Supposedly Kenya's in my blood since both my parents are Kenyan. With that disclaimer, I'll state the following: Kenya is awesome! The country is pleasant to travel through and the sky is pretty phenomenal. We've seen lots of camels today, some baboons and the occasional person too. A small bar opposite our campsite serves some superb chapatis (I wasn't aware that these were so common in Kenya).

The riding today was harder on the joints - being corrugated dirt road with a sandy surface. Foolishly, I tried to adjust my brakes myself last night which, given the large, rocky descent straight out of camp, was not a good idea. I took the descent slowly and stopped often to fiddle with my brakes (to no avail). Luckily the rest of the day didn't require as much braking and it was over relatively quickly, I arrived into camp well before noon.

The road tomorrow is similar for the first 60km before we hit the lava rock. I'm quite apprehensive about this surface, it's been hyped up ever since we started thinking about what bike to bring. This is the meanest, hardest and roughest road we'll meet during the tour. Talking to the other riders, it is rideable on a cyclocross bike and will probably need an even higher level of determination to finish. With any luck, my rear wheel will hold together.

Paul (the tour director) helped me adjust my brakes today - he's incredibly handy and they work beautifully now. I'm usually loath to complain but I find it odd how little time Chris (our bike mechanic) seems to have for actually repairing bikes. He has two pre-arranged sessions a week of an hour long and some time on our rest days. People's bikes are beginning to need a fair amount of work as we get deeper into the tour - especially as we hit the rougher terrain. Sub-optimal.

The mosquitos are biting harder now and I've picked up three new bites in the last day alone. It's also getting warmer - I barely cover myself with my sleeping bag at night now, finding it a bit on the sticky side.