cycling tour day 7

Fresh lion prints in the dirt track as we left the park this morning! Our guide Patrick tells us they have usually eaten by this time of day and so are not hunting. Excellent. Tim was real stressed and just wanted to get out of there.
We stopped for more buffalo and hippo on the road though. The buffulo in particular are pretty intimidating to cycle past. They swing their heads to watch us go by. They have a sour expression, massive horns and although vegetarian they have a penchant for trampeling things... we cycled hastily alongside the channel, until we were out of the park where I finally stopped to tweak some bike trouble I am having, tire  is rubbing a bit.
My body is getting weary today. My hands and butt are aching as soon as I get on my bike which is taking some of the enjoyment out of the journey. Also the heat and consistant climbing.
We stopped for mango on the way, they eat them in a different way to us. Biting into it whole and spitting out the skin along the way. Road sides are litered with mango seeds and skin! We climbed out of the rift valley and stopped to admire the view, as well as be hasseled for sweets from children. Thankfully an American safari van came along with willing suppliers. We told the children there are rich muzungu and poor muzungu. Muzungu on bicycles are poor because they can't afford a car! I'm not sure if we convinced them...
In the village we are staying in an african hotel. The girls running it are decidedly surly and the facilities pretty grim. We napped in the afternoon and woke covered in sweat from the heat. The village is situated near twin crater lakes, we walked to them past banana crops and goats and had 5 minutes of quiet before we were descende upon by a bunch of teenage girls coming from their confirmation (it is Sunday) They were hysterical (like teen girls everywhere) and wanted us to take all their portraits. Which I did. The funny thing is they would become extremely sollom in front of the camera and then I would show them their picture and they would go in to fits of hysterical laughter again.
We took a boda boda (motorbike) to meet patrick at a place he had found. I tried riding side saddle like all the women here do on the backs of bikes but I decided I would rather flash my pasty white thighs to the world (in a skirt) than risk coming that close to falling off again! The place was fantastic. An eco lodge this guy called David is setting up, usuing natural resources. It doesnt have rooms yet, just camping facilities, but we had an amazing dinner there. With real salad stuff! Generally a salad consists of cabbage and tomato, but we had lettuce and carrots and green herbs! We also got taken down to a cave next to the crater lake and told stories of how the land used to be. Tim tried Tonto - local banana beer - not my kind of brew at all but Timmy really liked it, much to the locals amusement!
Now I am not sure if we will get sleep as there are several parties in honour of the confirmations taking place all over the village with huge speakers set up out on the street. eek.