5 June, Wednesday: The Old Kisolanza Farm House -> Makambako

The morning started off well with a delicious homey breakfast in the mud huts that the campsite had created and made into a dining room. We had tasty, sweet fruit as well as freshly squeezed juice, followed by eggs and bacon. This was a serious treat. The Campsite is run by a farmers wife on a small section of the family farm, which has been developed into an amazing campsite, with small chalets, a dining room, a cosy wifi lounge with very clean oblutions. After a healthy breakfast, we cycled 1 km down the dirt road until hitting the tar with a long steep hill, just to get our legs burning. It was so cold this morning but nothing like a good climb to get us warmed up. I have adopted this strategy from my dad when I start climbing hills, to count to 100 missisippi before looking up. So I began counting and at 100, I looked up to discover it wasnt the end yet, eventually at 240 missisippi I reached the top, catching my breath. Either because for the first time I was able to resist looking up and keep focused for that long or its because I havent climbed a hill this long before :/

A few kilometres after cycling through some villages, we came across large scale commerical farming in the form of pine forestry. Since the sugarcane in Arusha, this was only the second time we saw such massive farming going on, throughout the entire part of the country weve cycled. It carried on for miles and miles. Since Dodoma, the highway has been in excellent condition and when there is road construction going on, it is always manned by a Chinese manager. The Chinese influence in the country is very strong, we learned that the Chinese government has bought the Tanzanian fishing rights, so there goes part of our ocean.

We followed a dirt road going towards the Sao Hill Forest Reserve in search of a quiet, secure, private place for us to camp. The road was horrific, massive potholes and rocks covering the road. On the sides there were no turn offs going into the Forest with a few small villages along the way, showing no idication of a camping spot. Going down a hill now, I hit a pothole and somhow lost control of my bike and I crashed, man-down. I hit my head really hard on the road, luckily for our amazing Specialized helmets, giving me the maximum protection. Chris pulled the bike off of me and in a lot of pain, I managed to get up. Bruised, battered and 66 km completed, I called it a day.

We got into Makambako, in search of accommodation for the night. All of us exhausted, its been a long tough day, we turned off the main road down Njombe road and checked out the first "lodge" we saw, then the next one...and another...none too appealing. Anyway, we decided the next one with secure parking we'd stay at. We arrived at the Shinkansen Lodge where the receptionist was watching a local show on max volume and hardly greeted us. With no understanding of english, we eventually managed to get two rooms and a luke warm shower. We went out for dinner and a had an interesting choice of meals (see image). Butter chicken for dinner it was. Holding our breath, we crept into bed, hoping for a good nights sleep.

Very appetizing haha

Cycled: 66.5 km

Time: 4:07 hrs

Ave speed: 16.2 km/hr

Ascent: 613 m