15th February 2010 - Aiming for balance

Yes we are going to do it, biking down Mt Kenya in the 10to4 challenge. We are a group of people Xpats from different corners of the globe, including Merijn and me. We two are going to do the shortest distance of 35 km, mostly downhill, but still off road. This implicates we need bikes, which we were able to rent from a project run by David in Kikuyu town. He usually does not rent out, but he is involved in the organisation of the 10to4. Four of us do not have a bike, Stepha, Merijn, Eike and Me, so on Saturday we went out to pick them up. There were a bunch of boys in all ages that helped with minor adjustments of the bikes that were built of parts of various making, but of very high quality. While I waited to get my steer a little higher, Merijn had already started to bike around the bumpy piazza in between the houses. A lady a sitting out site of one of the neighbouring houses was having her hair done. After all bikes were adjusted to our body size and preference all wheels were taken out and fitted inside my car. It became a little tight in the back with half of the seat down, but we drove Merijn to his birthday appointment with one of his best friends here in the city, Hidde. We other three decided to park our car in the court there at Ngongroad and continue walking to Yaya centre, where I had never been. It has shops and so on, but I saw no obvious reason to ever return there, just a different constellation of what can be found at Sarit, Westgate, Junction and Village, which are all either on walking distance for me or have no crazy parking traffic problems. But with a few new books we headed back.
At Stepha’s place (Gigiri Homestead) we unloaded two bikes, and managed to combine bikes and wheels in the right order. Where after I headed home to change, since Stepha and I were going to Zen garden, bamboo restaurant to have diner. This is really a nice place if you like Asian, Japanese food, upper-class for Nairobi standards, but many main courses cost less than €10. Stepha had a lovely dish with fried rice served in a bamboo stem pot, and I had sushi with salmon and crispy core, with a bottle of Chardonnay and a cocktail for desert. The whole place was dressed up in Valentine’s Day colours, the commerce really tries to make the most of it. Sunday morning I had to pick up Merijn from Hiddes place, and after my second cup of coffee I received a txt from Stepha that they were going to test the bikes. At home I grabbed some drinks and my swim bag and drove on to the UNrec centre where I parked the car and fitted the wheels in to our bikes. The slopes around Runda are pretty heavy, and almost too much for Merijn. The traffic is very busy too, even on a Sunday, but we made it and found the other bikers and biked a little around Runda on little less sloopy streets, before we returned to the UN for the usual Sunday afternoon poolside routine. Although possibly more lazy than usual.

Link:
www.10to4.org/