Africa our way !! ( Complete...... or is it? )

[TerrorSA]

Awesome, thanks for taking the time to post this ride  :thumleft:

 

[CAR6850]

Like the colour scheme on your bike :thumleft:

 

[White Rhino]

Hey good to have you back Fuzzy.

Enjoying the suspense.....

 

[Fishy]

awesome RR thanks for making me green :thumleft:

 

[Rynet]

Stunning , simply stunning  :hello2:

 

[Ian in Great Brak River]

Congrats Gents, this is Adventure in Africa big time!  I'm suitably impressed that it's done without maps or GPS.

What could possibly top this...? Oh, yes...the next part of your amazing trip...  

 

[Fuzzy Muzzy]

Riding through Southern Tanzania is a treat for any rider, the roads are unpredictable and you have to concentrate all the time but the rewards are worth it. For this stretch we passed Lake Mkoe and almost completly by chance stumbled across Mchinga.. THese parts really show you what Southern Tanzania is all about. Dont expect to find anything like electricity.. as the photos show these okes are still building their own trailers like the flintstones. We stopped off for a rest and chatted to some fishermen who were parking off on a deserted beach.. it was simply stunning.

Fishermen make themselves these semi permanent structures where they fix their nets.

Dont expect much by the way of boats, everything is hand carved out of logs. This particular fisherman was quite proud of how he had fixed a hole in his boat.

Now you know why they made us think of the Flintstones.

 

[Fuzzy Muzzy]

I find it hard to describe what it is like to pass through the villages as we work our way down the coast. In some cases people run out of the fields and huts to see what is coming and are dumbstruck when they see the bikes, if you stop you know that within 20 sec you will have up to 100 people standing around not sure to make out who we are, in some cases the women come out, grab their children and run away as the men come to investigate who we are and why we are there.

Interacting with the locals can range from a bit uneasy to pure joy, no one village gives you the same kind of reaction.

In this case we just stopped for some water and a few min rest from the unrelenting sun. The sand in these areas is hard work and I found myself suffering from heat stroke on more than one occasion. All I wanted was to drink some water and grab some shade but the kids had other ideas.

Who knows what they were saying, we have not heard english in quite a while now and all communication is done by jestures, body language and smiles.

 

[DaveT]

Very nice report, waiting for the rest!

 

[Fuzzy Muzzy]

I can’t find any photographic evidence that we were in Lindi. I can remember riding through this town, at 1st glance it seems not that much bigger than any South Eastern town in Tanzania however the more you ride around the more it seems to surprise you.. once upon a time it used to be part of the Sultan of Zanzibar’s domain. Back in the day it used to be quite well known during the slave trade as slaved were bought up from lake Nyasa, now Lake Malawi. During colonial times it used to be a capital of sorts. These days it is quite hard to sugar coat it, I can used words like rustic to make it sound better but there is nothing much to keep you here for longer than a day or so unless you are chartering a boat and going diving but I did’nt see much of that going on. It is a pity that towns such as this that clearly had massive amount of development happening at some stage are just allowed to be swallowed up by time as trade routes were closed by longer distance shipping lanes. The people are friendly and have loads of energy, well a lot more than me anyway, but besides their good intentions and smiles we ride through the town feeling somewhat like I had expected more, like many small towns in SE Tanzania there is no money for development and it shows, yet somehow, it does not matter much. Well to us anyway passing through. I don’t mean to oversimplify things, life is hard here, if you get sick and cant work life here must be harder than we can imagine.

The longer I travel like this the less I miss the shopping malls full of products and services we just don’t need and I find that this is starting to apply to almost everything, it began in Malawi where I was just blown away by how happy everyone was even though they had so little and their lives were so hard, it makes me think of the millionaires who are going through bitter divorces just simply missing the point.. they should come spend some time out here and learn the real value of life, family and downright hard work, for now our minds were on getting to Mtwara where we were going to be forced into finding a way to get a duplicate carnet for Martin so we could get into Moz.

 

[Fuzzy Muzzy]

We had very little information to go on at the moment, we had a contact for a place to stay in Mikindani called the Old Boma so we headed for that as our resting point for the day. The ride was tough, mainly due to the fact that the heat was insane. By the time we made it into Mikindani I was stuffed beyond belief and finding The Old Boma was like finding an oasis, there was just one problem, it was simply out of our budget. The Old Boma was gorgeous and clearly was built in the hay days of German occupation. The gorgeous French lady lounging by the massive sparkling pool was an attractive offer and Martin was already setting roots, but I was after some cheaper accommodation much to his disgust.. At the bottom of the hill we found Ten Degrees South, a modest place to stay, much cheaper and a bar we would call home for the next few days as we settled down to organize our lives, get Martins paperwork sorted out, find a bank, establish communications with the AA in SA.. there was some work to be done.

As far as today was concerned it was time to relax and catch our breath, we would leave all our luggage here at Ten Degrees South and head the 10km to Mtwara which is the Capital of SE Tanzania where we would be able to find everything we were looking for.

 

[Fuzzy Muzzy]

 

[Fuzzy Muzzy]

The following day we headed into Mtwara, it is a sprawling friendly town which offers anything you really need like banking etc, we even found a DHL office through which we were to finally obtain a new carnet for Martin, but things move a little slower in this side of the world, so we knew that we would have at least 3 or 4 days to kill in the area. Mtwara was developed after WWII by the British as part of their east African groundnut scheme which saw massive planting of nuts in the area but the plan failed and today Mtwara is more well known for it's port, the development of the town came to a standstil and decay is starting to set in as years of neglect are evident. Interestingly there is no Mozambiquan visas issued at Mtwara.

We made the trip back an forth between Mtwara and Mikindani a few times, exploring the surrounding area, there are literally millions of palm trees making for a wonderful tropical feel. The locals are very friendly and we had some good times hanging out drinking beer and tasting the local food, but if we were going to be stuck here for a few days we needed more, so we decided to use the services of a local diving school situated next door to where we were staying and hit a few reefs.. what an awesome experience. Back at home I am an avid marine fishkeeper with a 2.5m marine aquarium in my lounge, so checking out some of the local reefs was a real treat and a great way to pass the time.

Loading the gear for a dive

there is still evidence that things are done the old way here.. these boat builders had been hacking away at these logs for a few months, very skilled and awesome to watch.

Finding a bike rider with a helmet in Tanzania is a rare occurance, this one oke was very proud of his shoei. THere is supposed to be a fine for not wearing a helmet but I never came across a bike shop of any sort that sold helmets in these parts.

 

[Fuzzy Muzzy]

ahhh, the local beer tavern where we spent some lazy afternoons

 

[Baches]

:thumleft:

 

[Ian in Great Brak River]

Keep it coming    8)

 

[White Rhino]

Sounds really cool and laidback. Bit of scuba thrown in. Some detail on the diving would be interesting, reefs, conditions, plant life, depths, types of marine life, boat ride, surf, swells, current etc. etc.

 

[Fuzzy Muzzy]

cool, I will do. Our instructor had an underwater camera, I will upload some pics of the diving as well. Just a bit hectic at work at the mo, but should be able to finish up the rr soon.

 

[soundboi]

Grrrrr..... More! I want more!

 

[Fuzzy Muzzy]

Sure, I will fiish up Tanzania and start up on crossing over into Moz tonight