Escarpment of Africa's Great Rift Valley overlooking Lake Manyara.

We might have made the 140 km to Arusha if not for the headwinds and two flat tires. Maasai herdsmen stop by to watch me change the flats; We’re as odd a sight to them as they are to us.  Neither of us slept well in a guest house behind a noisy bar, and we waited an hour and a half for breakfast in the morning; though the staff was friendly. Lamakh didn’t know what a tip was, even though I used the Swahili word, bakshishi, to describe it. Tipping here is uncommon outside of tourist areas.

Marabou Storks in trees over the road through Mto Wa Mbu.

Yellow, Red, & Green Bananas

A side trip to Ngorongoro Conservation Area on 80k of smooth, newly-paved highway is a delight. A tailwind takes us 36k across the savanna to Mto Wa Mbu (river with mosquitos) in an hour-and-a-half. Then we climbed the 250m escarpment of Africa’s Great Rift Valley overlooking Lake Manyara, passing by several expensive Safari Lodge Resorts. We don’t know if this side trip will be within our budget, but find that Karatu has many non-tourist guest houses like we’re used to. We chose the new Eden Executive guest house, frequented mainly by safari guide drivers. After checking-in, I continued cycling 15k more to Ngorongoro park gate and turned back. Bicycles are not allowed in Tanzania’s parks. “That would be suicide with all those dangerous animals”, a tour guide told us; though the Maasai live in this park and walk along the same roads that I cannot bike on.

The next day we hired Peter to drive us in his old Land Rover through the park to Oldupai Gorge ($120 for 6 hours). The park entrance fee is $50 per person, but we declined to pay the $200 crater services fee (allowing us to drive down into Ngorongoro crater). From viewpoints we gaze across the 23k wide caldera and can see specks moving 500m down below that are wildebeest, buffalo, elephant, and black rhino. It also has the highest concentration of large predators anywhere (lions, leopards, and cheetahs), so we hated to pass it by. As an alternative we continued on bumpy roads (worse than the A104) around the rim of the caldera and down onto the Serengeti plain to see the first footprints of early man at the originally misnamed Olduvai Gorge.

Peter is an independent owner/operater guide.

Ngorongoro crater seen from the rim of the caldera.

First footprints of man walking upright 3.7 million years ago.

Skull of early man (2 million BC)

Maasai beaded neck rings.

Oldupai Gorge.

Last night Julie and I toasted the return of paved roads a day too soon. It is under construction for 66 more kilometers; which was pretty good for cycling, except for the last 10k. Most of the road was smooth, wide and traffic free; then we slogged through deep, sandy stretches; pushing our bikes and eating dust clouds from passing vehicles. My new chain broke just 2k from pavement. I removed the bad link and added four more, so I can use a few more gears now. The terrain has changed to a savanna, with long vistas and more tall Maasai, with stretched earlobes and beaded adornments. It’s been ten days since cycling on a smooth highway and when Julie said that she needed to stop since something was rubbing; I stopped and she ran into me full speed. Julie fell, scraping her elbow, and broke a buckle and hook off my right side Bikebin. I was able to repair it with some spare parts sent to me before this trip by the company president (and inventor of Bikebins). They are holding up remarkably well.

Eating dust.

Baby Baobab

Heku Hantha (92) is Vincent's mother.

The national highway A104 is paved at Babati, 75 km sooner than our map indicates. We had nine flat tires in seven days of cycling on 538 km of terrible, no good, very bad, unpaved road. Politicians have promised it will be paved after the election in October, but don’t expect it to be finished for five years. Julie and I each took a spill on soft sand and have a bruise to show for it. My chain has been jamming while climbing in low gear and I wanted to wait until we were back on pavement before replacing it with the chain I’ve been carrying since Blantyre, Malawi. I replaced it here, but with eight links short (108 vs 116) due to poor quality. The end link bent when I pushed the rivet into it with my chain tool. I could have made the chain just two links shorter; but then I noticed that half a link was missing eight links from the end, so I removed eight. I hope I have no more problems with this Mikango brand chain (made in India).

Vincent Gullo Loya with his mother & sister, our hosts in Bukulu.

Betty, Vincent, Julie & Faraja in the living/dining room.

Departing Bukulu

Kolo needs a new bridge.

The road gets hillier north of Kondoa and, after 15k of pretty good gravel, the surface gets terrible. At noon we took a side trip to see the Kolo rock art paintings. A German couple serendipitously offered to give us a lift in their 4 x 4, and we accepted since we only have to go 75k to go today. Some figures were made 6,000 years ago (and some 800) by the Sandawe hunter-gatherers. Dr. Mary Leakey and her husband were the first to research these in 1935. We had 45 km to get to the next town when we got back on our bikes at 2:30. We did not make it. Only halfway there by 5 pm we inquired about lodging at Bukulu. Mr. Faraja introduced us to his friend Mr. Vincent who had some new accomodations available. But since they were somewhat unfinished he invited us to stay in his home on a farm 3 km away, free of charge. After arriving we had tea and futari (mashed sweet potatoes and corn). The table was moved out of the room so a dozen kids could sit on the floor, and together with a dozen adults on chairs we watched the evening news (”Obama supports the construction of a mosque near Ground Zero”). After the news we ate again, this time ugali (stiff maize porridge) with eggs and vegetables.

Rock art paintings in ancient abode near Kolo.

Two men fighting over a woman.

3 Bushmen wearing headdresses.

Peekaboo in Bukulu.

Julie helping Umi set up a yahoo email account.

After another long hard day on bad roads, hopes of finding a nice hotel dwindled as we entered the city of Kondoa and saw no paved streets or large buildings. However, there are six nice new guest houses; but none have room for us. So we stayed in more basic quarters and the next day moved to the 7 Green Roofing Hotel (I think that 7 Green Gables would sound better). We met 17-year-old Umi while checking-in and she wanted to spend the day with us to practice her English. Julie helped her set up an email account (her first!). Send a greeting to kuluthumum (at) yahoo dot com.

Visually impaired Hamasi Ramadan (70).

Market day in Kondoa.

Cattle drive on the bike path.

The road doesn’t seem as bad today, though we’ve gotten several flats from thorns we picked up while cycling off-road.  In Haneti we met Mr. Mtoro who owns a nearby gem mine.  At first we were sceptical when he offered to give us samples to take back to the US;  but could not refuse when Julie saw that one is an opal, the same as in her wedding ring.

Outdoor bath & toilet.

A chrysoprase gem (top) & opal green.

Cycling off-road through a Baobab forest.

We diverged from the rocky highway on a smooth path through a Baobob forest.  My Cruzbike is more suitable on rough roads (with suspension and wider tires) than Julie’s “normal” touring bike.  She is also tired from sleeping poorly last night.  We considered stopping halfway at 2 pm if we’d seen a nice guest-house.  We did pass a guest-house at 3:30 with only 30k to go (on a 103k day) but Julie, though tired, wanted to keep pushing on.  We stopped for the night at the first guest-house on the edge of Dodoma, capital of Tanzania.  Most city streets are unpaved.  Tomorrow we’ll move downtown to the nicer (and cheaper) Cana Lodge; where we met three cyclists from Barcelona on a 30-day tour from Dar es Salaam to Nairobi.  We enjoyed pleasant conversation over a meal at the lodge’s restaurant, with terrible Tanzanian wine made in Dodoma from local grapes.  I think we are too near the equator (6° S latitude) to produce good wine.

Cycling off-road on a smoother path alongside the highway.

We follow smooth bike trails that sometimes veer off the rocky road through the bush, but not as often as we’d like.  Black and white Hornbills with red and yellow bills engage in some ritual behavior, rubbing their bills on branches and hopping around on the ground.  Crossing over Mtera Dam, a hydroelectric project, we see no water passing over the dam.  Most rivers are dry in this area.  A sign says that photos are not permitted near the dam (as a checkpoint guard also informs me).  Chipogolo has a nicer than expected guesthouse and the manager, Ernest, (who is also village chief)  arranges dinner for us from two separate roadside shops as we eat out under the stars in our second night in a town without electricity.

Dragging a dead monkey home for dinner.

Under the village Baobab tree in Mtera Dam.

Being serenaded upon arrival in Chipogolo by a visually impaired musician.

Unpaved national highway A104

We expected Africa to have bad roads, and today we cycled on one (though we could have taken an all-paved route through Tanzania).  Traffic was much lighter than expected on the unpaved national highway A104 from Iringa to Dodoma, Tanzania’s capital.  An hour might pass between vehicles passing us, and they passed slowly due to the bone-jarring washboard surface.  I should have suspected how bad it was when people referred to it as “the shortcut”;  implying that driving more than twice as far on paved roads is the preferable way to go.  Though the road descended gradually from 1600m to 800m we rarely exceeded 15 kph, a speed we could have tripled had the road been paved.  At 5 pm we arrived tired and thirsty at Izazi, the first village in 35 km just as I got my third flat tire of the day.  Julie and I are sleeping on thin mattresses in separate rooms with dusty mosquito nets that I hope will protect me from the many spiders on the walls.   The next day we realized that only 12 km further we could have stayed in a larger town with electricity and a choice of three nicer-looking guest houses.

Karashi is a Masai cyclist.

Cyclists hauling big loads near Iringa.