The sausages needed a lot of water to balance and so I had been drinking 3 glasses in the evening. At night it had started raining. There was no hope it would stop until morning, so I had again a “do what has to be done”- situation when those three glasses had done their job. I then sat down again in the kitchen but soon began feeling cold, because 14° is not enough to feel comfortable while sitting in short trousers. On the wall, directly next to me, was an electric heater. I don’t want to imagine a situation where I would turn on such a thing, but I hoped someone would come in, feel cold, turn it on and I would get my share of warmth and could at the same time wash my hands of it. But this is not only morally doubtful, it is unrealistic, because the average Australian can tolerate lower temperatures than me and officially the kitchen would open only at 8:30, one hour later. Well, it is a kitchen, but I had nothing to eat, so the solution that stood out was going back to my tent and warm up and eat something.
But then the rain stopped, and I hurried to pack up my things and a man told me that normally leaving time is 11:00. After packing the bike, I ate a muesli and went off. I still had not decided to go on the normal road or that motorway, but it happened by itself. The road just led to the highway and when Mr.G wanted to turn left it looked like a bike lane that made a detour from the street and would come back. But it didn’t come back, or I didn’t.
So I was again on the motorway and felt only a little uncomfortable because of “motor” in the name, but I hadn’t seen any sign to forbid cycling. And I did, I was fast, because it was going down and sometimes the wind pushed me and I nearly had no rain and everything was going well until…
I had my first flat tyre since I had started this trip 253 days ago! I don’t like that, but if it is done by putting down the bags, getting out the tube, fixing the hole, putting the tube back in the tyre and the bags back on the bike, it should be no big deal.
But after a few km, the tyre was flat again. I thought, maybe this is because the hole was near the seam and put a bigger patch on top. But after a while it was the same again. I had tried to find another hole but hadn’t seen any and the wind and the traffic were too strong for testing by hearing or feeling the air coming out. So, I pumped up every now and then until I reached the house of Lulu and Michaél.
We had a lively conversation from the start, Lulu had made lunch, their baby Hugo is a friendly guy and so it was nice to be there. We had agreed to go to a culture festival together and so we did. The wind had been getting stronger and colder and when we arrived there, we soon felt cold and there was no place to warm up. We had some food but couldn’t sit down for eating it. The place was nearly empty because the wind and the temperature made it hard to stay and there was not too much going on. We could stand in an empty tent for a while and waited for friends of Lulu and Micka. But soon after they had come, the event ended, and we had to leave this refuge. So, we went back home.
We had a second dinner with a fermented rice that I knew from Shenzhen and sticky rice balls but filled with peanuts. And we talked about cycling, exchanging experiences we had had in Iran and always there was something new to tell. I also invited them to my 2025 party and explained my ideas about a camp/village in Uganda and as so often, I again got new input and inspiration. Micka is a planter and has learned permaculture and so also this principle as again present for me and will influence my way of thinking and planning.