Dar es Salaam to Chanlize - Day 336

Date: July 20th, 2010
Distance: 111km
Country: Tanzania

Rode out of Dar today. It does feel great to be back on the road. The wind in your hair. The open space. The sense of total freedom. The trucks zipping by... Okay, not the trucks. But the rest of it I like.

Out of the city, the terrain becomes a little bit hilly. After Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, the barely seem like hills at all. More like a bit of decoration. No trouble at all. After about 50km, the road becomes dead flat for a while. I don't know what kind of valley it was, but I was really able to crank it across that.

In the afternoon, I saw another cyclist. Actually, he saw me. Daniel, is from Israel. I guess he started in Zimbabwe, and is heading north. The thing is, he didn't think of biking until he was in Africa. The bike, and basically everything on it was scrounged up somewhere in Africa. (I guess his first bike was an old Indian single speed. The current one he found in Mozambique.) So his rig is a bit funky. Still, I am quite impressed with everything he put together. The front bags were made by a local tailor somewhere. Just getting the guy to understand what he wanted must have been a chore. They look pretty good though. Plus, it is always great to see another cyclist on tour. It really brightened my afternoon. Daniel, if you are reading, have a great trip. Stay safe, and let me know how you are doing.

The last couple of hours in the day did tend to drag. There really wasn't anything for the last 25km. I was hoping for a late afternoon Coke to get me going. No such luck.

When I got to Chanlinze, I found a lodge to stay out. The lady there was nice enough and showed me a couple of nice rooms for 10,000 shillings. I asked for anything smaller, but she said there wasn't anything. When I went to sign in though, I notice a couple of other people had only paid 5,000 shillings. I asked to see one of those rooms. They were smaller, not quite as nice and with a shared bathroom. For me, that is perfect. I don't need nothing fancy, just a bed to lay my head on.

-Dravis