27 June 2019 (Late): After my day as a paying tourist, I got down to some serious planning. My insurance for Tz was valid until 5 July, but for Rwanda only until 2 July; that meant I had to get from Keratu to the Uganda border with Rwanda, about 1,300km away in 5 days, including 2 border crossings. This doesn’t sound a lot, but it’s 1050 to the Rwanda border and I have to make that in 3 days.
28 June 2019: The first leg from Keratu to Singida is 320km. I still think I have time for a few photos.
Don’t you just love selfies?
It’s only after eating dinner at Singida, after some 5 hours on the bike, that I realise how tired I am. Next morning, after noisy night, I don’t feel much refreshed.
29 June 2019: Day 2 requires a run of 312km. It’s not helped when I follow the signs indicating the new road that isn’t built yet. When I hit gravel, I have another look at the map and decide to turn around – not too bad, only a 10 km detour.
I decided to stop and make a coffee at the half way point; the shade of a baobab looked empty so I did a u-turn. Just as I got out the stove, a combi pulled up and 4 women got out – the shade was no longer empty.
They watched me set up, boil a kettle and make coffee. As I was drinking, I was offered a watermelon; tastiest drink I have had in weeks! So of course the ice broken, we got interacting and I took a pic or two.
Then as I was about to leave, I was offered some lunch, by the guy who lived on the spot and was building a house, sadza and tomato and pepper sauce. Followed by some honey with sadza for dessert! Great roadside cafe
I made it to Kahama and found the Golden Valley Motel. After some serious negotiation I get a room – the only camping spot was underneath a children’s swing – and breakfast for Ts 35k – about $14. Dinner is a somewhat chewy steak with chips – well it is Saturday!
30 June 2019 – My birthday! Today, after a late start – it’s my birthday after all – it’s off towards the Tz/Rw border. The first 190km are great. Then the road stops and traffic is diverted onto a hard earth track. This is not too bad; it’s more or less flat and not too rutted. This lasts about 45km and then the tar road resumes; except there are more potholes than tar. These potholes are 18” – 2‘ deep and cover the whole road. There is deep fine dust on top, which makes selecting and judging the path difficult. Big trucks make their way slowly through the craters, the cabs oscillating and gyrating like a fairground ride – and this is by no means the worst part.
Main road between Tanzania & Rwanda; T3 Lusahunga-Rusumo
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The road is, not quite littered, but certainly has numerous broken down trucks; on the verge, half way up, or down, a hill, on bends and even in the middle of the road, as you can see in the video. Dust is everywhere – in clouds.
I made it through this for about 30km and was just congratulating myself, in spite of thinking how sore I was going to be tomorrow, when I bailed going down a steep hill that had potholes you could put a wheelbarrow in. The surface was covered in deep fine dust making it difficult to choose a route; and I chose the wrong one. Unlike previous spills, this one was at about 40kph; not fast, but not slow either. I off loaded my gear and with a little local help got the bike upright. However, it wouldn’t start, so I pushed down the hill to a flatter spot.
Here, while doing a quick inspection, a truck pulled in behind me. Then another, and soon I had about 6 long-distance drivers and their mates watching and assisting. Finally, we (I) trace the problem to the points which seem to have taken a bit of a bump, but noe before I’ve checked plugs and coils, which involved taking off the seat and tank. Then Sasan, the lead man, suggests and I agree, that the best thing to do is get the bike to town, so the 6 (or 7) manhandle it onto the back of his truck where it is securely strapped in place.
We drove slowly to the next town,
found a motel – Dreamland it was called!
Half a dozen young opportunists saw their chance and asked for Ts50,000/- to lift the bike off and as I couldn’t be bothered haggling I gave it to them even though I knew it was OTT. To Sasan I gave $50; quite a bit, but without his help and transport I’d still be sitting on the side of the road.
With the bike offloaded, I had a cold shower, a warm beer, and some goat stew with sadza, then went to bed, with the usual loud music providing the background.
Not the birthday I would have planned, but one that I won’t forget soon!
01 July 2019: It’s now tomorrow, and time to assess the full damage. Luckily it’s not terminal. The bike won’t start still and inspection reveals that the points have been seriously shifted by the impact on the cover. It’s a straightforward exercise to reset the gap and adjust the timing
Once the fuel tap spigot was repaired and the tank back in place, she fired up first time; a great and very welcome sound! I checked for other damage and found none – apart from the headlight shell and mounting bracket which I McIvored with some cable ties – so I took it for a test run. Steering felt heavy and like there was a flat spot on the tyre or rim. I played about with forks and handlebars and tried a couple more test runs. Then I decided it was as good as I was going to get it here, so packed up and headed off towards Rwanda.
The border crossing went smoothly until I got to the final police check. The B**%!*% wouldn’t examine my stuff in situ and made me take all the bags off the bike into a poky little office to check their contents; first time in what, 5 countries! Apparently they are very worried about security and the Muslim extremist threat in Tanzania.
The first road in Rwanda is awful, but soon changes to a smooth new tar job. Then back to packed earth and stones, then tar, then earth …. and so on; thankfully the earth stretches are short. I had earlier identified a place to stop about 60km from the border, but as I got to the end of one town I saw the road became earth again; it was 1730 according to my GPS and remembering that all my earlier mishaps had occurred at the end of the day when I pushed too far, I decided to stop. I had seen a motel a bit earlier, so back I went. It was only later, when I wondered why it was still light at 1830, that I discovered Rwanda is one hour behind Tanzania.
Anyway it worked out well as the District Nduna and his team were having a meal in the motel that and asked me to join them for some banana and groundnut stew with chicken – very tasty it was too.
Motel is new, clean and works – unlike last night’s – so after a hot shower, some coffee and a beer, it was early to bed as I want to make Uganda tomorrow.
At least that was the plan until I discovered how quick the internet was. So now the blog is up-to-date; apart from the Dar/Zanzibar gap. :))
Belfast-2-Belfast-By-Bike 