Halfway and Back to Where it Began

Cycling the Tour D'Afrique, days 59 to 69, Serengeti to Mbeya

Distance Cycled: 5,758km

Metres Climbed: 30,510m

Time on Bike: 221:33:45

Time in Truck: 0:00:00

Since last time, I’ve been on Safari in the Serengeti, revisited places that inspired me to sign up for this trip and completed the longest and one of the toughest stretches so far.

Coke Stop. Rungwa Game Reserve, Tanzania.

Retracing my steps in Tanzania was always going to be a standout section for me. For it was travelling around here a year and a half ago that ignited my intrigue and love of the African continent and what ultimately led to me needing to see more of it and sign up for this adventure. For me, Tanzania will always be the place I think of when I think of sub-Saharan Africa, in all it’s natural beauty, the resourcefulness of the people, the utter irrationality of things and, unfortunately, the desperation.

Mt. Meru. Arusha, Tanzania.

Unable to cycle through the Serengeti national park, the tour opted to take a three day organised safari. Having been completely spoiled by my last safari experience, I honestly wasn’t going in with high expectations. However, on the first drive into the park, we were treated to a close-up sighting of a pair of cheetahs and just half an hour later, the rarest of big cats, a leopard with her cubs and fresh kill in a tree. The two big animals I hadn’t seen previously, unbelievable. To top it off we completed the ‘big five’ in the next couple of days, including a rhino sighting in the spectacular Ngorogoro crater. I’ll let the photos below describe the rest..

Serengeti Park Entrance.

Next was a rest day in Arusha, the tourist capital of Tanzania, before finally setting off south on the bikes again. The first couple of days were along the exact road that we had driven previously, including stopping off at a town called Babati. Babati, the first time around, had always stuck out in my memory. Having travelled pretty much exclusively through touristic areas up to that point, it was our first experience of a ‘real’ African town and, at the time, we were pretty apprehensive and quite unsure about how to safely source food, water and accommodation. Really there is no reason to stay at place like this other than as a stop-over on our way to the capital, Dodoma, so it was with great surprise that I ended up back there eighteen months later!

Babati, Tanzania. I never thought I end up back here..

That first riding day, at 172km, also happened to be the longest ride I have ever done, yet the seven-day section was to only get harder as we headed into the African bush on dirt roads with an abundance of climbing, corrugation, mud and sand. This culminated in a 2100m ascent into the southern Tanzanian mountains on the final day into Mbeya - thankfully most of that was on tar and incredible and beautiful mountain scenery. Tough, but also one of the most enjoyable sections of riding.

Tanzanian dirt road.

The last week has marked the halfway point in both distance and number of days. With this has come a whole mix of emotions. On one hand, reaching halfway is a significant milestone - and one to celebrate - but on the other, the distance, time and challenge left to go is still fairly hard to comprehend. Not in any way wishing time to go more quickly! Though any notion of thinking our tour was difficult or long was dashed when I came across Ben in Mbeya who has been on the road, unsupported and predominantly alone for two and a half years. If alone and unsupported in Africa sounds like a challenge, Ben takes bike touring even further - he avoids tar roads where possible, using google earth images to pick out trails cross country, through bush or mountain ranges (or the Canadian arctic. In winter.). He’s now considering how to cross the Sahara off-road.. Somehow I think our ‘bush camps’ are somewhat easier, with food cooked for us, security and readily available water!

An aspect of the tour that has been a subject of some reflection for me recently is that of the race. As you may have noticed I have stopped posting the race result in this blog. Predominantly because it seemed a bit silly to keep posting it when we’re not taking it all that seriously. Except when we do..

To explain briefly, the race is based on the cumulative time of each rider on designated race days, where each race day is timed camp to camp. There have been five of us officially entering the race since Cairo, and some additional riders entering for individual sections. With so few racers, it was pretty obvious within the first few days that unless Charles had some serious bike or body issues, he would walk away with the overall race (in fact, he is still way ahead despite some semi-serious bike and body issues in Sudan). Additionally, the camp to camp aspect of the timing is not conducive to stopping and actually seeing the countries we’re cycling through. Its because of this that in general we agree not to take it all that seriously, and in the most part we don’t. Julian and I stopped in a pub for a few hours a couple of kilometres from camp to see in Gurpaul who had carried his 20kg bag all day. Charles stopped for a pre-arranged coffee date in Arusha and we spent a good hour chatting to some local miners outside Singida. As recent examples. Despite all of that, the idea that there is a competition is always niggling away at the back of your mind and whether its that stage, that section or the overall, you still don’t really want to lose the position you’re in. You still push hard on days you should probably rest and you certainly stop a lot less. It’s hard to say whether this is a good thing, and I’m sure most will be screaming, whats the point?! Maybe I’m just trying to justify it to myself, but with competition, it forces you to push yourself, and with that is a satisfaction I partly signed up to the trip for.