It's hard to know where to begin to record about the next leg of our Trans Kenya bikepacking journey. Immersive, exciting, extremely diverse, uncertain, exhausting and beyond all expectations would be a few words and phrases that come to mind!

We journeyed up to Mount Suswa and camped on the volcanic crater. It was two epic 60km days to get there and back to lake naivasha. Fabulous cycling across flat plains and some proper climbs up, I loved cycling down from Mount suswa, a deliciously long downhill. Some memorable parts of these days included:

We enjoyed a night back at Fisherman's camp in a little banda after our Mount Suswa days. It seemed such luxury to have a bed, toilet and shower The peace of the campspot was blissful. It was great to watch the monkeys playing in the morning, we did have to be vigilant about where we put our food though they are very sharp!

The next leg of our Kenya Bikepacking journey was to get to Earth Camp with a geothermal spa. It was such a delight to spot a giraffe at the side of the road as we pedalled along the side of lake naivasha at the start of the day.

After a sunny dusty road section we stopped for lunch at Three ways hotel. Some local children spotted a thorn in Robs front tyre. His sealant didn't seal the hole as expected. He was helped by some local guys and a local motorbike repair shop to put a tyre boot on the inside of the tyre.

Meanwhile I had the joy of playing with some local children. Then when about 25 school children came past after school they all stopped to stare at me, it was pretty funny. The cafe staff ushered me inside as they said the children won't go home until you come inside they rarely see a white person!

We arrived in the dark to Earth camp after having to spend a couple of hours fixing the puncture. The much anticipated spa turned out to be a tin shack sauna. It was in fact suprisingly refreshing.

We headed up hill to the Eburro forest the next day where we then were accompanied into the forest by an armed ranger called Juma. There are buffalo in the forest so Juma's role is to stay awake all night on guard whilst we sleep. It was a very surreal experience. Juma fell off his bike twice whilst journeying with us into the forest so we had to help push his heavy motorbike to get him going. He was a fun chap, we weren't altogether convinced he stayed awake all night! There was no sight or sound of any buffalo anyway so all was well. It was very tranquil in the forest, apart from the sound of Jumas music playing into the night! Quite a hilarious experience all in all, our Kenya Bikepacking adventure constantly surprises us.

We pedalled out of the forest the next morning and were treated to the most glorious descent down the mountain. The views of beautifully laid out and cared for small farms and country dwellings was just stunning. The path was wonderfully flowy and as like most days here and most roads we were waved to or greeted by most people we passed.

As we then pedalled along the valley floor I had a very unspectacular fall into mud which resulted in a very spectacular thick mud layer all over my legs and shorts. We couldn't dwell long on that as we were beckoned over to a nearby field to help try and pull a poor cow out of a muddy ditch. Truly on this trail you could never guess what is around the corner!

From there we headed into the Soyasambu conservancy. We sheltered from a proper heavy downpour before heading into the park. It was a joy to cycle past zebra and impala and and see hundreds of flamingos on the lake.

As we pedalled along to our campspot I noticed Rob repeatedly turning and looking behind us. Having established that the animals in the far distance were not indeed cattle but buffalo I asked Rob if he thought we were safe. He said yes and then a few minutes later informed me he had just turned to his right and there had been a buffalo in the bushes just a few metres away, hence why he kept checking behind him. Then on our left appeared a herd full of buffalo watching us as we pedalled past. I don't think I would have felt as unnerved by this if it hadn't been the need for us to have the armed guard the night before! We both stayed calm and pedalled on, what a relief to see a and reach a little village ahead and then find our serene woodland campspot.

The next days journey on our Trans Kenya Bikepacking adventure was a mighty uphill. It was fun journeying through little towns, enjoying dirt trails, bumpy stoney roads and taking in all the dwellings we passed, lots of greetings to people we passed and enjoying the lush green forest. There was a spot of rain whilst we were in the forest, 10minutes further down the trail our wheels quickly got clogged with mud. We had to push our bikes as we couldn't ride in gears 1-3 which were needed for the sharp inclines! It was hot work.

It was therefore then a wonderful reward to have about 12km of downhill after that. Just fantastic! We were so grateful for the hospitality of the gorgeous Mali Saba Lodge who gave us a little lodge for the night when we arrived in the pouring rain.