CYCLE AFRICA 2012 : December 2012

Apocalyptic storms, head winds, hot days and a tropical ending

“Well, you see, there’s a catch….we all have bikes”……”hmmm” says Diana, our charming hostess organizing a small charter plane from Moshi to the tropical island of Zanzibar….turns out there was an option “D” to finish the trip after all! More of that later….

A full rest day in the small town of Nzega, somewhere in the middle of Western Tanzania seemed to be enough for Ben to regain some energy and transfer his mystery illness to me to carry for the following week (not happy!) and we were off again. Back out into the blazing sun, wide open plains and brutal headwinds of the moonscape that is Tanzania. Gareth’s motto from the beginning of the trip was “smiles, not miles”, but with the land as barren as it was and little to perk our interest, this turned on its head and became “miles and hopefully smiles”.

Resting - and sweating - somewhere in Western Tanz

Moshi, a small town at the base of Mt Kilimanjaro was our goal for this stint – 6 days and about 650km of pretty tough riding ahead, after which we would all make our decision on how to finish. No more grinding hills like Uganda, just plenty of flat road. However, we quickly realized that we’d been heading West and South the whole trip and subsequently were completely oblivious to the winds originating from the East of this great continent. So although the terrain was flat and the roads mostly sealed, this stretch of riding was punctuated with grueling headwinds. Cycling hard and sweating in the midday heat on flat roads, only to look down and realize you were clocking a measly 15km/hr, can be pretty demoralising. However we pushed on.

One particular day, as the afternoon rolled on, we were greeted with what we dubbed the “Apocalyptic storm”. Dark clouds rolling in from every direction whipping up dust storms and rain showers as they passed. With no shelter around, we had no option but to pedal on – on and on, until we got to some type of civilization where we could find a camp, some food, water and respite. Probably the longest afternoon of our trip as we all pedaled hard, head down to block to wind and dispelling thoughts of “why are we doing this again…”.

The storm awaits us

As seems to be the way with us however, there is always a silver lining. This one came in the form of meeting a few guys from Slovakia – in a dusty old town in no mans land. Being the only other white people we had spotted in days, we instinctively struck up a conversation over a cold drink. Turns out they were living in a converted house with a few other guys and gals and were working on projects involving building churches, setting up medical offices and teaching kindergarten students. An admirable effort by this small group of lovely people, who were really making a difference in the lives of the local townsfolk. After a hard day’s cycle, it was very rewarding to be invited in for dinner, a few cold beers and some good chat – as well as tea and breakfast the following morning – which really got our spirits up to start the following day.

Lovely and generous new friends

Next stop – Decision town! If you recall from the last post, this is where we needed to make a decision as to continue due East, head up north or a combination of both. After much deliberation, we all (for now), decided to stick together and head North towards Mt Kilimanjaro. Ben and Gareth would finish there, at the town of Moshi and continue to Zanzibar, a small island off the coast, via bus to complete their trip. At this stage, Tim and I were content with putting the extra kilometers in and joining the boys for the journey.

So off we went, into the barren lands towards Kili, riding well over 100km a day in fairly tough conditions. Suffice to say, that adrenaline alone got us through the last few days, particularly on te days where there were more than 70km between villages with food and water! Always a morale boost is having some entertaining and rewarding dealings with locals – like stopping at a roadside swimming hole to cool off one day, with Ben entertaining the kids by doing flying air guitars off the cliff. As we cooled off in the disturbingly dark and muddy water, we realized we had quite the crowd of locals gathering around, all interested and confused as to what a few Mzungus were doing out in the middle of nowhere, on bikes and then swimming in their local dam. I think the flashes of bare white skin and the occasional arse as we swam got quite a few giggles from them also!

Camp stop in the desert

Local swimming hole

Swimming hole

A few more days in and we rolled into the quaint, albeit touristy town of Moshi. Set at the base of the imposing Kilimanjaro, this would be the end point for Ben and Gareth and after a rest day, Tim and I would carry on…..or so we planned. As mentioned earlier, Diana, our lovely flight organizer, would change our plans somewhat. Sitting and drinking coffee, Ben and I noticed a “coastal aviation” sign next door. Stepping in to enquire about a flight to Zanzibar (rather than a 10 hour bus and 4 hour ferry), pretty soon we’d talked Diana down $100 and convinced her that our bikes would of course be small enough to fit into a 12 seater plane, with 4 other people and a bunch of luggage.

Gareth and "Kili"

So, as often happens when you’re on the road, plans changed again. One minute Gareth and Ben are on the bus and I’m riding and the next, all 3 of us have plane tickets for the following afternoon to go straight to Zanzibar, bikes and all. Tim, on the other hand, fancied the extra km’s and opted to continue to Dar Es Salaam under his own steam.

So after some crafty negotiating and shoehorning of bikes into the tiny luggage hold, we were airborne for a few hours of scenic flying over the Pare mountains, deserts and plains of Tanzania and onto Zanzibar, a beautiful archipelago sitting in the Indian ocean. While still part of Tanzania, the whole vibe changes dramatically once in Zanzibar. Being a Muslim area of Tanzania, customs, attitudes and indeed architecture changed dramatically the moment we disembarked. It was a lovely and refreshing change. Beans and rice gave way to street food markets of skewered fresh fish, falafel and other treats while the dusty towns that we had come to known were suddenly replaced with cobblestone, maze like streets in the main city of Stone town. The next few days were “full” of relaxing on a northern beach, reading, sleeping, writing, playing cards and of course drinking the occasional rum as we completely wound down from our East Africa cycling adventures.

Our flight to Zanzibar

In bound

How to fit 3 bikes in a small plane 101....

Ben enjoying the relaxing

Unfortunately however, all good things come to an end and we are currently back in Dar Es Salaam, packing up our bikes and getting ready for our 20 hour journey back to Melbourne for Christmas. Although we are definitely ready to be home, catching up with family, friends and some decent food, there is certainly a bitter sweet tone in the air. We have had an amazing few months cycling around a truly unique and beautiful part of the world and a big part of me wants to just turn South and keep going down to South Africa. However, that will have to wait for now.

The trip has been full of challenges and of course has paid us back handsomely with unique experiences we have been lucky enough to experience. Over 3,000km of pedaling which seemed so far, but went so quick!

All done!

I hope you enjoyed reading our stories as much as we enjoyed writing them. Safe and Merry Christmas to all.

Until next time…..

NB: for the nerds out there, below are some “trip statistics” from our journey;

Totals
Distance (km)	2,971.05
Time (hr:min)	164:45
Riding Days	36
Av Daily Km	82.53
Av Daily Time	4hr 34m
Av Daily km/hr	18.03
Rest Days	13
Nights in Tent	38
Nights in Bed	11
Flat tyres	8

Local boy collecting water

Rob from LA - riding his harley from London to Cape Town

Meat Market - somewhere in the Tanzanian flats

Gareth sporting his new hair cut

Chilled out camping

Market shopping

Rest stop somewhere on the moon (North West Tanzania)

THE END

Rolling hills, banana wine, endless plains and the Dar Dash

A few hard earned rest days were taken in Kigali, Rwanda where we chilled out in coffee shops, ate some half decent food for once and toured the city. Ben was off on wheel adventures again – trying to find a replacement rear rim as his keeps popping spokes, while Tim and Gareth caught up on chores. Kigali is a rather cosmopolitan city and we were surprised and pleased to hang out for a few days somewhere with tidy streets, good restaurants, cafes, Internet access and a lovely little hostel where the power even worked (most of the time). We had a chance to visit the Rwandan Genocide memorial also, which was sobering to say the least. Over a million innocent people died within a 100 day period during the genocide in 1994 and hearing their stories along with some of the atrocities that were committed during those times certainly gave us a new understanding of living in a politically turbulent world. Thankfully, the people of Rwanda are doing a great job of turning around and our dealings with local people during our short stay in the country were very warm and memorable.

Friends in Rwanda

Local fish man

For our last night in town, we decided to follow one of Ben’s friends on a tour of the city – nightlife style…..Kirsty has been living in Kigali for a few years for work and has built up quite a network of friends, not to mention a healthy knowledge of where the decent local bars are. A night of banana wine (horrible), beers and some stalking of local billiards tables was probably not the greatest preparation for our next stretch of cycling. Suffice to say, we didn’t get on the pedals until well after lunch leaving Kigali. Somehow, beyond all of our understanding, we did manage 70km that day and also under the persuasive powers of Ben and Gareth, managed to score a decent little campsite out the back of a hotel which had a sauna and massage – all for free….talk about butter side up!

Tanzania bound

Swearing off the beers for a week at least has managed to help our cycling somewhat and as I type this, we are in a small city called Nzega in Western Tanzania, having covered almost 600km since leaving Kigali. The riding has been beautiful up to here. After an interesting border crossing, particularly for me, we climbed and descended out of the mountains and are now immersed in the endless plains of Tanzania. After weeks of hills, the flat roads have been a welcome sight and we have managed to significantly increase our km/hr averages per day. This, combined with lots of opportunities for peaceful wild camping have made Tanzania a great experience so far. Although the landscape lacks the stunning beauty of Uganda and the excellent hill riding of Rwanda, the starkness and vastness of the flat lands is surprisingly beautiful. It comes with its perils though, as we have dropped a bit of altitude, the heat has been turned up – the mercury clocking a balmy 41.5 degrees one afternoon as we cycled along. Not exactly perfect weather for someone recovering from a mystery illness…..the last few days have been tough for Ben as he has been battling stomach issues, weakness and lack of energy due to a mystery ailment (we suspect malaria or AIDS, but Ben has unfortunately assured us food poisoning is the likely cause). Yesterday, he somehow managed to manfully battle the heat and 115km of cycling to make it to this little town where we can rest and recover. Today is the first day in a few where he has been able to stomach some food, so we’re hoping for a speedy recovery as we depart tomorrow and continue to head East towards the finish line of Dar Es Salaam.

This leads me to our next adventure – one small piece of critical information to arise during the haze of a banana wine hangover in Kigali was the fact that we still had a few km’s to go….well……heaps of km’s actually! Therein was born the “Dar dash” as Tim has dubbed it. We are fighting the clock to get to Dar on the bikes before our Dec 21 flight and still have many things to see and do. Thus, we have devised a few different plans;

a. Take the direct route and have enough time to chill out on Zanzibar island for a few days before leaving

b. Take the scenic route (checking out Mt Kilimanjaro), adding even more km’s and compromising the Zanzibar plan

c. Take the scenic route and catch a bus to allow time for Zanzibar

d. Be an idiot and try and ride the longer, scenic route AND make it to Zanzibar for a few days

Thus, the Dar dash has been a hot topic of conversation as we make our way across this vast land. In 2 days time, we reach a town called Singida, or, “Decision town” as we have called it, where we need to turn North to go up to Kilimanjaro or keep heading East to Dar Es Salaam (our end point). Tim and I are determined to cycle the whole way but also want to go to Zanzibar for some R&R at the end of the trip – Ben and Gareth want to definitely do some diving on Zanzibar and can’t risk not making it and have thus opted for option c. With plans changing daily, we are unsure what the next week or so will hold, however, there is a better than average chance that I will take the “idiot” option and try and cycle the long way AND make Zanzibar in time and try and drag Tim with me. This plan however, will inevitably force us to crank out a few 140km plus days which are less than ideal in this heat....but given our penchant for trying to do it all, this might be the only way….

Impromptu English / Swahili lessons

A day in the saddle

Spending 5-6 hours a day spinning the pedals gives you plenty of time to think – so yesterday I thought I’d try and capture the essence of cycle touring to those who are unfamiliar with this mode of travel. Although ever changing, here is a atypical day for the gang;

7-8am: Wake up, pack up camp and eat whatever food we have - typically a few bruised bananas and some chapatti (pancake style bread made of corn flour). Load bikes and take off

8-9:30: Turn out 20 or so km’s - or to the nearest town for a morning break of more chapatti with jam/banana/peanut butter and some tea

10-12:30: solid riding with minimal breaks, try and get some kms in before lunch

12:30 – 13:30: Lunch break: typically rice and beans (if in a village), chapatti or avocado, tomato and onion wrapped in chapatti under a shady tree (if away from a village).

13:30 – 15:30: Afternoon session: try and complete the majority of the days goal km’s

15:30 – 16:00 – Afternoon break: crappy snacks, water etc. Load up on whatever food we can find for dinner that evening (mostly more rice, beans, chapatti, avocado, tomato)

16:00 – 17:00 – Cycle onwards until km marker is met for the day (typically 100km a day lately) and then look for a camp – typically off a dirt road, hidden behind some bushes away from sight if possible / or a school / behind a bar / lodge / church….basically anywhere!

17:00 – 20:00 – Set up camp, make fire, eat food, try and wash with whatever water we have, do some reading and sleep early.

7:00am: Wake up and repeat

So there you have it – a basic day in the life of riding. Insert some chaotic scenes with locals, children hounding you, people staring and yelling, hot sun, multiple applications of sunscreen, almost getting wiped out by trucks, lovely interactions with town folk and some random adventures and you have a typical day.

Goat head anyone?

Some would find this monotonous and uneventful, a long way of seeing the sights maybe….although that is hard to argue – sure, we could catch buses and cover 5 times the ground in the same period of time with less effort, one thing I have discovered is that this is a impressively simple way of travelling. Basically, we spend all day riding our bikes, finding food, shelter and water and then camping. Simple. No external pressures and BS. That, I think is where the beauty lies in travelling, particularly by bike – everything is broken down to the bare necessities - eat, sleep, drink and cycle – a simple life worth every drop of sweat it requires. Given that there is around 1,000km to go, there surely will be plenty more sweat to hit the pavement before we board the big bird back to Melbourne on December 21.

To be continued….