Steve's Cycling Blog

Loitering in Labe (Rest day)

It took a while for the drinkers in our group to call it quits, and for the boys doing the washing to get everything done, but once that was all done it was nice and quiet and cool in my tent – so much so that I had to pull my sleeping bag over me.

The hotel offered Nescafe, an omelette and bread for 30,000 GNF not ideal, but certainly filled a whole for a while.

From there I set up shop under an umbrella on the terrace outside the ‘restaurant’ and set to getting blog posts done.

I wandered out in search of cold water, during which I spotted a chap who was melting down old aluminium cans and then casting new cookware from them.

Back at the hotel I had some lunch and a chat with a few others before finishing up yesterday’s blog post and taking care of some work tasks.

My washing finally surfaced, though initially my bag had someone else’s washing in it, my stuff was actually there – it looks a lot cleaner, but I’m not sure any detergent was used because it doesn’t have a particularly fresh aroma to it – some’s also a bit damp still so it’s good to have got it back now.

This week’s somewhat shorter than the last at only five days and with a lower average daily distance though with less pavement to make up for that. There have also been some last minute changes – I’m speculating this is because the dirt road we were supposed to be on tomorrow and the day after has proven to be impassable by the trucks so we’re not cutting the corner off any more.

The weather for Freetown – our next rest day destination is looking pretty warm, particularly over night.
A couple of beers, some more writing, some more work, a pizza for dinner, and now it’s time to go and pack my bag and get myself ready to ride in the morning.

Riding data

With seven days this week, including a couple of long ones, we’ve added significantly to our totals

  • completed 33 stages for 56% of the total 57 stages
  • covered 3,970 km for 62% of the expected 6,395km
  • climbed 14,702 m and descended 13.545 m
  • I’ve spent 156 hours, 30 minutes riding at an average of 4:44 riding per stage, with the longest stage at 7:05 and the shortest at 1:52

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