Cycling Southern Tanzania

So, now that the last blog post is off my chest I can resume normal service for my last two months in Africa. Thanks everyone that left a comment, email or message for support after that post. I am certain I’ve made the right decision and I don’t consider my trip over really, it’s just changing continents.

I have a busy New Year planned, starting with a 140km hike along Hadrian’s wall in January plus catching up with some friends in the UK. February will be a month of searching out new extremes in cycle touring for me ( new website will be online in December). March will hopefully be Job interviews and back to work as soon as possible after  that. Winter 2013 I plan to be on the road again for a 3-4 month trip.

But first Africa :

I left Songea after my extended break, I wasn’t feeling too confident that I’d get far that day as I had in fact only cycled three days in the previous five weeks. Three weeks of that time I’d been in or around bed, sick or recovering.

Luckily most of the 80km I cycled that day was tar road, not too inspiring but a pleasant, easy start. It took about three hours to get into it then I had an hour feeling totally back in my element, followed by three hours of tired empty legs until I hit the small town of Namtumbo where I managed to find a clean room for 6000sh (€3).

The next day things rapidly got more remote. The small villages I’d encountered almost continuously stopped and the road became a combination of road works and dirt track. Despite the tired sore legs from the previous day and my obvious lack of fitness I was once again very happy to be in my element.

It seems that I just totally switch off on tar roads now, they really just don’t do it for me (though less road works on the dirt roads might be nice).

Remoteness once again means relaxed lunch breaks and getting my hammock out for an after lunch snooze .

About 30km from town I encountered the wildlife corridor I’d been warned about which meant only one small village for the next 50km. Some people may get worried by such a sign but for me it means idea bush camping as there’s no one around, the chance of actually encountering migrating elephants or lions is almost zero. Though if you listen to the locals you’d believe there’s a lion behind every tree in the area.

That night and a couple of others after Tunduru I enjoyed camping in the bush. As there where almost no villages around I was happy to make a nice romantic campfire and spent most of the evening gazing into my bush TV. To once again be able to bush camp reminded me of what I want from cycle touring. I enjoy a tough day of cycling followed by a night in the bush where the only background music is the birds and wildlife and not the speakers from a local bar or the room next door. I even have no problems with forgoing my end of day reward of a cold beer if I substitute it with a sunset in silence with a cup of coffee.

Despite the warnings from locals my biggest worry for bush camping was not lions but the sporadic bush fires synonymous with the end of the dry season. As a precaution each night I actively looked for a spot to camp where there’d already been a fire, figuring this would be the safest place to camp.

My rest day in the throbbing metropolis of Tunduru gave me time to reflect on Tanzania and the things I’d seen in both Mbinga and Songea. National pride is big here, many people wearing the national flag colours in an armband, shirt, flip flops or a full tracksuit with hat!

Conversations with locals when I told them I’d come from Malawi very quickly turned to “we are a peaceful nation” this I assume is a reflection on the current border dispute with Malawi (in short the official border runs along the Tanzanian side of Lake Malawi, but now oil has been found in the lake…I’m sure you can work the rest out).

Despite the obvious poverty in southern Tanzania compared to most the other countries I’ve been to Tanzania has an almost cosmopolitan element compared to its neighbours. Bars and bottle stores are no longer seedy, dark affairs but often have tiled floors ,tables, chairs, sometimes a outdoor terrace, sometimes a fridge and beer is almost always presented with a napkin and glass. This is the first time I’ve drank beer from a glass on a regular basis since………home actually.

It would appear that Southern Tanzania isn’t yet fashionable with NGO’s like Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia seem to be. Few of the smaller villages I past had a water pump, many using a bucket and rope to retrieve water from a well. Some places even just retrieving water from holes dug in dried out river beds. Yet at the same time many of the larger villages had a small shops that stocked bottled water at €0.50 per 1.5L or coke for less.  Unfortunately for most people the luxury of what for me is fairly cheap bottled water is for them an expensive luxury out of reach.

A note about food in Tanzania

For months I’d looked forward to the infamous “Chipsi Mayai” (chips omelette) and chapatti’s. The novelty of heavy and greasy chapatti’s wore off quickly, Chips mayai not so quick but there’s only so much you can eat. Unfortunately Tanzanian food doesn’t do it for me.

Breakfast is usually a chicken soup (including all the bits of chicken) though not too appetizing it’s a lot better than the alternative of goats offal soup including lungs, kidneys, arsehole and all. This is usually served with sweat tea and a chapatti or banana. After breakfast things pick up as lunch is often chapatti and tea, chips mayai or the Rice, beans and chicken/goat that also gets served for dinner. Unfortunately any nutrition that might of been in the rice and beans has usually been boiled out. Main meals are often also served with the same horrible cabbage that Malawi and Zimbabwe had, this falls into the category “well its green so there must be vitamins in it, so I must eat it no matter how bad it tastes”. On a lighter note, one of my goat soups came with some meat that could only have been a nipple or a willy, and as it was the only meat I’d seen in two days I obviously had to eat it, and as a totally surprise it was the tastiest most tender piece of meat I’ve had in my mouth in months….

Luckily though I’m now on the coast where banana’s, oranges and coconuts are ripe and cheap and if I’m feeling rich I can go to a tourist hotel and have a swanky pork chops and chips for swanky European prices. Sometimes nutrition goes above budget.

I’m now almost rested after a week in Bagamoyo. I’m starting to feel more mentally and physically rested and look forward to two weeks on Zanzibaar starting this weekend. After that it’s a 5-6 week trip to and around Kenya before I click my heels and move magically to another continent. I’m looking forward to the rest, rain and greenery of Europe. It sounds strange but only someone that hasn’t seen the rain and greenery of Europe for a long time would understand. I guess the grass is always greener next door.