 3 days, really? At first I thought it was a failed valve like what happened that time in Kenya when I was sleeping but after pushing Nigel a mile or so to some shade, I had a look at the tube and found a hefty split not far from the valve. I decided to get out the patches and fix it there and then despite there being quite a large town only a couple of miles away. I was joined by 6 or 7 locals that watched me work and it didn't take long to fix it up.
I really haven't had much luck with my patching up and today was no different. As I went to pump it up I found myself dripping with sweat but with no pressure difference. I didn't mind too much as that had just solved my predicament of whether I push for a long day to get to Lusaka tomorrow, answer being - no. I decided to push Nigel to the nearest town which was Luangwa Bridge. I was told by three consequetive people on the road as I walked that it was 1,2 and 6km but amazingly I was walking in the right direction so basically, as always, nobody had a clue!
I ended up walking 6 miles but I actually didn't mind. It was hot and hilly but I took it as punishment for not taking more time over the rear wheel at first or just changing the tube. My decision to walk meant that I had decided on getting to Lusaka in two more days but I felt comfortable with that and that meant I wouldn't be putting myself or Nigel through 11-12 hour days.
I felt relaxed after the walk and found a great shop to sit in and rehydrate. They sold everything and so I bought myself a pump with the same valve as the new tubes that I bought in Mombasa. It's not ideal to be adding more weight onto Nigel but its a necessary requirement if I want to keep going if I'm unlucky enough to get a puncture not within walking distance of a decent town.
The shopkeeper recommended a nice little Guesthouse further down the road called "Smart Guesthouse." Single rooms 50 kwacha and double rooms 60 kwacha. They apparently had no single rooms available so I had to pay more for the room with 2 double beds in even though I was pretty sure there was nobody else in the other rooms and I clearly do not need two double beds.
I fixed Nigel, went for a walk down the street to get some food and returned back to my room to make the tough decision of which bed to sleep in. I suppose I could've tucked Nigel in but I'm not really into rewarding him for breaking on three consequetive days. I still had a fair way to go so I was really hoping for two pain-free days as the slipping chain is enough to knock down your attitude, without spokes and tubes failing as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment