I snuck out of work early yesterday to do this 62km route around the west and north of Nairobi. Whilst thoroughly enjoyable, it was a bit ambitious after a busy day in the office.
At one point I heard serious honking behind me. Kenyans often give a courteous toot-toot to say "overtaking you", but this was more like "I'M COMING THROUGH YOU'LL DIE" so I veered off the road and a monstrous "clean water" truck thundered past, kicking out black exhaust. It must weigh over 5000kg fully loaded, so probably didn't want to lose any speed in waiting for me. Annoying, but who am I to make the provision of drinking water more expensive?
The approach to Banana village was the best part of the route, a delightfully well surfaced and windy descent (with gratuitous chevron signs) down to a bridge over a river, then a sharp climb up the other side of the valley. Kenya usually offers long, steady climbs so 100m in 1.4km was a surprise. Schoolboys taunted me in English "Slowly slowly eh?".
I felt wobbly at 50km and ran decisively out of gas at around the 57km mark. I then crawled the last 5km through ultra-posh Muthaiga. There was a guy with a shit MTB / leather boots / hoody who was keeping pace with me as I went past the golf course and the various Polish/Swedish ambassador's houses. I couldn't drop him! I think the last 5km took at least 15-20 minutes. You know you'e screwed when you can barely keep your head upright.
At home I felt pretty rubbish once the happy-buzz wore off. This ride is to be reattempted with more water, more food, more HTFU. I might use it as a weekly test and try to break the magical two-hour barrier.
Here's an AIDS bill-board in the village of Banana at 2km elevation. Apologies for not wiping the sweat off my phone before the picture, I was in a hurry because a man was enquiring about whether, on the off-chance, I would give him my bike.
62km, 559m ascent, 2hrs 15mins, so average 27.6kph (17.1mph).
I snuck out of work early yesterday to do this 62km route around the west and north of Nairobi. Whilst thoroughly enjoyable, it was a bit ambitious after a busy day in the office.
At one point I heard serious honking behind me. Kenyans often give a courteous toot-toot to say "overtaking you", but this was more like "I'M COMING THROUGH YOU'LL DIE" so I veered off the road and a monstrous "clean water" truck thundered past, kicking out black exhaust. It must weigh over 5000kg fully loaded, so probably didn't want to lose any speed in waiting for me. Annoying, but who am I to make the provision of drinking water more expensive?
The approach to Banana village was the best part of the route, a delightfully well surfaced and windy descent (with gratuitous chevron signs) down to a bridge over a river, then a sharp climb up the other side of the valley. Kenya usually offers long, steady climbs so 100m in 1.4km was a surprise. Schoolboys taunted me in English "Slowly slowly eh?".
I felt wobbly at 50km and ran decisively out of gas at around the 57km mark. I then crawled the last 5km through ultra-posh Muthaiga. There was a guy with a shit MTB / leather boots / hoody who was keeping pace with me as I went past the golf course and the various Polish/Swedish ambassador's houses. I couldn't drop him! I think the last 5km took at least 15-20 minutes. You know you'e screwed when you can barely keep your head upright.
At home I felt pretty rubbish once the happy-buzz wore off. This ride is to be reattempted with more water, more food, more HTFU. I might use it as a weekly test and try to break the magical two-hour barrier.
Here's an AIDS bill-board in the village of Banana at 2km elevation. Apologies for not wiping the sweat off my phone before the picture, I was in a hurry because a man was enquiring about whether, on the off-chance, I would give him my bike.
62km, 559m ascent, 2hrs 15mins, so average 27.6kph (17.1mph).