Go Ghana Cycle Challenge – Aburi to Koforidua

Tuesday 4^th October: Cycling Day 3

Distance                      78km

Calories burned          Can’t eat enough to keep up

Level roads                 0

Hilly roads                   All of them

Accidents                    1

Degree of difficulty      9/10

Misery factor               More ups than downs

Loss of dignity             None, hurrah!

Highlight of the day      Peter’s Spag Bol

We leave Aburi by the same steep, rocky road that we arrived and soon have the first accident of the day.  This time Mark hits the dirt track and has to be cleaned up and bandaged by Doctor Geoff before remounting his bike and soldiering on. 

At the bottom of the hill a sharp right turn takes us onto a more even off road surface and a series of rolling hills through pineapple and banana groves.  At the first stop everyone is raving about the wonderful views and I realise that all I’ve seen is a red dirt road. My handlebars are so low, I can’t look up.  Fortunately the injured Mark has brought a spare headset with him which fits my bike.  A few minutes work with a spanner and alun key and my handlebars are a vital inch or so higher and I can appreciate the countryside with the rest of them.

Today is possibly the hottest day so far, with temperatures reaching 37 degrees and feeling far hotter with the sun on your back crawling up hill. Luckily today has some glorious long downhills too and looking into the distance our bright yellow shirts stand out against the red earth roads to signal the route ahead.

Lunch is the undoubted highlight of my day.  By now I am heartily sick of rice, beans and inedible chicken – which seems to be the staple of every hotel we stay in.  And after only a small omelette for breakfast, with the sight, smell and especially the taste of Peter’s spag bol for lunch I feel myself ingesting energy for the first time in days.  And there’s cake to follow! 

This heavenly round of carbs speeds my pedals to the afternoon break, where we stop in a village to see how cassava is processed and used.  Nothing is wasted, with the juices pressed out of the cassava flour used to starch the laundry.

But there are more hills to cover before we stop for the night in Korofidua, and I’m running out of gas with no energy gels left to give me a final boost when Claire comes to the rescue, with a share of an energy bar.  I’ve no idea what they put in these things, but the effect is instant.  We’re off and running again, speeding though the final kms into town, past huge piles of palm nuts awaiting oil extraction and onto the best hotel of the week. There’s even a pool and we’re back just about early enough to enjoy it.  Or we would be, if it wasn’t closed for chemical maintenance.  As it is every Monday and Tuesday.  Don’t you just love Africa?!