Record distances felt fantastic yesterday. When the alarm went goes off at 6, it's suddenly a distant memory as we repeated the now slick routine of tent down, breakfast, chamois, cycle, as perfected over the previous 5 days. Our camp for the night had seemingly been populated by the local market traders, as we crept past a selection of white vans, clothing rails and suspect brown packages, to make our way back on the road for the day. For the first time our first hour was a slow one, partly due to the previous day and further compounded by the cold weather that delayed the normally swift warming of the thunder trains pistons.
Having slugged through the first 40 km, we arrived in an abnormally bustling market town to see the battle bus sat under the veranda of a typically French cafe. This was exactly what we needed. After the best pain au chocolat of the trip so far, and Fred applying the 11th dose of chamois cream to his slowly reddening bottom, we set back out on the road and the battle bus browsed the local market for overpriced chickens and under ripe melons.
This stop reinvigorated the team. With 60 km to go, the battle bus was sent ahead to the evenings campsite and the thunder train slipped back in to a sustainable rhythm. An afternoon of cruising through harvested forests along the previously mentioned gun barrel straight roads, was wiled away over inanimate chat and high fiving innocent bye standers. Led by the miss understood Garmin, we arrived according to plan at our evenings accommodation.
After Laurie got a sniff of the sea being within 10 km, he was a man on a mission. The tents went up, bib shorts were washed and Fred applied more Chamois to his tender buttocks in record time. With the battle bus packed with beach balls and tanning oil we escorted an excitable Laurie to the beach. Brilliant sunshine was the order of the day as we all unwound in the breaking surf and on the beautiful warm sand.
This afternoon rounded off a fantastic first stint from our support drivers, Rob and Jane John, with our first restaurant meal in what has been a week defined by feeding. Having endured our naivety and insatiable appetites they have managed to remained constant motivation and support through our first and hopefully longest (distance) week (although half their time has been spent clearing up Fred's ever wandering gear). Over the past week they have got us off to a flyer, and Robs words of "concentrate" at every rest stop, will be ringing in our ears long after they have left.
Today's distance: 98.23 km
Average speed: 24 km
Top speed: 48 km
Time on bike: 4:02 hrs
Total Distance; 865 km
Max heart rate: 84% (167 bpm)
Average heart rate: 55% (110 bpm)
Calories burnt: 1676
- @Access2a
- www.access2africa.co.uk
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