Left is Right, Up is Down!

We have reached a mile stone on this trip - crossing the equator.  This nearly marks the half way point of the journey.  I've logged over 5300km on my bike computer, that's over 3000 miles.  It's been an incredible trip so far.  I've realized how little we need to survive everyday - food, water and some basic shelter.   Our body is an amazing machine, it can adapt to any condition.

Today we are relaxing in Nairobi.  I spent most of the morning working on the bike.  After all the dirt and sand, I needed to get it back in good shape.  Well, it was a complete overhaul.  The mechanic changed the shifters, all the cables, chain, and the cassette.  I gave the used parts to the Kenyan riders.  Bike parts are very hard to get here, they were happy to get them.

One more day of riding in Kenya, then we cross into Tanzania.  We'll have a three day break in Arusha, Tanzania.  I'll take a safari to Serengeti National Park and Ngorongoro Crater.  We had access to HOT showers on the last four riding days!  This was a luxury that we are not accustomed to.

Stage 45 - Equator supposed to be a warm place, but it was rather cool here.  The day time temperature was around 80F with low humidity and it got down to 50F last night.  It's 1800 meters above sea level here, more than a mile high!  We convoyed from camp to the equator line.  This was my fourth time in the southern hemisphere.    There was a small sign indicating the equitorial line.  Some riders with GPS went back about 10 meters for the "true" line.  We took pictures with each other and a group picture.

We cycled around Mount Kenya last two days and today we rolled into the Kenya highlands.  There were a lot of schools on the road today.   The kids were all properly dressed and were very polite.  We saw a lot of runners in the morning as well.

Stage 46 - We were scheduled to ride 130km to Nairobi.  At the last minute, TDA decided to shorten that to 50km and everyone had to take the truck to town.  Once we got on the trucks, we realized why TDA decided to take us to our camp site on trucks.  The traffic was terrible on the narrow two lane road.  Keep in mind most of the riders are not used to drive/ride on the left side of the road.  Cars, trucks, and big trucks zoom passed us with very little space.  Most of us were on the edge of the road.  The passing cars from the other lane crossed into our lane, even after they had passed other cars.  Nairobi is a hugh sprawed out city.  They were building a seven lane highway.  The traffic was horrible.  Along the way, we saw the skyline and slums of Nairobi; stark contrast between wealth and poverty.