For the first time this morning, we’ve had to take down our tents during heavy rain. It had started raining as soon as our alarm clocks went off, and wouldn’t stop until after the last ones of us had reached the next camp.

So far, so good. With a bit of proper organization and decent quality gear, I’ve been able to pack up my tent in a way that most other things in my bag would stay dry, and even the inside of my tent had remained dry.

However, at night I would wake up again soaking wet in my sleeping bag, just that this night I no longer had any fever. To the contrary, I was feeling cold. The reason for my soaking wet sleeping bag inlet might have been sweat, but I doubt it. To me, it seems more like condensed air. I haven’t figure out a solution for that yet, but—I can tell you—waking up wet sucks!

Hence my advice or lesson learnt for today: Never attempt to go camping in the tropics during rainy season!

Stage 32: Kabalungi School – Lake Mburo (Uganda), 66km

Road & traffic condition:

The only good news of the day was that we only had to cycle for 66km (versus 80km initially expected). We’ve had great tar for 56km, then dirt road for 9km cycling into our camp. Not too much traffic and mostly respectful drivers.

Weather:

It started to rain the moment our alarm clocks went off, and wouldn’t stop until after the last of us reached camp early afternoon.

Quite chilly while cycling. By 3pm, however, the sun came out and would keep us warm for the remainder of the day.

Culinary highlights:

Chicken lasagne and potatoes—so so.

Group highlights:

Lots of wildlife viewing cycling into and at our camp—zebras, warthogs, antelopes, etc.

Personal highlights:

It’s been my birthday, but I was in no celebration mood today. Because of the rain, they also couldn’t make a birthday cake for me (which they usually do)—that suited me well, because I had not much appetite and preferred to go to bed early again right after dinner. At least my physical recovery is on track, but my mood is at the bottom.

I’m at times overwhelmed with the sheer size of our group and the lack of privacy (and I know at least a few others feel the same). Some people just never stop talking and never leave one alone. Even just during one’s morning toilet run (after a terrible night of diarrhea), one has to answer ten times to “how are you?” That can be a bit tiring for some of us.

You put up your tent—people come talk to you. You take down your tent—people come talk to you. You go for a shower—people talk to you. I’m in dire need of a room for some more privacy and a good night’s sleep, but—because of my ongoing recovery—I’ve been cycling too slow to get own of the big permanent tents at our camp tonight. That’s further dragging down my mood, because they’ve mostly been snapped away by the new sectional riders who haven’t been sick at all. I’m getting nostalgic and wishing back for Sudan!

The rain is also effecting all my gadgets. I cannot recharge my phone battery anymore, and now even my spare phone is giving me troubles to charge. That’s on top of my kindle that already broke a while ago (might still have been due to the heat or sand in Sudan), and my broken iPod that I’m to blame for (left it in my cycling jersey while washing).

I wake up in the middle of the night with a terrible nightmare—my MacBook broken into pieces. At least that was just a nightmare, and my laptop is still working fine.