Today was one of the toughest driving days so far. After departing the campsite in the morning before 8:00 AM, we made some good progress, but after lunch the road really fell apart. From lunch until we stopped, we only covered 25 km. The terrain became more hilly and the road was full of holes and ruts. The going was slow.
In mid-morning we stopped off in Segola to pick up a few things, with lunch by the road side. One thing we noticed as we were driving along was how friendly all the people were. We would wave to and get waves from everyone - and they would give a big, wide smile and seemed very pleased to see us drive by. Even when the people were working, such as in the fields, they would stop working and wave to us. Or they would put down what they were carrying or let one hand go from what they were carrying on their heads and wave to us.
It was interesting to note that the women continued to do most of the work (or at least the visible work), while the men longed around (there were the exceptions, of course, and not all men just lazed around). Many of the women were tending the fields, bent over, while they were carrying babies on their backs.
There were many bush fires - we believe they were set after the dry season started so that they would not get uncontrollable fires later on when it was very dry. The haze was caused by it and we would often pass the flames.
When we stopped for the day just before 4 PM (Mark thought we had enough for the day), we took it easy around the truck, relaxing in the shade. Lars built the fire this evening and he really wanted to get the flames going (at least he did not have to worry about a bush fire as the fires had already gone through the area). While we were hanging out a group of 15 local women walked by - we could hear them for 5-10 minutes before they arrived as they were all talking so load - and at the same time!!! They chatted with us for a while (even though we do not think we really understood each other) and then they continued on, jabbering amongst themselves. We could hear them for quite a while.
After dinner was done, Lars built up the fire and we enjoyed the flames. But at the same time we were keeping one eye on the flames and red glows that we could see on the horizon. There were a couple of bush fires and we could often see the flames and the smoke in the moon light. But the wind was blowing towards the fires, so we did not have too much to worry about.
We went to bed watching the moon, stars and fires from our tent.