19/02/27, busday to Agra Miryam

Had a real good sleep last night! Went to bed at around 0800 and was rudely awakened by people breaking up tents at around 0600. So I had a proper 10 hours of sleep! I like sleep 🙂 probably needed it!

Another busday today. A scheduled one this time, so we’re not missing out on any scheduled k’s. Main reason for bussing us through this section is the high density of unfriendly population along the route. Next to this, roads are pretty bad, leading to slow progress, leading to cyclist becomming an easy target for throwing stones and other sorts of harassment. I have no clue how bad it really is, but I’m sure TDA has good reasons to buss through this area…

That being said, I’d rather be on my bike 🙂 and my bike would rather be on the road. The bus ride is just a necessary evil. Even though I know that I would probably have rocks thrown at me, the bus just rushes through the beautifull scenery. And although roads indeed were bad, they were no worse than the roads I faced in Vietnam. And bad roads are uncomfortable in a bus as well 🙂

The bikes really don’t like the transport either. They are all put together in a truck and on the bad roads they rub together a lot, leading to quite some damage. I never imagined that I would bring the bike back from Africa the same way I brought it, but the damage to the paint is quite severe leaving whole patches of metal uncovered. Today I covered up part of the bike with a towel to prevent any further damage to my shifter cables. Luckily there is only one scheduled busday left. And I was lucky my bike was put on top of the landcruiser today, preventing it from getting damaged any further. As long as the transports don’t lead to any functional damage I should be fine 🙂

Campsite is pretty nice again 🙂 And we had good food after a bumpy day in the bus. Tomorrow we ride again 🙂 I think it will be a tough day, with some 1200m of elevation gain. Luckily the past two easy riding days and two good nights of sleep have left me properly rested, so I should be ready for the next 5 days of riding!