26 May: Singida -> Manyoni

Luckily we have a small gas bottle which we keep at hand for early morning coffees so after a cup we went for the inclusive breakfast. The Stanley Motel which caters for the local market rather than tourists was an interesting experience. Here, no one spoke or understood English. Breakfast consisted of a choice of fried banana, dry french toast and cabbage soup. We then packed up and left Singida. The wind howeled today, it was horrible. We had this strong cross wind blowing us to the right making it hard to cycle. The road was fairly flat so without wind we could've easily cycled at +20 km/hr, instead the wind held us back. I'm just grateful that we had this wind on a flat stretch rather than the other day when we had to climb those hills!

We were now cycling past these massive rock boulders which was incredible. The city of Singida was surrounded by these massive rocks and the further we cycled, the sunflower fields were now replaced by rocky outcrop and thick Acacias. We cycled through fewer towns this side of the country but yet along the entire way we saw a few huts here and there and people constantly walking and cycling past. The initial plan was to find a school or a church or somewhere safe near the town of Issuna but looking at the informal settlements we cycled through, there didnt seem to be much hope. On our bikes, we followed a sign heading for a church where we interrupted a service, forgetting that its a Sunday. No one understood us at all and kind of waved us off. Onto the next one...

Incredible boulders found in the country side of central Tanzania

A little bit wary of where we'd stay for the night, we carried on searching. We were advised by Innocent who we stayed with in Arusha to not just pitch our tent even just off the road as the locals would be more unhappy with us infringing on their territory. We actually didnt find a spot anyways where there werent people at all, so just setting up camp was not an option. It isnt that we feel unsafe at all, its just whenever we stop, we are surrounded by people looking for handouts. We pushed on until the next town of Manyoni where we followed signs to the Mwanzi Secondary School. Surprised to see some faces around on a Sunday, a teacher who was able to speak English assisted us and got the head mistress to meet us.

She arrived and was very welcoming and interested in allowing us to camp on the school grounds, however, she needed to confirm this with a government official as we were now on government grounds. We patiently waited another half an hour for this tall, large authoritive man, the immigration officer. He wanted documentation and to see our immigration stamps. He informed us that we are on a tourist visa and not a business visa making it difficult for him to allow us here. The head mistress however, was on our side and was really supportive of having us and wanting us to visit so after saying we wanting to make a donation to the school she managed to convince him that we can stay. This negotiation took over an hour. Because this was of government property, they were now responsible for us so the police were informed of our stay and the chief came to introduce himself. Once the formalities were now over and we began setting up our camp, the policeman, head mistress and some teachers were all watching with wonder. They had never seen tents before and they even offered for us to go into a lodge but we were so happy and comfortable here. It was exciting and new for all of us.

There is no such thing as personal space here so whenever we do things, like camping or stopping for lunch, we have Tanzanians right ontop of us watching, but never in a threatening way and we have never felt unsafe, they are just so interested and have never seen something like this before. We sat in darkness under the still sky watching the stars with the faint sound of dogs barking in the distance. We are really in the middle of nowhere and how happy and content we are with life.

Camping on the school grounds, there really isn't much here...

Cycling distance: 72 km

Time: 4:40 hrs

Ave speed: 15.5 km/hr

Ascent: 376 m