Ndaiju to Kabale - Day 305

Date: June 19th, 2010
Distance: 75km (and then a truck...)
Country: Uganda
Song of the Day: Breakdown - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

This morning I went to check out of my hotel. I also asked if they had a place I could get water from. The lady running the place was very helpful and found me a tap that I could fill my bottle from. Then she turned to me and asked "You aren't going to drink this are you?" That was a bad sign. I will drink anything the locals can stomach. In this case she said they boiled the water. So instead she gave me some bottled water. How nice is that?

The first 5km of the day was nice. Mostly downhill, plus the scenery here is amazing. I am going through a series of hills, but fortunately the road seems to stick to the valley floors. I still get amazing vistas though. From there on out things didn't get much better though. The views were still great, but I was crashing right into a wicked headwind. Really not fun at all.

Just after the 50km mark my bottom bracket blew out. At least the rubber seals on the non-drive side did. (For those of you less mechanically inclined, that is the axle where the pedals go around.) I knew it had been on its last legs, I was just hoping to make it a few more weeks. Whoops. I tried to continue on with it, but it really wasn't going well. I could hear the axle grinding along the inside somewhere. The wobble was also really bad. I couldn't use the top chainring because the chain would just wear against the front derailer cage. After another 25km and less than an hour before sunset, I called it quits.

I hailed for another passing truck. When it stopped I realized it was a military truck. I tried to tell them that I was looking for a regular (commercial) truck. The guy just looked at me and said, "hop in the back". So I did. I handed the bike up to the loadmaster in the back. I am not sure where their deal was, but there was already a load of bananas and yams in there, plus a older lady. When I got all settled the loadmaster thrust a piece of corn at me and practically shouted "Have some maize" with a big smile.

At first the road we were on was mostly downhill. I felt bad for taking the truck. That was all the potential energy I had earned. Then we started going up. I am guessing this was a good primer for what I can expect in Rwanda. It was a mammoth hill. I knew neither I nor my bottom bracket were going to make it. Plus if I had made that climb, it would have been dark before I got to the top. Going downhill in the dark sucks. You just can't use your speed like you want to. Again, wasted potential energy. So catching the truck was nice.

I made it to the town of Kabale. I am hoping I can find something here to fix my bike with.

-Dravis