Africa Rising Cycling!

From Kitt:

Today started off with a nice walk to the Serena for a glorious brunch. I tried at least two different meat puddings and count my tasting of different animal types at 5. Afterwards we went to the simulation centre at CHUK to set up our scenarios for Monday morning. We did another hour or so of prep work for next week before meeting Emmy for the drive to Ruhengeri.

Brunch

Kitt and Kyle hard at work

Such a gorgeous route through the land of a thousand hills! We stopped for goat brochette, maize and roasted potatoes, and even tried banana wine. The former was excellent, the latter was about as good as it sounds, but hey! When in Rwanda…

We arrived at Africa Rising Cycling Centre in Ruhungeri around 2pm, and were promptly fitted with mountain bikes. We set out on the road with our guide Rafiki at about 3pm and biked for 2.5 hours through dirt roads, rural farms, and dodged what seemed like thousands of small Rwandan children.  “HELLO! HOW ARE YOU! I AM FINE!” blurted out every 5 seconds. The backdrop of the mountains in Volcanos National Park was stunning. There were some challenging rocky uphill stretches, and I don't know many *ahem 61-year-olds that could plow through like Patty did today. She’s so hardcore. She says she still has chest pain, but we are 99% sure it’s not cardiac at this point.

Back for a shower at our little house on the ARCC grounds, and we were off to dinner with Emmy in town. We ordered huge pizzas that none except Kyle thought we could finish, but we all succeeded.

We are hoping to go on another mountain bike tomorrow, involving a boat across a lake and about 50km of riding. Patty is concerned about her potential for acute MI, but Emmy insisted that she take some vitamin C, and Kyle and I both have ibuprofen, so she should be fine;)

cyclist holding truck for a free ride up the hill

roasted potatoes and goat brochettes

Just about to set out