Day 5 - Kakamega to Kisumu 53km

This felt like a long journey despite being nearly half that of other days. The most striking part of this day were the contrasts in wealth seen on the way into Kisumu centre. We stopped about 10km before the centre to re-group so that we could cycle in together for the last 10km. It was probably the most scary of places I cycled through and at one point we passed a demonstration where men were marching, banging drums, throwing stones and waving machetes! I later found out that the President of Kenya was expected in the town the day after for a conference and it was a political protest of some kind. We cycled to our hotel for the evening which had spectacular views of Lake Victoria which covers 70,000 square kilometres and is the major geographical feature of this part of the continent.

After having a short celebration for completing the cycle ride I went down to the Lake to go on a boat trip to see if we could see some hippos. We barted a price and managed to go out and have a tour of the small bay we were near to. I was delighted when I got to see a family of hippos and some of the life around the lake. There were lots of children playing in the Lake whilst their mothers were washing and men were bathing in the Lake. It was strange to see how some were washing in the Lake, collecting their drinking water from it and others were sunbathing next to it as part of the large hotel complexes that sat on the Lake shores.

That night at the hotel there was a huge thunderstorm which caused a lot of disruption as the electric would go off and after the power cuts on the second night at Thompson Falls we knew they could last for a longtime! However we were given candles and moved inside so all was well in the end. It has been quite an emotional day for many of the women as they had completed the cycle challenge we had all come to do and there were some very touching personal testimonies from some of the organisers as well as the women taking part as to what made them take part in the challenge and their journey to get there.