When I woke up this morning I could hardly walk. Stiffness, just like after indoor soccer all those years ago, had left me as stiff as a proverbial plank.
There was no way that I was going to be able to rock on today so I asked the hotel to hold my room for one more night. Much as I was looking forward to pushing on and getting the Tanzania leg over with, there was no point in riding off like Quasimodo.
In any event, because of the election problems there, I am leaning towards giving Zimbabwe a miss in a couple of weeks time and cutting across Zambia from Malawi and on to the ‘pan handle’ of Namibia. This will be shorter and would make up for any time I delay now.
Before leaving home the only thing that I was asked to do was to be careful and to remember that I have a three month old granddaughter waiting for me to return and who would like to hold my hand into old age. So I have pretty well stuck to that commitment and, whether it’s traveling into Zimbabwe or even just overtaking a lorry, I try to invoke what I now refer to as the ‘Kaylee’ option.
Anyway she is keeping a permanent eye on both Simba and me.
As it turned out I was glad that I did postpone as I would feel much better by the end of the day. I first swam in the pool for a good while and then went for a decent walk.
By afternoon I felt up to riding out of the city for a spin into the nearby countryside where so much of the scenery is absolutely spectacular. I am probably repeating myself, but this is a very beautiful and progressive country and I would highly recommend that anyone who gets the opportunity should do what it now says on the Arsenal shirt, Visit Rwanda.
Around each corner I turned there were even more beautifully dressed women in colourful outfits going about their business.
I got back to the city and started putting my things together in preparation for checking out the next day. I needed to pop down to a local supermarket to pick up some toiletries and while I was there I dropped into a small tourist office to see if they could send to Ireland one of the walking sticks that they were selling and which were exactly the same as the one that I had been loaned while trekking in Volcano National Park. There I met a delightful young girl who is working as a tourism advisor for the summer. She is from Kigali and she will soon be going into her third year of studying mechanical engineering at University of Chicago. We must have chatted for two hours about everything from the Rwandan Genocide to politics in Ireland, global travel, engineering and everything else in between. Once again the pride that people here have in their country is tangible.
It was already dark and they were locking up the shopping centre so I said goodbye, left her to finish up, and headed back the short distance to the hotel. Over dinner I reflected on what had turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable day….
ZIGZAGGING AFRICA BY MOTORBIKE 