Babati to Barjamot - Day 347

Date: July 31st, 2010
Distance: 93km
Country: Tanzania

Since I missed the climb, I thought I would just bike into Megan's village Barjamot. It was actually good, I got another precious day of long distance biking in. What a day though. The road out there is just a rough dirt road. A lot of it is uphill too.

I ended up spending a lot of time riding along the goat path to the side of the road. That was a lot smoother in general. It did get exciting at some points. Like when the path ended in a ravine. I had to skid to a halt before that one. The path also had a tendency to stop and begin a bit further down on the opposite side of the road. So keeping up with it was a bit hard. That said, it was much better than bouncing over the corduroy road.

After Endasak I made great time into Katesh. The wind was at my back again and I was feeling great. There a some moments on the road you feel like anything is possible. I got there well before sunset.

Sadly, I had missed the turn to Megan's village witch was actually just past Endasak. So now I had to go back 20km as it was getting close to dark. Eysh. Still I was dying to get there, so I turned around and started going. I made another 10km before finding a truck that would take me back.

I found the right turn, but I didn't really know how far it was to Barjamot. Asking the people about distance is worse than useless. How would they know how many kilometers it was? Instead I found a guy on a bicycle and he told me it was 20 minutes away. It was only about 20 minutes before sunset, and I figured it would actually be more like 40 minutes so I decided to go for it. Turns out, it was more like an hour and 20 minutes.

By the time I got to Barjamot it was pitch black. Actually, I rode through town the first time. (There are no lights and the village is pretty spread out.) I did see some buildings and asked if this was Barjamot, but the ids I asked told me to keep going. After going another kilometer I asked another guy. Fortunately he spoke decent English and said he could take me back there. I had run out of minutes on my phone so I couldn't call Megan. But once in town I found another guy who knew where she lived. So I ended up getting there after all. It was a long tough day, but one that feels so good and satisfying once it is over.

Megan was great to. We had a great time sitting around and talking. I probably spent most of the time jawing away as I have a tendency to do. Telling stories of my adventures. We also discussed what life was like in her village. Plus little things like the corruption in the country. There are no police out there. If you were to call in police, they would just request bribes and would only try to beat a confession out of suspects. So the villagers have to take care of everything on there own. It was fascinating. I didn't turn in until well after midnight.

-Dravis