Mt Kenya and last night in the northern Hemisphere...

Beyond the Saddle ....Cairo to Cape Town
Howard Fairbank
Fri 9 Mar 2007 21:51
Position: 00:00.859N 37:33.435E .....now how is that for being close to the equator....!

At the Sportmans Club Hotel, just out of the town centre of Nanyuki.

Cycled 76 km today.....what a wonderful ride......tar road, no punctures, wind behind me, beautiful scenery, and then a visit to the equator line, just a few km's down the road from the town centre!

Oh, there was a long hill straight from yesterday's campsite, virtually 25km of climbing from 1500m to around 2300m. Mt Kenya (at 5199m the second highest mountain in Africa) came into sight a few km's into the hill, and was basically the central attraction the whole day. Quite strange to have snow covered mountain on the equator, with the heat of yesterday! More for the newsletter....! After the climb. it was lovely slight downhill cycling with a few rolling hills and a tail wind....wonderful!

After reaching the end stop for the day, I did ride out to the equator line mark and was relieved to find it was within 10m of where my GPS said it should be!

The town of Nanyuki is quite large and vibrant in a Kenyan way....managed to buy real cheese and yoghurt for the first time in almost 90 days now....simple treats!

The climate here is wonderful, not too hot, and no humidity, but not dry, feels very 'liveable'.

Two days to Nairobi now....