It is a year of heavy rains. Rains you talk about the next day. Rains that wash houses , cars, and animals away. Rains that flood. Rains that keep you inside. Rains that cause havoc at birthday parties* . Rains of a lifetime.
John and Amanda keep their appointment and we opt to try Monduli mountains. I say I think there is only one place on this ride that might have mud. Otherwise it will be packed clay and sand.
We come down a rise to the questionable section and the seasonal 20 meter wide river bed is now 100 meters across! Judging from debris in trees the flood had 2 meters deep of water. We follow tracks off the road and stop and take this picture.
The banana grove is gone.
A man is working on the side of the road, and I comment " it must of been a big flood." He stops and replies. "I was born in 1951 and I have never seen anything like it!" We discuss this for awhile as we move through the endless ploughed fields.
The road is not slippery, the sun is shining, and we cruise up the foot hills, one depression has 30 meters of unavoidable mud, but only Johns tyres pick up the mud and coat his drive chain. Some reason Amanda and I only have a thin layer that builds up.
We ride slowly up the steep sections and into the natural forest, through one more mud section that we carry the bikes and soak our shoes.
We reach the end of the track and our journey for today, and relax on bright green grass in the sunshine, eating dates from Oman and apricots from California.
We descend a single track from here and then down a valley on a washed out road and catch up with our inbound track at the bottom of first steep hill.
The next section is all downhill but not very steep. We are home by 1230.
Great ride.
*(Biking buddy Thomas had one on Friday afternoon evening. Bernice says we got to go now, I hesitate, and a minute later it is pouring rain. We have come down a iffy road in a sedan. Everyone else has SUV. We get drenched getting to the car, barely make it out of their garden, wait for others to turn around, only to stop a few minutes later because someone has driven into 2 meter ditch and is lying at 45degrees. They left the vehicle. Later I hear it turns into too many people in a hot tub. )
