I got up around 7am and it was a lovely morning when I looked out the window.
I started putting my stuff together, packing up Simba setting sat nav etc. I then popped back in for breakfast and had a really delicious juice which was a simple mix of avocado and passion fruit. That might sound odd but it was delicious.
I left the motel, found an ATM, got a fill of petrol and hit the road. The manager assured me that the 320 kilometres today would be tar all the way. So fingers crossed.
He was correct and all was well until after about 50 kilometres, the Garmin sat nav was telling me to make a right turn at a busy little town. This seemed logical but was at variance with the flow of traffic and the quality of the road. I took a long look down the road that I was supposed to take but it was dirt road as far as I could see. Within about a minute I had about twenty young guys clambering all over Simba. I asked for directions but I’d safely say that none of them had even heard of Singida. It became a bit uncomfortable when a couple of them were competing to climb on back and I could feel the motion of the top box being interfered with. I gave a really loud rev on the throttle and they all jumped back with fright so I pushed away quickly, opting for the good road.
There were homesteads along the entire route especially where there was even the smallest tree offering shade.
I firstly pulled up to ask for directions from a lorry driver who had stopped at a weigh station but he hadn’t a word of English. Then after about half an hour I stopped at a police checkpoint. An older guy very courteously told me that I was headed in the right direction and where I would link up with the other road. The moral of this little story is trust your instincts and not the good people at Garmin.
Cattle rearing is a big part of this rural economy but I am at a loss to understand what they graze on.
There isn’t a blade of grass anywhere so presumably they eat some other type of fodder.
Life is hard and at subsistence level but you will still see elegant women walking in the middle of nowhere with their parasols.
As is the case throughout Africa, hope and the promise of a better life next time around is being peddled in the most humble of churches.
The miles rolled on and by early afternoon I arrived in Singida. It is a nice town beside a lake and I found a motel with a lovely view over it.
When I asked the very enthusiastic manager if I could perhaps swim in it he laughed, telling me that it was polluted by people and cows and that it had dangerous creatures that wouldn’t like me. So that put an end to that idea…..
ZIGZAGGING AFRICA BY MOTORBIKE 