This morning, I woke up and was nicely surprised to find out that I was way better. I could walk in a straight line without falling over. Eating more at breakfast helped too. So I went to get prepared to race. The girl’s and the C2s raced in the afternoon, so we had a chance to look at the course again and to watch the K1s and C1s shred it. I placed myself right in the middle, at the drop under a...

So much for not getting sick, ever since we got back from Masinga Dam, I have slept in my tent and been antisocial with only my sickness for company. While I was sick, I remembered the good times we had in Masinga Dam. Our safari was awesome! The Mutatu that was to pick us up at 6 am, didn’t get to us until 10 am, it had to come from Nairobi, a good 4 hours away. While waiting for our ride, I was...

Well, we are finally in Masinga Dam. It took forever to get here! We drove in this sketchy van called a Mutatu. It was super tight! The drive was long and we got lost a few too many times. We finally make it to our destination only to discover that every thing we thought was arranged was not. Three hours later, we had a patch of ground to pitch our giant REI tents and we discovered that our safari...

I definitely thought that I was done being burnt. But apparently that privilege is not to have. I discovered tonight, as I was changing into warmer clothes that I missed putting sunscreen in a few spots. My chest, inner thighs and one of calves are REALLY burnt. Like almost lobster red burnt. I am in pain! Thankfully, tomorrow we are going to Masinga Dam for a few days, so I will have a chance to revive...

I can’t wait to get out of this camp! I’m starting to go a little loopy. Walking up to the course today, I found out that not only is Emily afraid of hippos, she is also deathly afraid of cows. Yes, cows. A herd of them was coming down the narrow hill on the other side of the ferry. Emily grabbed onto me and pushed me in front of her like a shield, a “protective” barrier between her and the...

The Africa adventure continues. This morning, Sarah found a scorpion on the sleeve of her top. Nic captured it and put it on display in a ziplock bag. It was much smaller than I had expected, and red. Sarah and I went on a flatwater paddle today. We encountered some village children on the shore. They were eating mangos and throwing the remains into the water. Some bits of fruit landed suspiciously...

Sarah and I were walking back to our tents tonight, when we saw this HUGE spider. I shone my headlamp on it and an enormous, intricate web appeared. It started in the tree and went all the way to the ground and Mariah’s tent. It was insane! This afternoon, I did some yoga to help out my sore shoulders and butt muscles. It helped sooooo much and was very relaxing. I have burned the inside of my nose....

It was an exhausting day today. We did grandprixs in the morning and in the afternoon; we had an amazing technique session. I felt really good afterwards. We had a close call today with the dogs. Freddy and Bindi, the camp’s dogs decided to follow us up to the course in the morning. Normally this would be fine, but it had rained just before breakfast and everything was pretty slippery. I almost eat...

So today was our first official day off. In the morning, we did a river run on the Tana river, upstream of the slalom course. We had to borrow boats and gear from Savage Camp. The boats were a little sketchy; I ended up in a large Fluid Spice. The only contact I had was my butt, which was awesomely great for going on a river run which I knew nothing about other than the possibility of wild animals,...

I’m glad we’re not here in the rainy season. This morning, we had the privilege of a nice preview of what Kenya is like when it’s wet. It poured! The nice part though, is that the wet mutes the hot a little bit. I woke up early this morning to have a shower, a welcome luxury I was not expecting to have privy to. I ran into Katayoon on my way. She sees me with my shower stuff and asks, “You...