After breakfast we were met by Fasih and he accompanied us down to the main road, where we said goodbye. It seems that goodness has prevailed and he was just being nice!
Leaving the village we were treated to a short descent, before the road stated climbing again. Which is pretty much what it felt like all day. Unlike yesterday where the road had been surprisingly good, the road surface today was awful. Most of the climbs were on very rocky tracks with loose sand and gravel. Without the poor surface the hills would have been steep, but with it, just getting to the top was a struggle. Making any progress if the road continues like this all the way to Dodoma is going to be very difficult. We can cope with most things, but heavy bikes and sand just don't mix no matter how wide the tyres are. Fortunately the scenery was nice and the people were once again friendly. Although perhaps not as exuberant as they had been yesterday.
As the day progressed the road surface never improved and the temperature continued to climb. We started to think that getting to Kondoa may be a bit of a struggle, fortunately we always had the possibility of a stop in Kolo.
Reaching the top of another hill we were greeted by a long descent on a well maintained but unsurfaced piece of road. Suddenly our speeds were up to double figures, for what felt like the first time since this morning.
Before too long we were rolling into the village of Kolo. The main reason to come to Kolo is to see the many rock painting sites that can be found in the area. The paintings have been recently turned into a 'World Heritage' site, but there is little evidence that people are flocking to the area. In all honesty neither of us are that bothered about whether we visit them or not. The site just happens to be on the road we are travelling.
Stopping at the rock paintings office, we enquired about a nearby camp-site, only to be told that it wouldn't be safe for us. Instead he told us that there was a guest-house nearby, which he took us to look at. At least he would have if we could have found the owner. Saying we could wait outside, he set about trying to contact the owner and eventually left us, saying he would be along shortly.
After quite a while the owner turned up and made a big show of getting everything ready before we had heard the price. By now it was getting a bit late to move on, so we didn't have much choice, fortunately he didn't know that though. Eventually he asked for 20,000TZS which is laughable after paying 6000TZS for a better room last night. We eventually agreed on 10,000TZS after we had threatened to leave. Sometimes a bed is just that, but in all honesty if we weren't so tired we would have moved on. I can think of very little to recommend the place other than it is closer to the rock painting sites than Kondoa. I would love to put the name of the guest-house in but it doesn't have one. The camp-site is probably fine, cynical me wonders if there is a deal between the site office and the guest-house owner! Having a wander around the village hasn't improved matters, when we found a shop that actually had soft drinks for sale it was at an over-inflated price. Our guest-house owner offered to pay the difference, which was kind of missing the point. We aren't poor, we just have no intention of paying more for an item that is the same price everywhere else in Tanzania.
Returning to the rock painting site office to enquire about a visit to a few of the sites we found it to be closed. It looks like it will be an early night and then an early morning setting off to reach Kondoa. Unless things change dramatically, the chance of us spending any more time in Kolo is unlikely. The rock paintings will have to remain unseen by us at least.
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