This was the most challenging day of the ride. It involved crossing the Kerio Valley and climbing the Elgeyo escarpment. It started with a transfer from Lake Baringo to Kabernet and it started with a fantastic 18km downhill stretch which was really quite steep and basically meant free-wheeling for nearly the whole 18km! Then we cycled another 10km across the valley floor which had a really strange geomorphological gullies. The temperature was extremely hot here as it was over 35C. Then we started our climb up the escarpment. They had set a bronze silver and gold challenge for people to see what they wanted to do. However the heat of that day meant that several did not do any and most stopped at bronze! I was please to go on to the silver challenge but felt like it would go on forever at times! It was also embarrassing that at times people who were walking alongside the road seemed to be walking faster than I could cycle uphill! It was a great sense of achievement that I achieved the silver challenge. The views once at the top of the escarpment were amazing.
We stayed in Eldoret which is famous for the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF)'s High Altitude Training Center for Kenyan and international athletes. My legs were aching but it was satisfying to know that I had completed more of the uphill challenge that I thought I would have been able to. That night we stayed at a pleasant hotel however it was yet another challenge trying to get a shower when hardly any water came out when it was switched on - did I forget to mention that it was cold too?
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