Two weekends ago Thomas and I agreed to do a long mtn ride.
Typically , the route wasn't fully decided until we started riding.
I enlisted Paulo to escort me through town at 5am so I could meet Thomas at 530. As I was approaching the rendezvous corner I saw a light coming up his dirt road and fell in just behind him. I thought his light was a car.
We planned to ride up the Monduli Coffee estate road and up and over the farm, down to Monduli town, then up to Monduli Juu plateau and then west on the plateau and drop down cycle across open grassland to the highway and slog home into the wind. I was a bit concerned about crossing the grassland as it has rained at night and there are sections of black cotton soil. Black cotton soil stick more than any other soil to tyres and can then pack the wheel, killing a ride.
We cruised up the Monduli estate road . It is "improved" so nothing was sticking to the tyres. we realized we cant ride through the estate so we tried a track to the side and within a few hundred meters we were starting to get bigger tyres, because of caking mud. we back tracked and went higher and then tried to ride along their fence, which was like riding down through ploughed fields and grass. At the bottom it did not look good so we pushed the bikes back up to the improved road and it started to drizzle.
We started to be more realistic and even if they let us through the farm, the track down to monduli would be slippery, sticky, and might be unrideable. I mean bike carrying fun. The low clouds seemed all over. I was starting to have a muddy drive system, but had some extra oil along.
We coasted back looking at conditions on the tracks cutting across to monduli. We ended up riding back to the highway and all the way around to monduli town, and then up to Monduli Juu. The road is more than improved and we road in the drizzle to the top.
The clouds started parting and we rode to the highest point before it drops down into the rift valley and Ketumbeine. Turning around we could not quite let the bikes go as sections were slippery, but it was still fast enough. We opted for some tea in Monduli town as the village of monduli juu was full of sticky looking mud.
Some clods of sticky mud fell into my drive chain and I now had a red chain lubricated by mud. What i needed now was a torrential down pour to clean it up before I lubricated. Instead the occasional clod spun off my tyres onto my chain.
More fast rolling and a number of cars coming up who didn't move over much. Soon we were in monduli town and tarred road and we found a small restaurant run by pleasant people. They had about a million donuts on the counter for sale and we had a couple and some milk tea.
As we were leaving we met a bunch of small kids who i snapped a few pictures of. Now we had a familiar 38 km ride home.
Two hours is how long I bicycled to find someone who does not speak the national language, Swahili. Before I explain that , let me list the alternative titles for this ride post:
1- I seem to ride alone on weekend rides. I send out on a biking mailing list but no takers. Is it my company? my reputation for going far? everyone busy? or what? I don't mind going alone, and sometimes prefer it , but it would be nice to ride long rides with someone. I am going to stop posting invites myself and ask others to do it.
2- Still more adventures out there. There are some trails/roads within riding distance I haven't found yet that are pretty cool. I was thinking because of leaving mid day that I would not go anywhere interesting or new. Not true. I need to be more innovative in exploring some blank areas, like today. One hour and I was on an interesting track in the bush.
3- I broke my brooks saddle rail. Breaking a seat could of changed the ride dynamics. I was able move the seat forward and it held. Still wondering what to make of it. My beloved Brooks saddle that is conformed to my sit bones. Can I weld it? I fretted over the cost.
So here is how the ride panned out. I was lazy and sat around with the family all morning. It was not until 1pm that I started off . I figured I would not get anywhere interesting as I only had about 5 hours of riding time.
The first hour was a "transport stage" north up the highway to Lengijave. "Transport stages" are sections where I ride the bike purely for transport to get to the "beginning" of a good ride. The road north only has a few km left of gravel as it is being redone. It is interesting scenery except i have seen it a zillion times. I am riding this just to get somewhere else.
Normally I go around the north side of Lengijave mountain and down the open grassland. This time I rode up a valley on the south side. Iit has been ten years since I have used this road, not since family Guzinski lived up here in the 80's and 90's
I ride up the valley and through this small pass. It is still transport stage.
After the pass, all of a sudden I have this vista. My camera lens is not smudged, that is a light rain falling. I will ride down on the left.
The road then contours a ridge leading up to Monduli Mountain. The view is spectacular. However I want to see what the plains below are like.
It sprinkles a little while I scrutinize the slopes below for a trail to take down into the plain. I ask an old man the best way down. After convincing him that I don't need a jeep track, he shows me the best track.
I ride the brakes as it is bumpy and loose sand. In a few minutes it is less steep and smoother and I can almost let the brakes go. I am doing 40kmph. There are no houses but herds spread out here and there.
Now in the picture it is still downhill but only slightly, enough i only coast.
I have come down from up there.
I decide to check out the crossing of the korongo before turning back home. I can almost ride the whole way down, but I do one endo in that shady part. I remained standing while the bike did the endo. (what if i broke a leg ?)
The other side has too much soft sand in places so I walk. Half way up the far side I start riding again and I notice my seat feels crooked. I stop and notice the rail is broken on one side!
I panic for about 5 seconds, and am bummed out for longer that I will have to buy a new seat. ($100). I take out my tools, slide the seat forward so the clamp is clamping both sides of the rail and eat some trail mix.
I deliberate for a minute whether to continue going farther away from civilization. As the real ride only started 50 minutes ago I choose to continue. The wide trail suddenly becomes a path, and a small one at that.
I come to another canyon, with 5 foot drop offs on the rim (picture on left). I find a place to climb down (below the cloud) and lift the bike down. I have to walk the bike down and up the other side. I continue on the small trail into a clump of trees.
Here I find the first non Swahili speakers. Two 8 year old herd boys. Swahili is the national language. It is exactly 2 hours riding time, 30km. I try to give them some trail mix but they are afraid to come close to me. I ride on towards the forest I can see a few km ahead. I come to several bomas on the edge of another big korongo. I talk to a teenager about the way across.
I can see the seven cornor road up to Monduli Juu. Maybe an hour away if I can find good tracks. Definitely the fastest way around Monduli mountain. The last time I circumnavigated Monduli I looked back on this route. Now there is just a small blank spot to figure out.
I ride to the edge and check it out but figure I better turn around.
I backtrack through the two canyons. In the second one instead of following the way I came I cut straight across. It is a bit of a scramble and bike carrying. I make a mistake and go through a side canyon also. Once out of the canyon I cant find any track, so I ride over the grass clumps for a few kms in the direction I know a track exists and find the track going up to Lengijave. This time I take the right fork, where only foot traffic passes and i think it is better. I can't find the embed tab on you tube.
I ride through the weird cutout.....
and onto the upper Lengijave plains together with 20 separate herds all going home. I swallow their dust as I pass one herd after another. at 6pm I am at the highway and buy two cokes in a jiffy and jump back on the bike. It is mostly downhill home. I had opted not to wear a helmet and now I wish I had as the speed is sometimes too fast and there is traffic.
I am home by 630. Happy I was able to have a couple hours adventure out in the bush.
Last month Arusha Cycling Club together with Kilimanjaro Initiatives, Global Bike Team, and students from Arusha Modern, ISM, and Braeburn schools cleaned up some road side trash. Pretty cool. We filled up a 7 ton lorry and The road looked great.
I spent my time with kids from Arusha Modern. Afterwards we had a few words, with the best speech from a student from Arusha Modern, who picked up on the " Make a difference" theme.
Note we used biodegradable reusable woven grass baskets to collect the trash.
Last month we had a mtn bike race that went up and down Monduli and Meru Mtn slopes.
While riding the route the weeks before the race we had a hard time to not stop racing in this section. All of a sudden people would stop and start foraging on wild raspberries. Eventually someone come to their senses and we would ride on for a few minutes before we could not resist another patch.
Let alone that I bicycle, which makes me odd, I am also simply eccentric and crazy, so take this post with a grain of salt.
If you know me, you know I ride a bicycle . Every day. To work, home from a bar, for recreation on the weekend, to clients during the day. One of the reasons I ride a bicycle is it's footprint is small and another reason it helps me to consume less resources. I don't believe in buying stuff unnecessarily and I fix stuff if possible.
So I fail to understand why I got this for Christmas from a relative:
We exchange names in my wife's family, so I get one gift from someone, and this is what I got last Christmas.
It has batteries in the trunk and the legs and back tyres go round and round while playing some "hindi" music. Oh yeah, and a flashing red light.
I prefer another beer mug.
The idea that my life is NOT about consumerism, but is about small footprint just doesn't sink in to people, as this is not what I think money should be spent on. I like bicycling, but I don't have non functional bike paraphernalia on my desk and wall.
As long as I am on a rant, non bicyclists should not attempt to buying any cycle thing for the bicyclist. Nothing.
"What should I get Erik?" "Something for his bicycle" So off they go to a bike shop and find something like a water bottle, the cheapest one, but they know nothing about a water bottle, that cheap ones don't work right so it will go unused, wasted.
I asked Arusha Bikers mailing list about joining me for a short tour. In the end no one could go, so I went alone. Alone is good too. I had a plan of "finding" this mountain pictured above, called Landanai. It is there on the map, and it is pretty big and all, but maps are pretty sketchy on location of roads , vague, outdated, roads change,etc, so I figured it was still an adventure "finding" it from the north.
Despite starting to get ready Thursday after work it wasn't until 11am on a Friday when I took off. I was tired the night before and started doing maintenance, greasing the front hub, finding some bad bearings.
As I started out I planned to take the old gravel highway east to Usa River and then the tarred road to the Kilamanjaro Airport turn off, then small tracks to Chemka. Due to the late start I decided to keep going east on the highway to Boma Ngombe and then turn south to the Masai steppe, passing the Chemka springs for a swim.
I had an auspicious start through town.
There was no apples in Sakina so I stopped in Kijenge fruit stands for some apples. The guy would only sell me a bag of 8 apples for $3.25. We got talking and he is from Engasumet! Engasaumet is where I hope to reach after Landanai. He confirmed there is a road from the Chemka springs to Landanai. Yes! I was feeling assured that I could easily find a road up the escarpment from Chemka, which was one of the blank stretches on the map in my head and paper.
People were friendly on the gravel road. The occasional vehicle stirred up dust. At Usa Town, as expected, the young guys were bothersome, but a frozen litre of juice tasted pretty good and restored my mood.
At Boma ya Ngombe I needed food and drink. It was hot and I had gone 60km pretty fast.
I made the mistake of asking the traffic cops hassling motorists for a recommendation. They sent me to some place as lazy as traffic cops. Before I parked my bike I asked if there was food they said yes. I carried the 60lbs of bike and baggage up stairs and walked far inside past staring waiters. I sat at a table in a big room for five minutes, watching staff walk back and forth. Finally I yelled at the girl for service. She sauntered over, said sorry she thought I had ordered, and said there was no food ready, but it would only take a few minutes. "Yeah right". I stomped out and back to the highway.
I found a nice , smaller, place right off the road with attentive staff and food ready. No traffic cops eating there. Unfortunately all the veranda tables were taken so I sat inside where there was less breeze. I ate rice and beans and drank coke mixed with water. People cleared out so I had another coke on the veranda and recovered. I talked to someone, but I can't remember if it was waitress or a patron. I need to learn to take pictures in these places. I can't remember what we talked about but I remember it was mellow.
I turned south on a rough gravel road and into a strong wind . I followed another bicycle for awhile. After 20km and an hour later it was late afternoon and I decided to skip the swim as it was late afternoon and I wanted to get out of the populated areas and into the bush . The track through Chemka village got small but everyone knew Kiteto District was "that way".
A vehicle track took me to another unnamed village with a group of wazee (older men) busy doing not much. I was now confronted with a million paths and tracks, the wazee gave me good directions and passing a bridge over a fast flowing river. I took a quick refreshing wash and cycled on. Now I passed through the hills jutting out of the escarpment that marks the springs.
I ask directions from a motorcyclist passing me and he mentions villages to pass through. I only retain Marungu. Luckily I can follow his tracks and as he stopped in every village and I catch him and we leap frog on dusty. Someone is looking out for me. I lose track of him when I turn up the escarpment.
But I get another motorcyclist. This one is Kanunga Mkubwa and he insists I cant sleep out. "you can sleep out and we do if we have to, but my boma is just at the top, so sleep there."
It is too much work to argue. He tells me to ask for him at next village, Lengasti. To this day am still not sure the village name.
This is about half way up the escarpment, looking back to Kilimanjaro massif. It is not steep but continuous slope. I meet Kanunga coming back down again. He says he is going down to pick someone so he might be a bit late but they are expecting me.
I am still trying to figure a way to sleep out in the bush, a way to avoid Kanunga.
I reach the top and find a plateau, kind of a valley with a bunch of buildings out in the middle. It is just before dark but in a few minutes Kanunga comes by with a mama on the back and I follow him down a track through the shops to some block houses.
This is Kanunga's house and tractor. His house is pretty impressive. I was taken aback, as I was expecting a mud/wattle hut or simple 2 room block house. His brother has similar sized house. We greeted his wives and kids and sat out in the dimming evening and got to know each other. He has some gemstone mines, does some farming, and has the traditional cows and goats.
Bernice, my great supportive wife, had sent me off with some chapatis and sauce for dinner. Kanunga's wife heated them up for me. He ate "chakula ya kawaida" "normal food", which was some left over meat.
There came up a strong wind that he said could get worse, so don't open the window as your room will fill up with sand. I was shown a 4x4 room with a double bed with clean sheets. I figure that is his room.
DAY TWO : Through the basin I slept well but woke alot. The wind blew 1/2 the night. Kanunga's wife took my UHT milk and made me some chai, and I had some granola. We talked some more , then Kanunga had a business deal to rent his tractor to a charcoal dealer.
Kanunga's directions to Landanai" "Go around those fields and then veer right (good he told me). follow the road to Mouram, then to that distant mountain Loisoito, there you pass to the left, next is a desolate area that is hot and no people and then before Landania is Lorbene village. Ask directions there."
Directions varied during the day to perfect like this to totally worthless.
Most of the road was like this. I was feeling great and the bike was running smoothly.
The road was hard and smooth, occasionally some deep sand.
Mouram is actually a bunch of mines next to the road. What the miners dig up looks like mouram.
I looked into some mines like this one.
There is Loisoito 10 km in the distance and I quickly reach there.
I am shy about taking out the camera with people around, too bad, as they are interesting people and lives.
I talked to a couple of miners and a man herding goats. All the houses in the village were closed up and people out digging in the mines.
I pass through the Loisoto ridge and see this view.
Because of the dust, sand, brush the road sometimes splintered and came back together. At one point I should of gone left as the right one circled around this basin. I stopped here and took a movie you can watch at the bottom.
Just before Lorbene village I searched out a shady tree and stopped for an hour, about 11am. I took out my sleeping mat and lunched on an apple, snickers, peanut brittle while reading my book. It was pretty hot now.
Lorbene village is a bunch of bomas and shops spread out with confusing roads and people. I probably could of made it to Landanai village on the other side of the mountains if i would of gone west around the mountain in a 2 hours.
Instead I rode through the mtns and got off any road there was..
Here is what happened. The first person I asked was a girl of about 13 who said to take this road going back north. I road north for 5 km and said this cant be right and road back. By that time there was a mama who showed me a path east into the mountains,into the middle. That looked good..
The trail became a vehicle track.
A young masai told me in English this road went right to Landanai.
I followed some bike tracks on the road and pretty soon I was on great single track. It was great riding surrounded by craggy mountains. I didn't see anyone for hours. The track got fainter and fainter until it died in a boma (group of huts). However there was the bicycle that made the tracks. The bicycle owner said I was hopelessly lost and missed the track.
I was directed "up to those big baobab trees".
Soon I was on this "road" that was actually a cattle track but was ride able.
It was ride able for awhile anyway. The trail started to climb through the mountain and now I was in thick forest. The coolness was appreciated but the riding became more technical.
Root were one thing but long rocky sections was another thing. It meant wrestling and lifting the bike up and over boulders and ledges.
I started to think I was going on a dead end. The path sometimes was over grown.
I was tired and anxious and was not being careful. My cotton shirt caught on a branch and it tore the arm badly, then a few moments the back of the shirt opened up fully. I parked the bike before a rocky place (the bike is in the middle of this picture) and scouted ahead on foot. It got good for awhile and then rocky. I would start to go down and then the trail would find another ridge to go over. I should of been enjoying the thick forest but I wanted to be "found" instead of slightly lost. I continued on up mostly.
Suddenly I could see the rock face, which meant I had gone around the mountain. There was a big water tank and 3 small kids. They showed me two options down to the water tap.
I found 50 masai women and a few men watering cows.
I was shaky with fatigue and relief and just wanted to cool off. I started to wash in the cattle trough. A very kind woman decided I needed help. She commandeered a wash basin and filled it with clean water and directed me to go bath in the bushes. It was great bath. I changed shirts. What made me bring two shirts i don't know. I gave the nice woman the rag shirt and she was pretty happy. Then she told one of the girls to fill up my water bag. I gave some kids some ginger snap cookies.
My spare shirt is a Royal Robbins active button down shirt with collar. Royal Robbins was making very good climbing stuff when I was in college and somewhere along the line started making high end "active" clothing. Never could afford his stuff. Anyway the last time in USA Bernice bought a bunch of shirts at goodwill (and a ton of other stuff). I wore this shirt a couple of times and one day in a meeting I was looking at the button (why did i do that?), and was shocked to see it was a Royal Robbins brand. I now noticed it is very comfortable and well cut. The shirt moved from my office shirts to my biking clothes shelf.
Back to my trip.
The water tank is on the right slope in this picture. I needed to get to the village now for food. I got directions and took off, coasting down a trail I came to a big sand road. Unfortunately I didn't know if village was left or right! I waited a five minutes for someone to happen by. It was quiet so I rode 1/2 way back to the tank and asked which way.
Landanai is a big village spread over 1 km. Alot of mining types and masai all milling around. It is a squalid town with trash , eroded roads, decrepit buildings, and people everywhere. I found a hoteli saying they had food and went around back into the courtyard. The proprietress was lying on a bench and she would direct her waitress to serve me. A miner followed me in to talk. I bought him a soda and had rice and meat and a couple of sodas.
At 5pm I rode out of town. The miner told me 5 km out of town I would see a sign to Naberera, and I should go left. This was my first road sign. Naberera 24km. There were farms here and there but few huts.
I stopped with plenty of daylight with a view back to my trip destination. Now i would swing south and then west the next day.
I decided that stopping a bit earlier (instead of dark) would be more relaxing. I strung my hammock, gathered some wood, took a few pictures and then still had time to read of few pages of my novel.
I splurged and took a shower, of sorts. I used 1 litre of water from water bag in a thin stream and rinsed off my body. ahhh, felt great and I wasn't sticky at night.
I didn't cook until about 8pm. only 90km today.
DAY 3 BIG ROADS
In the morning the camp looks the same. It is not the kind place you would want to sit around in all day, but for a stealth camp it worked. I sit on mwhile cooking over the littlebuy sleep pad while cooking on a little bug wood stove.
I got out of the hammock at 530 and was ready at 645. Then i caught up on the journal until 730 while looking at Landanai and Kilimanjaro mountains.
Some notes here. Yesterday I was scheming about having a styrofoam cooler as beans had gone bad yesterday. The alcohol for my pepsi can stove must be diluted too much with water, as it takes more to boil 2 cups water and long to start.
In 60 minutes I was in Naberera and I decided on another breakfast. I had 3 cups of milk tea and mandazi. I talked to the owner, a young guy from Kondoa of Mrangi tribe. We talked about his duka, hoteli, hilux pickup, and gemstone dealing. The other people in the shop then started talking trying to figure out why I am riding my bicycle out here.
East African biking paradise.
This is for sister Byrna. Have no idea what they are but there was a fair amount of them.
Man, have roads changed in recent years. I figure I could ride my road bike here.
Road is now really good. Not what I remembered from 20 years ago. Wide , cambered, drainage system, and very smooth. I came accross piles of mourram ready to make it even better.
My pannier has a big rip in it. Remind me to get it sewn.
Cool looking rock up on Naberera mountain. Naberera mountain is more interesting than Landanai.
I went through a big korongo that was even labeled as Oljoro. After that the road was like lami. At noon I stopped for over an hour and had the last apple, ginger snaps, snickers, and water.
I thought about how I could lighten my load. Wear sandals, less snacks and buy along the way, the padded chair thing is nice but i could live without, only one pot, buy cooked rice in the evening and carry to camp, smaller or no leatherman, handle bar bag is heavy, no lock or a lighter one, less tools? and spares?
Routine. Start earlier, ride 6 to 10am and find a chai shop. 1030 to 1pm and then under a tree for 2 hours. 3-6 ride. write in the evening. Nice to break under the tree mid day.
It has been remarkable how few vehicles and walkers I am meeting outside of the villages after Naberera.
For some reason I did not touch the peanut butter, honey, or fruit/nut mix during this trip.
I see more game.
Not sure why I uploaded this picture.
More zebra. Ho hum.
I was a bit tired but went on to Terat for dinner. There is no alternative anyway. I saw the Loiborsoit road but went the 5km to Terat and had some rice & beans, water and cokes.
After backtracking I was on a track and was seeing more wildebeest zebra and gazelle.
There is a shallow korongo and you branch right for Lolkisale and loiborsoit.
I am on a track now, unimproved and heading towards rain clouds.
I am through the plains and into forest again.
Sped through Loiborsoit. It was getting late and I waited until I hadn't seen a field for 1 km, then road 500m off the road. I was thinking i would not be noticed but as I was setting up a masai comes walking by. He said there were bomas all around and later at night as it got still i could hear them. I cooked up some Ramen and soup.
100km. Day Four I got out of the bed at 510 and a cow ran through my camp. The wood stove works great if you put in sticks slowly.
Lovely campsite.
It was cool and almost going to rain for the final section to Lolkisale.
I stopped here and was told tea and chapatis were almost ready. I waited 30 minutes as the day warmed up.
I didnt feel like eating chapati but I did. As the clouds burned away I put on sunscream, bought 3 litres water, and more chapati.
The road is hard, smooth, and downhill off of Lolkisale mountains. I missed the "short cut" as I was going so fast I didnt feel like stopping often to ask.
It sprinkled a bit making riding even better. At the bottom the sun came out and I slogged up the other side.. The rivers had water and one was actually running. I put some dirty water in a bottle for pouring on my head. I stopped stopping now and by 10km to home my foot was hurting so I had to stop in burka and deal with that. i rode 90km
What i would do differently.
Better maps. Plan water better and carry less. Try to carry less food and buy more mid day for evening. Less weight. wide brimmed hat for shade all sides cotton shirt. sandals check conditions of panniers If just me less spares. more suncream 3 water bottles and 2 3 litre bags. camp seat was nice book was nice apples nice more granola One pair shorts one clean shirt
Going alone was good. Always ask directions 2-3 times.
Between Christmas and New Years we drove to the coast at Bagamoyo for 4 days and one day in the Amani mountains. Of course I had the bike in the back.
One morning I got up early to head off towards Sandani National park to experience the road to the Park gate. I can't remember what exactly what it was, but it took more than an hour to fix something, so I got a bit of a late start. Not so good for tropical coast weather.
I rode away from the coast for 15km and then turned north on the Sandani road, which was recently graded, in great shape, and almost no traffic. The road started by going slightly up for the 3 kms I could see.
After about 3 km I looked ahead it was still slightly uphill, not steep at all, just slightly uphill as far as I could see. No big deal, it will be downhill coming back. As the kms went by I was looking forward to turning around and having a long slight downhill, as it was 99% slightly uphill. This went on for 20 kms , and due to family waiting for me to return, I turned around .
Looking ahead (going back now) the road stretched on slightly uphill. Huh, must be just here, so I road a few km, always going slightly uphill. No way. And it just kept going on and on uphill
I stopped and took a picture both ways.
You tell me, i wasn't in a valley, but both ways look uphill to me. And I never got to coast or pedal easy, it was, well uphill.
So i rode slightly uphill, AGAIN, back to the main Bagamoyo road completely puzzled and disappointed in missing a downhill. At the junction I had a soda at an unfriendly bar with music blaring and a group playing pool.
