Day: May 15, 2006

Serge spent his day wincing because of the pain in his rib, which doesn’t seem to want to go away.  When Serge is in pain it’s obvious that he isn’t very talkative.  At the 53rd kilometer, he managed a big smile to celebrate his 11,000 kilometers, even if this figure is less symbolic than 10,000 kilometers.  It sounds like we are becoming blasé.

This morning the left tire of the trailer, which was completely deflated yesterday, finally burst.  Daniel and Ludo improvised a jack with stones and a cement post in order to change the tire.  As for Thomas, having spent his night on the toilet he has been out of sorts all day.

At the 40th kilometer, the freeway and highway 314 merged, becoming one road, which has a barbed wire fence on either side.  The next exit will be at 70 kilometers.  So we are now prisoners: the 11,000 kilometers were celebrated at an emergency stopping place and we were obliged to do 15 kilometers past the end of the stage in order to find a place where we could squeeze through to set up our camp.  A few small mountains were on hand to liven up the scenery, the sky is full of clouds but rain doesn’t seem to be on the way.
 
Trucks rolled by all night long and since we were 100 meters below the level of the road we were perfectly placed to hear the incessant noise.  Serge spent all nigh tossing and turning to find a good sleeping position, all in vain.  Unfortunately, there isn’t much you can do for such pain.  For the last two days he has been taking one gram of paracétamol (Tylenol) but it doesn’t seem to give him any relief.  It has to get better.  Patience……..

 Distance

Days

Hours 

Minutes 

 0 à 1000

 13 

 3

 59 

 1000 à 2000

 14

 1

 38

 2000 à 3000

 13

 21

 57 

 3000 à 4000

 13

 23

 33

 4000 à 5000

 13

 19

 1

 5000 à 6000

 13

 2

 36

 6000 à 7000

 13

 0

 17

 7000 à 8000

 13

 2

 12

 8000 à 9000

 13

 13

 58

 9000 à 10000

 13

 1

 55

 10000 à 11000

 13

 2

 19