There was a mozie in our room which was bothering Kevin shortly before 0300 so he went looking for some insect repellent in his bag – unfortunately that woke me up and I didn’t really get back to sleep properly, so when the alarm went off at 0430 I was mostly awake anyway.
Dressed, last things packed an my day bag was in the truck at 0450, my bike loaded by 0500, and I was eating breakfast by 0505 leaving me about 40 min ahead of the critical path to a departure at 0600.
Against my prediction we did actually manage to leave on time. Everything was loaded, including all riders on the bus, so our rather long convoy got underway – Max’s Hilux, the lunch truck, Sharita’s Hilux with the trailer, the rented truck with all our bikes, the bus we were all on, and finally the dinner truck.
Given how early it was there was practically no traffic on the roads, so getting out of the city and on to the new toll road which links the city to the new airport was quick and easy. There was some delay at the first toll both, but we were soon getting out of the city proper.
The next hour of the journey went by reasonably well as we were on a brand new dual carriage way. Once we came off that and back onto the smaller roads things got a lot more congested – in the end the last 10km took about 40 min – by then it would definitely have been quicker if we’d been riding!
Finally at the drop-off point – a large service station forecourt – and we were off the bus, bikes unloaded and we were ready to ride by shortly after 0830. We’d been asked to wait for the lunch truck to leave, but by the time Max headed out to flag the route we’d had enough of waiting and headed out.
Hanna was going to ride with us today and we set of at a fairly sedate pace – i for one was keen to get things moving along a little quicker so headed to the front and got the pace up to about 25 km/h. Canadian Kevin came forward a little while later and said he was going to drop back and ride with Hanne, we should go on as we wished. Mateo was also having mechanical issues so went back for assistance leaving Australian Kevin and I to push on.
We passed a number of riders and then hooked up with Mimi and Dave who were going about the same speed we were, so we got into a rolling routine – the wind wasn’t bad – mostly it was just off our left shoulder, but it was still easier riding when you weren’t at the front.
The traffic is pretty manic – this road is the main link between Senegal and Mali, so as well as lots of local traffic and intercity busses there are also a huge number of trucks. Mostly there’s no shoulder on the road, or if there is it’s pretty rough, and quite a drop below the actual pavement.
By and large the drivers are super considerate, and do the best they can to give us space – slowing down and moving over as far as possible. Unfortunately there are exceptions, and it’s the on-coming overtaking vehicles that are the scariest of all because of the rate that they’re approaching.
Over the course of the day I only had to take evasive action a couple of times, but another of our number Dan ended up in the ditch when the bus approaching from behind had nowhere to go in the face of oncoming overtaking traffic so basically ran him off the road – fortunately he escaped with a scare and only a few grazes and was able to continue on for the rest of the day.
We had a good rotation going with the front person dropping back as soon as it was safe to do so after their kilometre at the front. We caught a couple of the new riders and negotiated our way past in between the trucks and busses.
They hopped on the back of our group, but it was hard enough with a group of four to get from the front to the back safely – with six it really wasn’t going to work, so in the end Kevin and I dropped back, and Mimi and Dave pulled ahead, so we ended up as two pairs as we rolled in to lunch.
Lunch was the usual fare, though today there’s some flatbreads in place of the regular baguettes which makes a nice change.
Back on the road and Kevin and I set off together, and rode together on-and-off over the afternoon. We stopped for a cold drink after 20km after which i got ahead for a while, including passing through the town of Kaolack which was complete chaos – so many vehicles, loads of scooters, pedestrians everywhere, and very narrow roads – in the end I overtook at least half the traffic which had passed me in the last 10km it was so hard for vehicles to get through town.
I stopped once I was out of the chaos to refill my camelbac and get another cold drink during which time Kevin rolled in. A short while later there were a number of huge baobabs on the left – I took a couple of photos, including one with my bike to show just how huge these trees are. Apparently the larger trees can be up to 1500 years old – with the oldest recorded tree having died in 2011 at an age of 2450 years.
From there it wasn’t too far to camp, but the road had swung much more to the east, and was even tending north-east for a while which put us in to the wind and slowed things considerably.
Camp’s at the edge of one of the many salt lakes we’ve passed over the course of the day – it’s a real hive of industry all along harvesting salt.
I’ve found myself a tree which is providing me with some shade and is hopefully far enough away that I won’t get too many close neighbours by the time everyone’s rolled in.
One very enterprising local has set up as a drinks stand by the dinner truck with a range of soft drinks and beer all super-cold and at very affordable rates – half what the hotel was charging for beer, one quarter for coke – so far they’re doing very good business, and I expect that will continue through until dinner time!
There’s also any number of children, as well as a group of young woman hanging round the camp keeping an eye on the goings on, though they are all very reluctant to have photos taken!
While I’ve been writing I’ve had a couple of boys supervising
Later: Dinner was the trusty default of Spaghetti Bolognese – it’a good to get that over and done with as the first meal of a riding week since it’s pretty much guaranteed to come up every time.
We were very lucky with the weather today – the winds weren’t too strong, and were often slightly behind us, and it wasn’t until mid afternoon that the sun started to come through and push the temperature up.- it got to the mid thirties but not for long, so even now at 1915 it’s already beginning to cool down again which should make sleeping reasonably comfortable.
It’s a pretty short day tomorrow at 115km, and pretty much flat as well, so I’m hoping that I’m going to be able to get into camp in the early afternoon, and that there will be lots of sun so I can recharge my laptop – by the time each blog post is done, photos uploaded and a few emails answered I seem to have pretty much flattened the battery. On the Silk route we had so many more hours of strong sunlight that keeping things charged was far less of an issue!
Although I’ve got insect repellant on there’s an increasing number of bugs around me so I’m going to publish this and get myself into the tent.
View from my tent
Selfie of the day
Riding data
Has the group got much smaller?