Aaaaargh another bad night's sleep! This time it was brought on by the fact that there was no flat ground in the camp-site, so we were pitched on a slope. We both spent most of the night waking up and bracing ourselves against sliding into each other. Feeling extremely tired, we packed up the tent and set off down the coast to Umzumbe.
To say that it was a difficult day on the road, would be an understatement. Debs is suffering from a crisis of confidence since her roadside incident and really struggled. When a young guy pulled out of a field and cycled slowly behind her, she became convinced that something was going to happen. It turned out that he was just cycling very slowly and waved as he passed us, when we stopped. Meanwhile I stood on the roadside trying to comfort a very upset Debs. I know that she is a lot stronger than she feels at the moment and fully believe that her confidence will return. In her own words she doesn't want one incident to ruin the whole experience for her.
It certainly wasn't only Debs suffering, my legs felt leaden all day and my bike has rarely felt heavier. In fact, both of us were left feeling like we were cycling through treacle. Hot weather and a steeper than expected road certainly didn't improve matters.
For once we wished that instead of taking the quieter old main road, we had ridden along the N2 highway. Technically we are not allowed to be on it, but it had to be flatter and less meandering than the road we were on.
Arriving in Hibberdene made our spirits lift, as we finally rejoined the coast and we were able to get some much needed food. Better still we were only about 6km away from stopping for the day.
Mantis and Moon backpackers is a pretty cool place, set in a very nice jungle like garden. Unfortunately the camping spot is on a deck, which is no use at all if you don't have a free standing tent. Considering the terrible nights we have had lately, we elected to have a double room/hut instead. Which, assuming the monkeys stop jumping up and down on the roof and not too many more trains go by, we will hopefully get a good nights sleep in.
We have a shorter day tomorrow, so we don't have to rush in the morning. Dinner and maybe a beer is going to bring today to a close very shortly.
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