Long Weekend

We find the hotel that Paul had stayed in at Nzega en-route to Mombasa before he injured knee his last time. We asked at the police station and they accompanied us there. About a 2 minute drive down a dirt track. To Martin’s astonishment Paul asks the guides if they want some money for their trouble. One of them looks at Paul as if to say… ‘gosh I hadn’t thought of that but now that you mention the idea..YES that would be great!’ notes change hands and we head for reception and separate rooms for the night. 

Note from Paul: So it's okay to buy "Julius" an evening meal, drinks, and breakfast for his 2 minute chat with the Captain, but there's a question mark over paying 40p for guidance to a hotel we would otherwise never have found. I'm learning a lot about the "Christian spirit of generousity" on this trip!

 

We breakfast on what has now become a staple – eggs boiled to within an inch of their lives, stewed tea, stewed coffee and the most vile, sweet jam imaginable made from “assorted fruits”.

"Clothes Horse"

We pay for our washing and leave Nzega at 0830 for the two hour ride to Singida. “Captain Slow” takes a few miles to warm up in the morning as he has to acclimatize to the road conditions and whilst ordinarily I just follow and wait for him to get to full operating speed, today we need to inject a bit of urgency if we are to get there in a reasonable time, so I overtake and set a reasonable speed for the excellent road conditions.

 

After we stop for a brief MP3 re-load Paul makes an aggressive biker gesture at me (Martin) as if he is twisting the throttle off its handlebars accompanied by a gorilla-like grimace. I think this means he wants to go faster.

So there I am, (Paul) spanking it along this great road, Queen pounding  “We are the champions” through my fantastic “Bass” headphones, when up ahead of me I see a couple of guys in white suits standing in the road holding their arms up. It is the Tanzania Traffic Police. I check my mirrors to see who it they are wanting to stop, but as I can only see the feint headlight of Captain Slow a long way behind I assume it must be me.

I pull over and am surrounded by three of them. One is holding a speed gun and is very, very cross. He shows me the speed on the gun which reads “106” (Kph) and then points to a sign telling me the speed limit is 50. Bemused, I wait to hear what will happen next. Very cross bloke tells me that I will have to pay a fine of 1000 Tsh ( 20pence). I tell him I have no money, but will get some from my friend who has just pulled up ahead of us.
 

Martin pulls up behind having had James Taylor delightfully warbling in his earphones to see what all the trouble is about officer. Very enjoyable to watch Paul being butter-wouldn’t-melt with his fellow Coppers as they literally wield a book at him.

Ironic isn’t it, dear listener, that the one time Paul has set the pace and I have followed, in the middle of NOWHERE he gets a speed gun pointed at him by the boys in white!

 

I return with the cash and give it to him, to which I am told, “No, 30,000 shillings”. (£12) Now I realize that this is not a lot of money, but this is a typical Tanzanian trick and these boys are now taking the mickey. I decide I’m not going to play their game and tell them that 1000 is all I have. This throws them, and we have reached an impasse when we are joined by Martin. They ask him if he has any money, but he tells them we have spent it all on fuel so suggests we can pay the fine when we get to Singida. This is not acceptable as Singida is not within their district, so I ask what Police Station is so that we can pay there.

At this, angry cop shows Martin the speed gun, still showing my 106, and points out the sign showing the speed limit is 50. “Not me, him” says Martin, pointing to me. What a true friend and companion he is! This is all starting to get out of hand, so I play the get out of jail card and show them my warrant card explaining I am a Policeman, so can be trusted to pay the fine at the Police Station.

They examine this and determine I am Inspector, with which there is much laughing, handshaking and we are on our way the best of friends without shelling out a shilling. Result, although I make note to self to speak with Martin re loyalty issues.

(Martin) Not before he pushes his luck in characteristic fashion and asks for a ‘all the cops together’ photo before we leave. Martin has already sneakily snapped a couple but the answer from the boys in white is NO!

(Paul) We reach Singida around 11.30 and it really is a dump. We sort of thought it might be quite nice, But no… As we had been riding towards Singida, I had been considering suggesting to Martin that we bite the bullet and continue to Arusha as this had a number of advantages:-

1. It would put us a day ahead and we could find a nice hotel where we could relax for a few days and not be riding.
2. We would be traveling on a Sunday when there would be very little traffic on what is ordinarily a very busy road
3. If we stop now, we will only be hanging about until tomorrow to make the same journey.
4. Martin was now at full operating speed.

After floating the suggestion and confirming with the locals that the road was a new tarmac road all the way to Arusha, we filled our bikes to the brim and began the 230 mile trip.

I (Martin) anticipated that Paul would be up for the whole slog to Arusha as I have got to know him well enough to know that if the planned leg is over by 11.30 no stopping would be considered and the road and scenery really were magnificent.

 

So we set off for the EXTRA 330km towards Arusha not before we check with a guy in a nice little car that the road is tarmac all the way. He assures us it is and then says ‘I want a bike like yours, where can I get one. I will text you my number right now and you can send me details.’ We explain it might cost him $10,000 plus the same again in import duty and he says that is not a problem.

 

We set off for Arusha on pristine road which is less than 3 years old as when Paul last passed this way in 2010 it was mud and grit. The scenery and roads are truly breathtaking and the Yamaha's love the smooth tarmac. These are probably the best miles we have ridden for the whole trip and are truly memorable. 

 

About 30 miles outside Arusha the road became ‘temporary surface’. Very bumpy, sandy, dusty etc. We stood up on our foot pegs, put the visors down and dug in until we finally reached Arusha around 4.00pm. We then took around another hour to locate the hotel we thought would be a touch of comfort for the night and the next few rest days.

 

Reaching Arusha was a key land mark and we were hoping for some creature comforts. We finally found the place which was up on the hillside, stilted lodge rooms etc. We were exhausted and when they told us the room would be $130 we were stunned. HOW MUCH! We negotiated some free internet and as we had neither an alternative in mind nor any energy left we took a view. It was cold in both temperature and ambiance and the food was disappointing. To make matters worse it transpired that in the valley below there was a live concert under way until the small hours of the morning and after that the dogs took over and barked at each other across the neighborhoods until dawn. We got up around 7.30 and we were away by 8.30 slightly ruing the day we put our finger on the details of Karama Lodge in the Lonely Planet Guide. 

 

These next few days are the days we had planned for R&R before the final leg to Mombasa. We drove to the offices of Hoopoe Safaris whom we had been told about by a friend of a friend (way-to-go Sarah Jane and thanks Rupert). After a very efficient hour with Emily and after we had discounted the Ngorogoro crater and the Serengeti as too costly Emily put together a three day package which was what she described as ‘budget friendly’ and we are off to Tarangire park and Lake Manyara mini safari on Wednesday at 0700 returning to Arusha on Friday evening before we ride to Mombasa on Saturday.

 

After a quick visit to the supermarket to stock up on essentials prior to our safari (now includes Bombay mix) we came back to the great hotel we are now in for 48 hrs of rest – The Impala. When we checked in we both looked at each other and said the same thing. ‘We should have stayed here last night’. It has three restaurants so we tried the Indian one for our lunch time SNACK. For £6 each we enjoyed the most delicious curry and freshly baked breads. Puts Bawarchi to shame and all low calories so the weight keeps falling off! 

Our spirits are very much lifted as we have reached a significant milestone in our journey, we have broken the 2000 mile mark, we are within reach of the end and the few days of R&R we had hoped for at this stage end look as if they will be really excellent. The Impala is also a great place to relax.