by Henry
124 km, with 117 km on dirt again. The final 7 km are on tarmac. 1167 meters total elevation gain. 30°C maximum temperature.
This morning at 5 AM, a village loudspeaker broadcast a Swahili sermon denouncing fornication and prostitution. This went on for over an hour as we were packing up and getting ready for breakfast.
School children observing us with great interest as we depart at 7 AM.
The road this morning initially looked pretty good.
It wasn’t long before we got into patches that were muddy from the overnight rain.
We had to navigate around puddles and mushy mud.
In many villages, there is a “public” foosball or pool table, where we see young men congregating.
Two bike shops adjacent to each other in a small village.
After lunch, road challenges continued. This is hard to appreciate, but the sand here is at least 2 inches thick, making for extremely difficult pedaling.
As the afternoon progressed, we began to see mountains in the distance again.
Bench seat in the remote countryside.
Treacherous road hazard.
We were happy to see tarmac again, after 397 km of challenging dirt road.
Our bikes were filthy, and upon entering the town of Makongolosi, we happened upon a motorcycle wash. These two enterprising young men happily gave each bike a hand scrub and power wash. They charged $0.80 per bicycle.
Our fourth consecutive bush camp is at Makongolosi in a field adjacent to a school.
A herder and his cattle passed right next to my campsite.
As a side note, when the truck tanks run out of water, TDA staff tries to find a nearby well willing to sell water. When we needed water 2 days ago, TDA was able to buy 2,000 liters of well water for $40, or 2 cents per liter.
There was a generous downpour at about 5 PM.
Overall, we are all glad to have the 3 consecutive full days of dirt road behind us. It has been hard on our bodies, bikes, and trucks. Several people fell off their bikes and got scrapes and bruises, but fortunately, there were no major injuries. Some had to defer riding for a day or more as a result.
Last year, we are told that there was a cyclone off Madagascar, which inundated this region with three days of constant rain. Having experienced the inadequate road conditions when relatively “dry“, I would not have been able to ride the dirt road if there had been heavy rain.
The lunch truck had a flat tire yesterday, and the dinner truck had a flat tire today. In addition, one of the dinner truck’s trailer hitch bolts sheared today. As a result, the truck did not get to camp until late, so dinner was not ready until 7:30 PM, instead of the usual 6 PM.
There have been bike failures for several riders the last few days due to the jarring road surface: bottom bracket and crankset, another derailleur, a bent derailleur hanger, a cassette that disassociated from the rear wheel hub so that the chain spun freely in both forward and backwards directions.
I checked my tire pressure at camp, and I had gradually deflated them to 30 psi to better absorb the shocks on the bumpy dirt road. I pumped them back up to 50 psi. From experience, the Tanzanian speed bumps which I will encounter again tomorrow are too jolting above that pressure. I also measured my chain today, and it is stretched out to 0.75 mm, so I will install a new chain after tomorrow’s ride.
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