Sick as a parrot!

Tuesday Morning Feb 16th: Martin writes: Good news, Paul found his Carnet on retracing his steps and he had made amazing progress through Tanzania reaching around Nzega. Well done matey, obviously quicker to travel alone! I dare say he will give his own update once back in contact. Singida was less than 100 miles away as of last night.
Martin had a good night and tried not to look out of the window at THE bike...which has now become a sort of object of hatred.
It would not start yesterday at all despite several attempts so rumours of its death were by no means exaggerated! Except that today I drove it to the shipper to be loaded onto a container because it decided to start. Very spluttery and poppy but it made it to the shippers yard.

Ready to go!...home!

This served only to sicken me more. The whole thing is doing my head in but I still feel I had little choice but to do what I did yesterday given that we had many many hours of it not starting despite our best efforts.

To be very honest with you dear reader my travelling companion was a total star and is not one to give up on anything or anyone to whom he has made a commitment. I am struggling with feelings of failure and deep disappointment in myself and the bike and the situation in general. I will get over it and as my mother used to say worse things happen at sea. The journey I did make will never leave me and so I am eternally grateful for every opportunity I was given to explore and experience a chunk of this amazing continent.

Rwanda has a sort of gentleness about it that is very palpable. People are gentle, slow and deliberate with a great sense of inner peace. I guess post 1994 the nation has been changed in many ways. There are many signs of sustainable and creative commercial growth here as well as a social scene that seems very relational.

Rwanda is very beautiful

Last night I was eating supper and in the room next door I thought I heard some guys being very loud and boisterous, I thought maybe they were playing pool or something. Actually they were praying. Like I have seen no one ever pray before, not even Koreans or Nigerians. They were praying as if their lives depended on it. I guess because for them, it does. I feel I have learned a little bit about that in the past few days!