Thursday 21 July 2011

Day 261 Tanzania 21/07/2011, Babati – Bereku. 25.09miles/40.62km, 3hr31minutes, Av 7.1mph.

Perhaps we have just got used to sleeping in a tent, but neither of us have had the best night since we have been in a guest-house. Nevertheless we were up and getting packed early this morning ready for the off. Watched on by two other westerners and the hotel owner, we headed out into a grey and drizzly morning. For a kilometre at least we were on a sealed road, but that swiftly turned to hard packed sand and gravel. It is farewell to tarmac for at least the next 250km until we get to Dodoma. Even then our time on surfaced roads will be brief.

We have often found that outside the towns and cities people are friendlier; along the road today the greetings, especially from the children, have been overwhelming. Seeing small children running from their houses and yards shouting 'Mzungu' (white person) at the top of their voices, often while jumping up and down was hilarious. The adults have often been nearly as enthusiastic!

For the first 20km the road was fairly flat, with the road surface changing from smooth to heavily corrugated and rocky and then back to smooth. The light rain was cooling and had the added benefit of keeping the dust down. There wasn't a great deal of traffic, but when the buses come past at breakneck speeds, your vision is obscured by great clouds of dust.

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It was shortly after 20km that the road started to climb quite dramatically. On a sealed road it would have been fairly steep, but on a damp stony surface it was quite a struggle to get up the hills. It has been a while since we were in the mountains, so we have probably lost some of our hill climbing ability as well. It looks like we will have well and truly got it back by the time we leave Tanzania! Despite the toughness of the climbs, we were rewarded by truly beautiful scenery. The open savannah has given way to much more lush, jungle like vegetation.

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Our first stopping point along the road to Kolo, was to be at the village of Bereku. According to the map we should have arrived there after 35km, but that came and went and there was still no sign. I began to wonder if the small village that we had passed earlier was Bereku and we had missed our chance to stop for lunch. Pressing on, we decided to ride until we got to the 40km mark and then stop for lunch regardless. As we reached the top of yet another hill, we saw loads of school children in the road and realised we had found the village. The children rushed round us, all wanting to shake our hands and once again we were accompanied down the road by them. At the village centre we stopped and started to look for somewhere to eat. A young guy approached us and helped us find some food, wali nyama (rice and meat) is becoming a firm favourite. While sitting having lunch we spotted a sign for a guest-house and started to contemplate staying here for the night.

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That way we would make it to the town of Kondoa tomorrow instead of the small village of Kolo. Our new found guide MC Fasih (apparently he is a budding rap artist/painter/writer) took us to the guest-house and after a quick look round we decided to stay. It is a very basic room, but for 6000TZS (£2.40) it is a bit of a bargain. Being the only white people in town obviously caused some curiosity with two young boys. Having spotted us through our room window, they then moved round to the other one that had been left open and started asking for money and pointing at anything they could see, in the hope that we would give it to them. The windows were barred as well, so there was no chance of them grabbing anything, but the game quickly wore thin and I had to close the window and draw the curtain. It does make us think that should we free camp anywhere and be spotted, there will be every chance that something would be missing by morning.

After a quick wash and a bit of a rest we wandered into the village and met Fasih. He took us on a quick tour and we then stopped for coffee before heading back to the guest-house. Fasih has been great, he took us back down to the village for dinner and then walked us back in the dark to make sure we got back ok. He has said that he will come in the morning to say goodbye. We just hope that this isn't going to end up in a plea for cash and he is just being genuinely friendly. It sounds awfully cynical, but we are struggling to work Tanzanians out at the moment.

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