Halfway reflections

I'm in Nairobi! The halfway point in terms of time (still more than halfway on distance however) so thought I'd take a moment to reflect on my expedition so far!

What has the biggest challenge been so far?
I can't single out one challenge to be the biggest but there have surely been plenty of them as I make my journey southwards. Each country presents a new challenge -
- in Egypt it was getting used to long days in the saddle, headwind on the first day.
- the sand of Sudan
- The hills, rocks & kids that throw the rocks at you in Ethiopia. And riding at altitude where the air is thin. And the endless calls of "you-you-you how are you?" and although the caller doesn't care how you are they still want a reply from you.
- The corrugated unpaved road of northern Kenya called the "trans east african highway" although us Mzungu (white people) struggle to understand how such a road can possibly be called a highway!
- and next we have the mud of Tanzania to look forward to!!!

But there have been other challenges too for example:
- pitching my tent in the sand
- internet access that simply frustrates because it will work and I'll write a long piece of blog and then loose it - I have a previous blog saved on Tims USB stick at the moment but he doesn't happen to be here right now so now my blog is going to be out of order slightly!
- The time I pitched my tent right under the Baboon Toilet Tree (and I thought there were a few heavy drops of rain overnight! - something else to clean in the morning)
- The number of times I'm out on my bike and there's an oncoming truck passing an oncoming truck (and suddenly I'm riding my bike off the road and in the dirt to keep alive!!!)
- Spending every night so far in my little tent (which is the smallest tent on tour) on my little thermarest which sadly has cancer and no longer inflates!
- On the bike riding up hills in Ethiopia shouting "Salamno" to all the billions of kids you see in hope that they won't throw rocks at you.
- Knowing that there is showering facilities at the camp that you're going to only to find that when you get there there's no water!

But now I recall the BIGGEST challenge for me. The biggest challenge was riding when I wasn't well, and when my knee was sore. And jumping on the truck. Jumping on the truck for me is a huge mental challenge which I have done for 200 of the roughly 5500km of this trip so far and I have only done it when I haven't been well, and taken another 30km to rest my knee which was sore for a while. But everytime I ride the truck I feel like I'm cheating although really I know I'm actually being smart. It still doesn't feel as good at the end of the day when you rock up in the truck knowing that everyone else has worked hard to be at the designated campsite that night.

How do I feel?
Good. Really good. I love this lifestyle. I love only thinking about riding everyday and only having to worry about keeping my feet turning. My neck no longer aches. My quads no longer burn. I have sensation in all my fingers again :)

What have I been eating?
An awful lot. I eat 3 times as much as before I left home I think!!! I eat what they serve on riding days and on rest days I try to eat as local as food comes depending on where we are. And that includes the Ethiopian injera designed to make you fart, and made many riders sick with GI upset (myself included thankfully only to a mild degree)