Greetings from the north! We're making our way not-really-all-that-slowly across the northern part of Burkina. Truckin', really. We've already biked approximately 550 kilometers (we had to give up on exact data since Josh's gadget broke) in our nine days on the road!
We're changing support car drivers every week, so as not to keep anyone one away from their families for too long. Sadly, we said goodbye to our first driver, Abraham, on Sunday afternoon. He was indefatigable, took prestigious care of our bikes and logistics, played "Godspell" gospel in the early AM's as we loaded the car (and sang along in a falsetto) and gave us awesome fist pumps each time he passed us in the car. We'll miss you, Abraham!
Our new driver for the week is NANA Pascal. Welcome, Nana!
Yesterday's route--all dirt roads--out of the regional capital was one of the most beautiful routes in Burkina that we've ever seen. It's hues of greens and burnt reds are vibrant, and there are "mountains" (aka small hills) all around. And, I'm not kidding, the morning air felt almost "fall"-ish. It was probably 80 degrees F, but it felt amazing zooming down the hills. About 5 km out of where we slept, we stopped to climb one of the "mountains" for a photo shoot...
It was only a 40 km, or so, ride, but due to stoppages for the mountain and flats (the bronze goes to Julie for the 3rd flat, and Emma gets honorable mention for the 4th), we didn't get to Christy Ross' site until after 10 AM. We road in on the main marche road, and everyone who lined the road stood up and clapped and cheered for us. It was awesome. They even held up a sign in Moore that said "Welcome!"
Christy did a fantastic job of hosting us: putting us up at her CSPS, finding enough food to satisfy all of us (Rob and I shared 3 plates of food between us for lunch and then we all ordered about 40 brochettes and 20 baguettes for dinner), and organizing a soccer game that starred your favorite nisarras....
Go Team Nisarra!
It rained spectacularly that night and the whole area was flooded. Normally, we bike out of site early in the morning, but we decided to sleep late and let the water soak in. Nana got stuck in the mud (we have awesome picture of this, but no time to load it), and we had to scout out the trails to make sure they were passable by car and by bike.
We were off by 10:30 and here by 4:30, housed in a local school. We all showered in the latrines. Ewwww. More tomorrow!
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