91 km route, almost 1500 m elevation gain, maximum temperature 27° C. There was good cloud cover for most of the day, so it didn’t feel as hot. This is our last day riding in the “Jewel of Africa” section of the tour.
Lunch was at 63 km, and the entire section before lunch involved rolling hills, one after another with lovely scenery of the Kenyan countryside. The hills were variably steep and long with corresponding descents.
Morning view of Mount Kenya in the distance as we rolled out of camp.
We navigated many hairpin turns, both climbing uphill and careening downhill.
A shot of me and Linda navigating a hairpin turn as we climbed yet another hill.
Some trees had a Dr. Seuss-like quality.
The dirt here is very red, but obviously fertile. Agriculture is Kenya‘s #1 industry, followed by tourism.
Disappointingly, we see piles of trash and plastic as we ride through communities. It seems as if the villagers have mandated certain locations as the local dumping grounds. Whether it ever gets cleaned up is unknown.
Coffins for sale at a roadside stand. There were half dozen coffin vendors in a row.
Destination today is SunStar Resort in Thika.
Upon arrival, our bikes were loaded onto all the TDA trucks and vehicles in preparation for transport into Nairobi tomorrow. Not pictured is the pickup truck. Both the truck and the SUV have bikes on top and also on a Thule hitch rack. TDA has worked out maximum bike-carrying capacity for all their vehicles.
Prior to dinner, we had a small party to say goodbye to 2 departing sectional riders, Peye and Job, both Dutch, although Peye is an ex-pat who has lived in Oman for decades. They both joined us in Kigali, and are flying home from Nairobi. They cannot stay any longer with us due to job obligations. We are told that there are 13 new sectional riders joining us in Nairobi, so our group will be significantly larger (+11).
Both our medics are also departing in Nairobi, and they will be replaced with two new ones.
In an unusual twist, this resort did not allow TDA chefs to prepare any food, so we had a catered buffet dinner, and will also have breakfast prepared by the hotel staff tomorrow morning.
How many riders are in the group?
ReplyDeleteThere will be around 50 riders leaving Nairobi.
DeleteHenry pretty sure could have gotten more for the bike in the dream sale. Interested in how much ice cream Tim ate? Any takers on the camel meat?
ReplyDeleteActually Mia was a good sport and said I was a pretty good salesman if I could get $600 for her bike. Tim is steadily consuming his share of chocolate ice cream. As far as I know, no one has made the foray into camel yet.
ReplyDelete