Up on time. Another great breakfast. Ajax had the map out and between bites quizzed the staff about options for getting back to the main Sumbawanga road at Namanyere without retracing our steps. Chris and Louise said they'd had a guest try it on a bike and fail. I'd looked on Google Earth and had found only the sketchiest of potential paths. We were all but resigned to just head back the way we'd come when the tall waiter said: "yes, there's a track from Ninde to Namanyere". And so, typical of most humans, we ignored the preponderance of evidence and went with one guy's opinion because it was what we wanted to hear.
Above: Chris and Louise at Lake Shore Lodge, their best-dressed-guests
We bid farewell to Chris and Louise (lovely folks, great hosts; thanks for the epoxy and the 5L of fuel!), paid our bill, and lit out for the trail to Ninde, a small fishing village hunkered along a beach south of Kipili. The mid-morning light was that cool-yellow-almost-white particular to cold-season African mornings and the calm lake waters sat like wine in a goblet. The bikes all started with no fuss, and it appeared the KTM's epoxy-job of the day before was going to hold. Everything was going according to plan again!
Above: Our bill, the day's first few kms
Well, not exactly. Or rather, not for long. The epoxy held for only enough time to get back through Kipili town and south a few clicks. Then it gave to the pressure in the transmission and ejected the clutch fluid into the dust, leaving FundiPhil clutch-less. All agreed that this was no big deal; so long as the track remained relatively open he'd be fine as long as somebody was always ready to get him rolling enough to crank over the engine in 1st gear. So, we put the specter of a bad omen out of our minds and cruised down the road.
Above: Morning flora and fauna, FundiPhil getting a pushstart
Rolling up and around the contours of the land, the track gave us numerous good looks at the lake and fishing villages below. It was a great way to start the day: blasting an interesting track into unknown territory, saving ourselves from backtracking. Made us wonder aloud why the hell we live in Dar when so many places in Tanzania are so much more attractive. (Answer, of course: money).
Above: Views from the Kipili-Ninde road
The road danced its way up and over hills among monument-like rocks. Speeds slowly increased as the guys started getting into it. Then the road abruptly ended. Not in a village, not at a crossroads, it just ended. Like the bulldozer got tired and went home. More likely, the contractor ate the money and went home. Beyond the cut, a footpath continued its journey toward Ninde, so we followed it.
The track was fairly wide - like the kind you get where there's bicycle and motorbike traffic - which makes for some fun riding, but I was conscious that one of our party didn't have a clutch to help him ease his way through sticky sections, and the track was doing some pretty sharp turning in relatively rugged terrain. I was sure Ajax and Bean would pull the plug and we'd have to go back.
Above: Where the big road became a track
But I should have known otherwise. Ajax can't say "no" to a new track. No matter what mechanical, physical, spiritual issues may be plaguing the guys behind, he can't not explore the thing to find out where it ends. And once again, there was a local guy there to egg us on. Standing with his donkey in the track, this kid told us "yeah, sure, there's a track to Namanyere".
Above: Donkey boy and monkeybikers
And to be fair, all signs were looking positive, really. The track was easy to see and there was even a substantial hand-made bridge over a river to navigate (on hindsight, maybe that river is why the road didn't reach Ninde). The existence of a trail didn't seem to be in question; the question was: did it make sense to continue, seeing as FundiPhil had no clutch. Ajax's answer: yes. And who could say no? It was awesome out there.
Above: The wooden bridge, proof the track was maintained...?
[flash=700,450]https://www.youtube.com/v/wGGXzwAmVWQ[/flash]
Above: From Lakeshore to the little wooden bridge
Not long after the foot bridge, however, we came to a crossroads. One track clearly continued on to Ninde, the other track led East into the interior, in the direction of Namanyere. The trail was fairly wide at first, but once we'd passed through a couple of fields, it virtually disappeared. It looked like very few had walked it, let alone pushed a wheel on it for years, and it started climbing almost immediately. Needless to say, FundiPhil was struggling. So, at last, Mr. Bean does the right thing and volunteers to ride the ailing bike, giving Fundi his perfectly good 450. Now we were ready to continue. If Mr. Bean had a rough day due to the broken bike, nobody would probably lose sleep over it.
Above: Committing to the little track in the woods
I was loving it. Those kinds of tracks aren't about ripping around corners or lifting up cumulonimbus clouds of lung-choking dust. They're discovery tracks. The kind that make you feel like an explorer. There's no way to know if it'll take you where you want to go, or whether you'll come across impassible obstacles en route and be forced to turn back. They're like an itch that has to be scratched. We wouldn't turn back unless we had to.
And we were lucking out. The track looked like it would meet up with the scratch I saw on Google Earth, which gave Ajax and I some hope. Of course, what I knew that others didn't know was that in places the gradient exceeded 20% and there were large stretches where I couldn't see any track at all. Still, it gave us something to go by, so we pressed on, across several tricky water crossings and through some beautiful forest.
Above: Mr bean on foot, Mr Bean on bike: Dr. Dorky and Mr. Ryde
Above: Ajax and I navigate some water
[flash=700,420]https://www.youtube.com/v/VJeL-BmEImA[/flash]
Above: A GilleMonster through the forest
To say the track was tough to see is understating it somewhat. Long grass and uniform forest made any hopes of racing through this section impossible, and with the stream crossings and downed trees coming every so often, it didn't pay to carelessly twist the throttle anyway. More than once I connected with a stump or rock that reminded me that all of us were just a twisted knee away from a very difficult rescue.
The slow pace was obviously was a problem for Mr. Bean who could neither idle his bike nor finesse it through technical areas. So, we devised a plan that would ensure that Bean never had to stop riding. Ajax would go ahead with the GPS. At a technical spot, he'd figure out how to get around it and I'd watch him. He'd then continue up the way and I'd show PubQuiz how to cross who would show Mr. Bean. By the time Ajax was arriving to the next rough patch, I was there to see him clean it and we'd start over. It worked fairly well and we made decent progress.
Above: Ajax in the long grass
Above: PubQuiz in the long grass
We were ascending quickly. At some point, the track stopped cutting across drainages and began following a ridge which afforded some spectacular views of the forest below through the trees. We didn't stop much, but when we did it was impossible not to be impressed by the remoteness of the place we were in.
Above: A wicked looking spider lording over a spectacular hillside viewpoint
Occasionally the track would open up a bit where the grass was shorter or the soil more rocky. I'd take the opportunity to try to zip through the trees to catch up Ajax who was plodding ahead staring at the GPS. The track would be an amazing mountain bike trail... if you're fit as hell.
Above: A rare open meadow and a very purple flower
Above: Fundi and Monster and Ajax
With our system well tuned and progress being made, we stopped for a biltong break at the other side of a wide river. PubQuiz's bike had drained his oil reservoir, again, and we filled it up using the leaves of a tree for a funnel. On the tree where we'd parked, a Blair Witchy looking tree hieroglyph in the silent forest gave the place a sense of total otherworldliness.
Above: Posers, hieroglyph, leafy funnel
[flash=700,420]https://www.youtube.com/v/YfdzAYmROHc[/flash]
Progress up to the river... and PubQuiz's baptism in said river
Little did we know that the track was about to get trickier. After the river, the pitch of the trail began to increase and the packed-dirt singletrack gave way to rocks and ruts. We were struggling to clear technical sections fast enough to keep Mr. Bean from killing the bike, so he just blasted ahead, bouncing over the stones like they weren't even there.
Above: Ajax coming up
We'd cleared many rises, but we finally met our match. The rocky track led to a very rutted climb that simply didn't look like we were going to be able to ride. I was having premonitions of us dragging each bike one at a time up the damn thing, not knowing if it would be just one of many to come. While Ajax and I were walking the steepest sections to see if there was a logical line, the Monster cans up the 690 and just starts riding. But he doesn't come straight at it. Instead he follows the contour a bit, out in the grass away from the trail, curving slowly up until he reached the top. It was a brilliant piece of work and saved our collective ass. One by one we followed his lead.
Above: PubQuiz finding his hillclimb-line, the Monster ascends from his blazed trail
After the hillclimb, it wasn't long before we saw signs of life. First a few bee hives, then a field, and eventually a house or two. The single track became a double and the speed tripled as a result. We were all filled with a sense of accomplishment, and were being rewarded with a pretty decent return into Namanyere. There were a few muddy spots, some sandy patches and Monster managed to turn the 690's shift pedal into a pretzel on an unseen stump, but otherwise it was smooth sailing from there on. Mr. Bean, being able for the first time all day to see where he was going, exploded into action, flying down the track after Ajax and racing him all the way to town.
Above: Fundi and the first hut, some mud and a bent shifter
Above: My favorite photo from the trip: this guy's outfit either belongs in a museum or on a runway
Above: Roads appear, fields and dust
[flash=700,420]https://www.youtube.com/v/4HH7vrRnEeM[/flash]
Spirits were high over lunch. Nobody expected we'd get into such interesting riding, and once we were in it, we all thought maybe we'd never get out again. It took several hours longer to get from the lake to Namanyere than if we' backtracked, but nobody was disappointed. That track was certain to be a major highlight of the trip.
Above: Fundi and Bean celebrating in Namanyere
It was after three as we set off from Namanyere. We were behind schedule, so rather than get creative with the GPS, we set a course for Sumbawanga to make up some kms. It was 90 clicks of big dirt, but the sights along the way were lovely. The main road cuts along the top of a high plateau with views of hills hanging on the edges of the horizon on all sides. The road was a mess with construction equipment everywhere. In another two years it'll be just another slab.
Above: Christianity on display, relics and recent
Above: Afternoon pastoral scenes
Above: Moving toward the sunset
We arrived near dusk, showered and filled up on beer and beef.
Plan for the next day: Descend the escarpment in search of the swinging bridge
Definitely stay tuned for that...