Malawian luxury cruise

Of course, I should not have mentioned in my last post that we had been lucky with very limited rainfall while cycling.... that was compensated for by some Malwian downpours on our way to Lilongwe. Some beautiful rides we've had, along Lake Malawi en through the mountains, rice paddies and maize fields. According one of the participants, this is the Netherlands of Africa; a small country full of crop fields, cows and bicycles. Slightly warmer though.

In the meantime, the tour has turned to a luxury cruise with several stays at actual campsites, access to electricity and even showers every two or three days, and beautiful tarmac roads! Easy to get used to, but we've been warned that we will return to bush and desert camping later in the trip.

The tour organiser has posted a (very flattering) blog update on the race here, right in time, since we have entered turbodiesel territory, with tarmac roads, long stages and short hills, where my small petrol engine has troubles to keep up with the big boys' diesel engines... we'll see where that ends!

Tomorrow we will cross the border into Zambia, riding in five long stages to Lusaka. The original plan to take back roads was cancelled because a scouting trip revealed that the planned roads did actually not exist. Therefore, we will cycle one day less and have an extra rest day in Livingstone instead, three days after Lusaka.

Bunny hopping through Tanzania

After Arusha, we rode to Mbeya in seven days, not via the main road (how boring would that be!) but via the narrow dirt roads further west. After all, we had had steep hills, headwinds, rocky roads, deep sand, but mud was definitely missing in that list. Dirt roads in the Tanzanian rain season have a near mud guarantee. And then riding seven days without a restday, and with very limited facilities... fun!

From Arusha, we rode paved roads to Singida, but the downpour the night before we left in combination with the road construction sites we had to cross, made for a true mudfest. From Singida it was mostly dirt roads but the rain gods were not planning on giving us too hard a time. Rains mostly fell in the evenings and at night and the water generally ran off quickly, leaving only some deep puddles and water filled potholes behind.

I somehow have the feeling that i have been bunnyhopping most of the way, first over the nasty speed bumps which Tanzaia loves so much (even dirt roads have intentionally made speed bumps, no joke!),  later over potholes, puddles, gullies and the tail of a smelly dead jackal. My bunnyhopping skills have definitely improved!

Mbeya marks the end of the fourth section of this years TdA. From here we will cross the border into Malawi, all the way to Lilongwe. It also marks the end of dirt road, we will ride tarmac roads for the next few weeks, until Namibia. I will miss the dirt roads, but I am sure that car eating potholes and crazy drivers will make sure that I won't get bored...

Jobortunity

During my restdays in Arusha, I have visited the Jobortunity Training Institute for which I am collecting money with my ride. It was a beautiful bike ride in the hills just outside town, and getting lost gave me the opportunity to revive my Kiswahili and ask virtually every person I met on the way for directions. As I did make it, my Kiswahili has proven at least good enough for survival.

After a warm welcome with a tour of the institute and singing and dancing, I introduced what I was doing and answered the student's questions ("why don't you travel by car?"). Joining one of the classes gave me a good impression of what the students learn.

Kim, thank you for arranging my visit (and for dinner!) and I wish all the students at Jobortunity a successful year & career!

All of you whomhave donated or pledged contrinutiojs; a big thanks! If you are interested to support Jobortunity, please visit their website or contact me over Facebook or email.

Halfway there!

Arusha marks the halfway of our tour, a great point to celebrate our accomplishments, but at the same time a sad reminder that the tour will eventually come to an end. Some of my favourite pictures as a summary of the tour so far... they include a crash, a wound, a beautiful moonlit desert camp, enjoying my tyre choice in the desert, a dusty ride, dirty (but strong) legs, a camp site with a view, the audience at the camp's perimeter line watching our every move, suffering at the Blue Nile Gorge, always being friendly to men with guns!, enjoying the Ethiopian fruit juices, the challenge of drinking a coke and guarding the bikes at the same time when surrounded by kids, the world famous rock carved churches of Lalibella, riding rocky roads and crossing the equator.

Meltdown Madness

How little did I know when I wrote the last blogpost... the spagetti in Yabello was evil, the straw that broke the camels back, gastro-wise...But in spite of that, we made it to Nairobi, finished the third section of the tour from Addis Abeba, Ethiopia to Nairobi, Kenya, appropriately called 'Meltdown Madness' because of the heat, the dust, the (un)safety situation, the capitalist nuns in Marsabit, the rocky and extremely corrugated dirt roads crossing the Dida Galgalu Desert and general wear and tear that damages both riders and bikes after six to eight weeks on the bike.

We were lucky that only a few days before we arrived, there had been armed fights in the border town of Moyale, a reason for the Kenyan army to send additional troops to the area, enabling us to bike through safely. Only further south, one stretch of 177 km into Isiolo we were transfered by bus, our bikes on the roofs of the trucks, because of the many armed robberies that have taken place in recent years. In spite of the comforting words of our tour director ("They are not after you, they are after your stuff. They will not do anything to you, but take your money, your phone, your bike and your clothes and leave you naked at the road side") it may have been the right decision of the organisation to cancel this stage.
But our luck did not end there; the Chinese are working hard on paving the road between Moyale an Marsabit! The infamous worst dirt road in the world... Some stretches we could enjoy the virgin tarmac, other stretches we enjoyed the deviations off the main road. This may be one of the very few places in the world where the deviations are better that the original road.
An additional factor that may have prevented serious meltdown in the Meltdown Madness may have been the fact that we were seasoned in the earlier stages: heat and desert does not upset us anymore since the desert crossing in the Sudan, and no rocky dirt road can scare us after northern Ethiopia!

Kenya has been very good to us. The landscapes are beautiful, in a few days we've seen desert, savannah, fertile highlands and a crazy city. The lower population density, and the friendly attitude of Kenyans towards tourists make cycling a relaxing activity (except for the matatu drivers that tend to drive straight into you, only to veer off a meter before they would hit you). Crossing the equator by bike was pretty cool, as was our lunch break at the famous Blue Post Hotel in Thika, where I had last been in 2005 (nothing changed), and cycling around Mount Kenya, often hiding in clouds but perfectly visible on the sunny day we rode past.

Since the border crossing into Kenya, the health situation of the whole group is improving quickly, and so does mine. Very important to enable full enjoyment of the bliss of Nairobi! The three higlights so far, in no particular order; Planet Yoghurt where you can choose between ten flavours of frozen yoghurt and about 30 toppings, the Nakumatt supermarket that has everything you may wish for and much more (dark chocolate! M&Ms! Face tissues! Cinnamon rolls!) and yesterday's garlic pizza. It is good that I have been here before and that I can dedicate my time completely to these newly discovered highlights. I feel that I can stop my weight loss here.

The bike is holding up well, so far only four punctures (two in camp, two on the road), and no mechanical problems. I am happy that I chose for a bigger gear on the downhills, and also the tyre choice works out well. On so many dirt road days I have been grateful for my nobby tyres that get me through soft sand and provide a little extra comfort on corrugated stretches! On the road the Schwalbes do their job. I get really good at changing tyres here.

Here in Nairobi we will start the next section, the 'Masai Steppe' to Mbeya, Tanzania. Two riding days to Arusha where we will be halfway the tour, which we will celbrate with three (!) rest days. Looking forward to that... visiting friends and enjoying the pleasant town where I spent some months in 2011. From there it is seven days (without rest days) of mostly dirt road to Mbeya, with the rain season about to start. I am not sure yet whether I prefer a heavy rain season which may enable me to benefit from my comparative advantage of riding a mountain bike, or a late or moderate rain season which will enable me to keep my sleeping bag, clothes and myself dry. Hmmm.... race or comfort....

A quick update for all of you who have pledged a result-based contribution to Jobortunity: I have won all three sections so far, and rode over 5.000 km, so you can calculate your pledged contribution! More to come however...