getting closer to home

   20 Mar Another hilly, exhausting yet beautiful day in Tanzania. When I said earlier that I would go back to eating dirt I wasn't aware how true that was to become. We were on dry sandy roads all day and whenever a car came past or towards us there was this cloud of dust to get through. I still feel the dust and grit between my teeth. 21 Mar They say it takes 3 months to properly relocate a person into a new life. We have been underway for just over 2 now and are settling in nicely. Since we arrived in Kenya we have access to normal shops again with most supplies. Camp tonight was just off a dirt road with bushveld and a couple of mud huts around us. It was a perfectly warm evening with a great sunset and later a clear night sky full of stars. A group of about 10 of us pulled some camp chairs under a tree, shared some red wine and a bottle of port and some of the guys even had cigars. Life is improving! 22 Mar Today we rode into Dodoma, the (pretty much unknown) capital of Tanzania. Bicycles are a normal mode of transport in this area of the country and the local people are very competitive when it comes to overtaking. They pedal like champions when I try to get by, just to slow down the second they are in front of me. It's like playing cat and mouse and a bit hectic when playing this game in the city centre of an African capital. 23 Mar Today we were supposed to spend 90 kms on a dirt road which was not fun to ride at all. Deep sand, loose stones, corrugation ... But next to the road there was a network of foot and bicycle paths which connected the villages at both sides of the road and they are much easier to cycle on. We just had to work out which path to take and which to avoid. Whenever I found myself alone and too far off to see the 'road' I dragged my bike back through the bushes. Some were more adventurous; and some of those got lost. Here is one account: 'After I had cycled for about 5 km without seeing the road I got nervous and stopped. There was nothing but bush. I yelled 'Jambo?' Even if there is no reply, yelling jambo in the middle of nowhere can be quite tension releasing. Finally some guy showed up; he didn’t speak a word of English but a lot of sign language carried the idea across that I was looking for the road and needed a guide. But he had to show off what he had found in his meilie field - we passed 3 villages and another 10 meilie fields on our 40 minute detour back to the road'. 24 Mar This was the 6th day on dirt roads. We are all pretty exhausted by now. (So are our bikes - I had my first flat tyre today, and my chain broke 2 days ago). Some of us have started imagining things. I had visions of ice buckets being positioned about every km at the road (it was 43 degrees today). Someone else saw Panda bears in a tree (?!?!). Since we don't fully trust our minds anymore we get into the habit of double checking the reality. 'has someone else seen monkeys in that dry river bed or was it just me?' At the moment I am in my tent (it is 8.30 pm) and there is a major storm brewing. I hope I won't be blown away tonight)   25 Mar It started pouring with rain from 1 am and I can happily report that my tent does not leak. Less happy was the crowd which did pack up camp in very wet conditions this morning. I have taken a day off cycling today and got into Iringa during the lat morning. Tomorrow is a day off, so we can degrease and refuel.   26 Mar Whenever we have a rest day in a small town we fall in like a swarm of locusts. By now about half of the group prefer a central hotel room with some privacy over the often remote campsites. As these rooms are usually scarce there is always a race for them, and often some frustration amongst the ones who don’t get one. To have a group like us in the house must be the nightmare for any hotellier. We arrive with big bags of laundry which all needs to be done and dried within 24 hours. And we turn the rooms into tent and bicycle maintenance sites. I washed my tent in the bathtub today (which was quite a messy affair) and had it set up in my room to dry. Others wash their cloths themselves and hang them out on windows and balconies to dry. Imagine small town main street hotel windows lined with cycling shorts and underwear. The lock to my 3rd floor hotel room is broken. I cannot unlock it from the inside. So, whenever I want to get out, I need to phone reception. They sent a guard out to the road, I throw my key down to him, and he comes running up to free me :-) 27 Mar On the road again ... We were all very happy when we were told that the daily distances for the 5 days until lake Malawi would (only) be 100 to 120 km. Nobody had warned us about this roller coaster of hills, and hills, and more hills. My knees are threatening to divorce me!