The antibiotics had done the trick and killed my diarrhea overnight. I was no longer feeling sick in the morning, just low on energy. No surprise—I hadn’t slept properly in days, and not eaten much the past 48 hours.
“Alex, how are you today?” Tallis asked as I poured myself some hot water in the morning. That was a first. He usually doesn’t do that.
“Better,” I replied without looking up.
“Really?” he sounded doubtful. “Look at me, I’m a bit worried about you.”
“Really, the antibiotics really helped,” I faintly smiled at him.
“Just take it easy today, OK?”
“OK.”
Wow! I must have looked truly terrible yesterday that Tallis starts to worry. However, I was indeed feeling a lot better this morning. There was no reason that I couldn’t ride as long as I took it easy.
And taking it easy I did. I was amongst our slowest riders today, pedalling along like on a casual Sunday stroll, partly cycling with our sweep riders. There was no need to rush. I got into camp just fine late afternoon.
My energy was still low and I would go to bed early again. However, I was on my path to recovery and had learnt my lesson.
Next time, I won’t suffer that long but take antibiotics rather soon than later if I really need them. I will just leave it to the probiotics that I’ve brought along to restore my healthy bowel flora afterwards.
Stage 31: Sesse Island – Kabalungi School (Uganda), 103km
Road & traffic condition:
70km of dirt road, first on the island . . .

. . . and to be continued on the mainland.

Then good tar with a wide shoulder, however lots of rolling hills that demanded some climbing efforts. At least the hills gave some good views into the distance—Uganda is a very green country!

Weather:
Overcast in the morning. The faster ones got caught in the rain (not me this time round 🙂 ). Sunny and quite hot in the afternoon. Rain showers late afternoon at camp.
Culinary highlights:
For the first time, I tried the local chapatis. This is thanks to Gurpaul, whom Helen (our sweep) and me sweeped early morning. He had just ordered his breakfast—chapati with omelettte—from a local stall. “Oh, those chapatis are awesome!” Helen raved. So I got us one each. I usually avoid them because of the flour, but they sure went down well on my upset stomach. I could definitely do with anything that helped restore some energy.

For dinner, spaghetti bolognese and salad once again—my first decent meal in over 48 hours!
Group highlights:
Great views during our early morning ride on Sesse Island.

After riding all across Sesse Island, we had to take a ferry to cross back over to the mainland. The ferries were only running at 8am and 10am. Only a few of the fastest riders managed to catch the 8am ferry, and most others ended up waiting quite a bit for the 10am ferry which dragged out our cycling day. Given my drained energy levels (and our chapati) stop, however, team sweep arrived just in time 🙂

Lots of sick people and an accident: One rider collided with a motorcyclist. It seems that nothing is broken, but he still had to be brought to a hospital and stay there overnight so they could do some x-rays to make sure. On the other hand, two of our female riders have returned from hospital and re-joined us at camp. One rider is still at hospital, recovering from his severe diarrhea. Staying healthy truly is the biggest challenge on this trip!
Personal highlights:
I found quite a big spider (the size of a baby’s palm) in my tent vestibule at night before going to bed. It seemed eager to crawl into my tent. Drained of energy, I just did the necessary: I locked the spider in place with the light of my headlamp, took a wet wipe, and killed it by squeezing it to death underneath the wipe. In hindsight, afraid of spiders, I can’t believe I actually did that: Necessity does the work of courage! And no, contrary do one of my earlier blog entries from Sudan, I do not seriously believe that spiders have a right to live—at least not inside my tent!!!
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