I start my day by writing the blog, a jump in to the pool and packing up. Then draging my heavy bicycle through the loose sand out of the campsite and over to the gasstation.
I buy wi-fi time by the hour and it takes me precisely one hour to upload all images for the blog and post it on Facebook. During the time I have breakfast and finnish with a cappuccino and an apple pie. I get a six pack of beer and walk over to my friends from yesterday with the six pack as a present. We greet like old friends. It was a really good match meeting them and a great time spent in the park.
We have a small second breakfast together and they tell me his sister is single and show me the photo. Wow! Ha ha! Maybe I go to Brazil next time. :)
We say good bye and I take off.
For most of the day I listen to my audio book. Still Vilhelm Moberg, now one of the last books. And as I listen to this I get inspiration on moving abroad. Maybe Namibia?!
I cycle on the good road now, right?!
No. No my friends. Oh no. No this road is worse then what I cycled on in the dessert. It gets even more worse as I go on.
It is also very very hot. The difference now is that I keep on drinking even when the water is hot, I stop a car every now and then and ask if they can give me or sell me some water. I am also in a very different mood set today, then a few days ago. I am rested out and I like to be here. I want to be here. But it is hot and the road is soooo baaad. I walk many times for 10-20 m looking for a piece of the road or a track to follow for a bit. A piece which the tyres dont sink down in, where the tyres dont sink down so much that I cant cycle. Where I can balance.
In this whole day I only use 4 gears out of seven. I use gear one and two for half the day. It is really heavy. And the landscape is all flat. Around three I notice I have taken a wrong turn. So that is why the road is so bad. I usually use the Tomtom but this time I didnt to save some battery.
But now, I could get angry and of course it is a bit frustrating. I may have added an extra day now because I go so slow like this. Plus it is a very exhausting extra day. But I stay in a good mood. And I have now the experience of beeing in the dessert before so I know it will be hot now and I am mentally prepared. I can do this, I drink more and stop another car to get more water. I stop in the shadow of a tree with a giant bird nest around four O clock, when I now know it is the hottest time for me.
So I get some water from some cars. But after the last turns the cars come very seldom. And I dont have much water left. Also two big 2 L botles have been punctured during the day as the sand scratches the botles on the very shaky road.
And soon I will only have 3 L left water left, which is very litle in this land of heat. For tonight, the night and the mourning that is not much. I try to stop the two cars I see between four and six in the afternoon. They dont stop. One stops but I dont get a chance to talk to them before they drive off. Were those the last hope for today? I go on still with hope, still in a good mood.
I see a farm but there is a gate 100 m from the houses. I holer, Hallo!! Anyone! Hallo! I take my metall food plate and bang on the gate. No answer. And I see a chain and a chainlock. Strange, I think I see a car in the porch. I go on and visit two more farms with thesame result.
Sun is setting. I have two liters of water left now. At the last farm the gate is unlocked and I walk in a bit, I holer a lot but no answer. Then I hear the noise of a car. I turn my bike in the sand and move, draging the bike as fast as I can to the gate. Open it with a kick, out with the bicycle and a car drives off. I am in a cloud of dust in the sunset of a dessert landscape with two liters of water. But for how long. Well now I have to look for a place to stay.
I will get help tomorrow. It doesnt take long until I hear a loud sound of a car and one overlander truck get visible. I put my bicycle down and hold an empty water botle up and jump up and down waving my hands and shout water, water. They slow down and hold out a plastic gallon container with water. :) Yes! Thank you, thank you! They also tell me there is a lodge nearby. So great! Thank you! And I go the last km cycling to the lodge.
I arrive looking like a mess. I didnt where my bicycle pants under my shorts today and both my shorts and my shirt are more salt stained then ever before. Today was deffinatly the worst road I have ever cycled on in my life for such a distance. I have laid a litle more then 70 km behind me when I stop after more then seven hours of active bicycling. My shirt is also faded. This is one of the two shirts I started with in Kenya. It was new then, black with white spots. Now it is faded going to purple and a light grey. The spots are also fading away. I wash it allmost every day. It gets very starched by the sweat and lately it has got thorn when I put it on. And together with the stripes of sweat I look like a mess. Especially coming to a nice lodge like this. But I am welcome and many of the overlander tourists come talk to me. I sit up until midnight with two german guys. One of them wants me to sell horse training machines in Schweden. Well yes maybe. Tough day and for what I hear from the staff I have 80 km left on the bad road and since of late heavy rains it is very bad. Oh well just have fun or try to find a lift. Anyway, as long as I feel happy, I am happy!
