Monkey in the tree right above our tent woke us up at 05:00. Poked my head out and shone a torch it the general direction and it buggered off. Bastard. Slept somewhat till about 06:30 when the rest of the camp stirred. Today we’re heading up to Dodoma. More happy-super-funtime with that darn dirt road, back through the winding little town to refuel, restock (if we can) and buy another spare tire (just in case).
Do the pack-up dance: get Annelie out of bed, she grabs the dregs of boiled water from 2 kettles, makes coffee, I roll up the sleeping bags, fold the stretchers, pack them up, pack up the sleeping bags, pack up the suit case. Annelie is on a go slow still. She’s still suffering from a severe headache. Mmmmm....
Have a quick breakfast, not before guarding Annelie in the bathroom against 2 giant crickets (“Koring Krieke” in Afrikaans), a salamander-lizard type thing and a spider the size of a monkeys fist, while she sits on the toilet (which was ill lit, to top it off). Funny how they don’t all just attack each other. I had instructions to terminate with extreme prejudice should any of them move a carapace (not the lizard, I think he was on our side...)
Head out at 07:45. Pre flight checks all good, tires still look sexy! PS: damn I’m good. Dusty road, compacted by dirty windshield and morning sun blinding you from the east. Ray Bans once again coming in handy. We perform radio checks to make sure we can all hear each other (they act up on these dusty roads, for some reason) and give each other about 300 meters of room as to not drive in the others dust.
About 15 minutes later, a figure standing the shadows gestures my way... right before I drive right through a pothole. Figure grabs and shakes his head. It’s one of our team members, Fanie. And he was trying to warn me NOT to drive where I just did... over a particularly large boulder in the pothole. Said boulder hit Mattie’s front left tire INSTANTLY deflating it. And, surprise surprise, the radios didn’t work again! So, they couldn’t warn me. Fortunately for me, no harm was done. Mattie’s tire on the other hand was toast. The rock bent the rim right in.
Shit.
Field repairs, part duex: take off tire, replace it and see what they can do about the damage. Some gentle persuasion with a hammer bends the inner rim back out, but not enough to create a tight seal. And more gentle persuasion only cracks the rim. So, by the time the shooting stops, we’re down to 3 spare tires, from 5 (1 spare being the repaired one I fixed up last night).
On our way again by 08:42 and by 10:00 we hit asphalt! Glorious, sweet, smooth asphalt. We enter Iringa, which is quite a large town, and hunt down a tire shop. Annelie and I break away to track down a shop for meat, fruit and the like. No luck. Rather, we DO find a place, but I wouldn’t trust that meat if you paid me.
Mattie decides it’s better to take the Bullet’s rim, remove the totally unsalvageable tire and replace it with the Fords still brand new tire (but busted, bent rim). All and all, we’re back to 4 spares, since no good tires (or rims) are on sale anywhere. In the meantime, I head to NBC bank to exchange a few dollars, including a very dubious looking $100 note (which no one will take!) for some Shillings and exchange another 400. PS: they’re really picky about the 100 Dollar note, even trying to NOT accept a not older that 2006 (it has a little “series” number on it). Lots of fraud I suppose.
Anyways, refuel (again, at Tanzania’s slowest fuel pump... what’s up with that??) and I buy a little wooden elephant necklace from a hawker. Annelie helps me pick out the best one, and I haggle to guy down to a more “down to earth” price.
All done, locked and loaded we head off to Dodoma by 11:15!
Now remember how I was complaining about that little 2 hour or so stretch of dirt and dust they call “road” from Iringa to Ruaha? I’d drive that road all day long, compared to what we encountered next...
So what’s worse than a dirt road? A road that used to be asphalt, but has disintegrated due to absolutely NO maintenance. So jagged pieces of rock (which I assume forms the base layer for a road) interspersed with huge boulders (don’t want to hit those at high speed, ala Mattie’s rim incident), the usual potholes, tight spaces, long drops off the side of the road etc etc. Coupled with this, Annelie still feels mighty shit, so this party is really not an enjoyable experience for her. ETA to Dodoma: 10 hours!
I asked what the hell is up with this road, since Dodoma is considered a large city in these parts. Basically this road doesn’t get used for trade or transport, since all trade comes from the North, i.e. Dar Es Salaam and the coast. The boys in charge didn’t see the point to maintain it any longer and the once pristine colonial road has fallen by the way side. Personally, I REALLY enjoyed driving it! But I had to curb my enthusiasm (and speed) for Annelie’s sake. There’s only so much you can do I’m afraid. It wasn’t so much a “road to Dodoma” as “a ROUTE to Dodoma”.
We do stop periodically for “bio breaks”, and the road takes us into high mountain passes and impressive vistas. We break for lunch around 13:40. By 14:30 we reach the Mtera Hydro power plant. Big sign warns not to take pictures under any circumstances. Annelie snaps a few anyway. Very impressive structure! The road here is better, basically crossing over the dam and exiting the other side, the guard at the gate asked for a coke. We give some money for a coke, since we’re in a hurry. On with the show.
More bad road. So much so, that 20 minutes after we leave the dam, Mattie’s bonnet clip (the bit that secures the bonnet to the car) snaps off.
The lads engineer a solution involving a torque strap, which lasts exactly 3 minutes before we stop again. Rethink, reset. 5 minutes later, we have to stop again. This time they wind the strap length wise in the middle of the bonnet, which does the trick!
On we hurtle, at stupid speeds for this kind of road (still having fun! Annelie not so much...) and we reach Dodoma in a record time at 17:20. Cruise into town and it’s quite busy, late afternoon traffic, people, dogs, carts, fires... the usual. The GPS units advise on a few hotels (not camping today, it’s too late to setup anyways). GPS units get confused. GPS units cause us to drive around 3 blocks 3 times. GPS units switched off. I swerve just in time to prevent driving over a GPS unit that was tossed out of the window (ok, made that last part up. But lots of swearing ensued over the 2-ways...)
We check out quite a lanie looking building, called the Nam Hotel, fully booked. We check out the New Simba (that’s Swahili for “Lion”) Hotel, fully booked. Check out the other hotel across the road, called the Dear Mama hotel, success! Rooms look pretty decent and prices quite reasonable (60 000 TZs a night, or £30), so we all check in. Head up to our rooms, grab a well deserved shower and meet up again for dinner at 19:30. We were requested to place our orders an hour earlier, so that they can prepare it all. Most of us order the “Pepper Steak, fillet, with chips”. I’m very brave and order mine “rare”.
Get to the restaurant, Mattie’s room didn’t have hot water and he’s quite surly. Anyways, food presented and, well, I’m not sure what they’ve done to this poor piece of meat. I now know what the loud banging sound coming out of the kitchen was: they clearly had one piece of decent steak, sliced it up and beat it to death until they could sell it as “fillet”. What’s left is this thin slice of over cooked, battered, bruised and beaten, over spiced road kill I now have the pleasure of consuming . I take a picture for posterity, and eat it anyway. Annelie ordered the chicken. What she got was some chicken pieces mixed with some parts of duck... she eats it anyway. They kill her “salad” with vinegar, so she asks for a tomato instead (can’t fuck that up, right?)
The chips where very good though, and the pepper sauce was actually awesome. But I reckon we spun out the kitchen tonight, I’m sure they haven’t had a big, 8 seater table in a while. A few other patrons arrive, and by the looks on their faces as food is placed before them, I reckon they didn’t get a good deal either. Oh well. This is Africa. (I’m beginning to really despise this cliché though)
Overall, whatever, I’m clean, fed and I have a real bed tonight. I’m going to sleep like a baby tonight.
Highlight: A real bed to sleep in!
Not so kief: This “steak” is gonna come back on me in a bad way. I can feel it.
[G & A], out
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