Morogoro

Place: Morogoro

Tunes: AC/DC, Sisters of Mercy, Armin van Buuren

The first thing we see when we get to the main road. The highest peak in Africa.

Nice scenery follows for some time.Bananas for anyone?

Some say that taking pictures while riding is dangerous? Just ask Pasi.

Again nothing happened, just like yesterday. 550km of driving good roads, nothing special. The scenery is great and the traffic is light. 

Previously our experience with the police in Tanzania was not that positive, but surprisingly they seem to be leaving us alone. Markus was approached by one as we overtook some buses etc on some speed bumps and was ”offered” a ticket. Markus used the ”stooped tourist” trick and basically turned the whole situation into a joke. He just insisted ”no money” and the police gave up. No problem.

The best traffic offence of the day was when the four of us overtook two lorries. One lorry was overtaking the other climbing up this hill. I went past overtaking from the right (of the lorry overtaking the slow one), Pasi went through between the two and Ari and Markus went past from the left (of the slow moving lorry). Because you are too bored to think about this, I have prepared a powerpoint presentation to illustrate the situation.

The prosecution is free to use this picture.

The most beautiful overtaking maneuvre on this trip.

And just to make things simple, the traffic here is left handed, like in the UK. In the UK we would probably have been executed by the traffic police for doing something like this, but here it was just one beautiful moment.

In general we drive using the principle ”when in Rome”, which means driving like the locals. Which in order means that there are no observable rules or regulations on the roads. You can ride however the hell you like. Too bad we are riding these overloaded tractors instead of some proper road racing bikes. The Hayabusa would feel right at home here.

There are speed bumps everywhere in this country. The gravel roads included. Annoying. On the other hand, they are the only thing slowing down the bus drivers, but still. There are no warning signs that one should expect to see them and thy can be everywhere. Even on gravel roads that are so bad that no-one could actually speed on them.

Tomorrow we may be trying to cover a bit more ground to gain some days lost in the Nairobi hassle, but we will see. No doubt some off-road action is in the program soon as everyone has a bike that works. Something needs to be done about that.