Wednesday 6 July 2011

Day 246 Kenya/Tanzania 06/07/2011, Namanga – free camp in a quarry near Mt Meru. 46.33miles/74.63km, 5hr16minutes, Av 8.8mph.

What a lovely nights sleep; I particularly enjoyed the noisily barking dogs, the large lorry arriving late that kept its engine running for what seemed like hours and of course that well known sleep disturber the early rising rooster. Debs meanwhile had taken the wise precaution of earplugs!

The border turned out to be a little further than 2km, but not by much. The town of Namanga is a proper border town and seems to exist only for that purpose. Suddenly the good roads gave way to a pot holed partially surfaced track and we were at the border.

Before heading to immigration we changed our remaining Kenyan shillings for Tanzanian ones at a nearby exchange office. We may not have a lot of cash, but it should be enough to get us to Arusha. Getting stamped out of Kenya was painless, although as both borders are open and no one was checking, it would be quite possible to walk straight through into Tanzania! The Tanzanian immigration department was a little trickier, as for some reason they don't have the forms that you need to fill in available before you queue up. In the end though, it was pretty much a case of handing over $50 each and then waiting for our passports to come back. The whole process from arrival to leaving took about an hour and then we were on our way.

The bad road surface for 91km sign proved to be untrue, although an off road diversion right at the start of our Tanzanian odyssey had us a little worried. Clearly in the last year there has been some serious road building going on, as another westerner at the border had told us that she was in Tanzania last year and the road was awful.

MattDebs1939UKtoZA

Our immediate impression of Tanzania, was that the people, especially the Masai, were more openly friendly. What did become apparent however, was that there was no chance of the road levelling out any. If anything it was even hillier than it had been in Kenya, plus we had the joy of cycling against a strong headwind.

Our first stop of the day came at the town of Longido, some 27km from the border. A helpful police man showed us a small restaurant and we had a refreshing drink and waited for the chips that they were preparing to be cooked. The chips took quite a while, but we were kept entertained by a young staff member who spoke very good English, although she was playing truant from school! We opted to have the chips with an egg each and were a bit surprised when it arrived as a chip filled omelette, it was no less tasty for it though.

MattDebs1943UKtoZA

Back on the road we slowly wended our way towards Arusha, slowly being the operative word. The scenery was nice but it did start to become a little repetitive and we still haven't seen Kilimanjaro as it has been too cloudy. By way of a diversion I stopped and chatted to two young Masai men who seemed to think having their photo taken was hilarious.

MattDebs1941UKtoZA

Debs then later assisted a thirsty Masai by giving him some of her water. See, not only seeing the world from a bicycle, but providing a service as well!

As the day wore on, the hills and relentless wind started to take their toll. The town that we were expecting to buy water at, didn't materialise and there was no way we were going to make it to Arusha. It has to be said that making it to Arusha was always going to be a long shot anyway. Eventually we reached a small village and thankfully managed to buy some water. All we needed to do now was find somewhere to camp, which was made more difficult by there being Masai everywhere that looked promising. We would have happily asked them if camping would be alright, but since getting closer to Arusha all they have done is ask for money. It seems for the time being we have left all the friendly ones behind us.

With our reserves of energy running out, we went back to investigate an old quarry that we had just passed. It may not be the most glamorous place to camp, but it is certainly not owned by the Masai, we can't be seen from the road and we are unlikely to be bothered by any wild animals.

MattDebs1945UKtoZA

With any luck the 40km journey to Arusha tomorrow will be painless and we will be safely camped at Sakina camp-site. Provided we can find it of course!

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