so that faulty hand pump made me turn back towards Longido.
Uneventful ride...on a different track!! And again, I have no clue where I
missed any crossroad! I now wish I had flown there and mapped
the area. Well it is completely off track to anywhere anyway.
I found a lift in no time in a truck similar to this one. Without the cows...
Those Maasais...he is here checking and making sure his cows
are fine. His wives don't get so much care for sure.
It was one of the most uncomfortable trips of my life. These trucks
are equipped with spring leaves, which are meant to support a full load.
For once in my African experience, the truck was near empty. So the
truck bounced on every bump on the road and the awful diversion
road. Of course the driver had no consideration for the passengers.
There were on top many metallic noises banging in my ears. But 10
$ and 2h30 later, I was near Arusha. As said before, I've done this road
a few times....
Longido, some sense of a Far West village...
not sure what he was doing with these little cans of fuel but he got angry
when he saw I was taking pictures. Some kind of traffic for sure. My driver
bought one of these and refilled the truck within half an hour of driving.
No clue why...
passengers going to a daladala.
maasai coming to town to sell 2 jugs of milk.
Mt Longido in the distance. 2 hitch-hikers. the poor guys had been walking
50km across the same savannah as I did with the bike and food and
water...except that these guys had done of my items. So I gave them
some bottles of water from my left over. Nothing special there but the co-driver
thought that since I was so generous, I could also pay for their ride to Arusha.
I would have slapped him! He had been pestering since the beginning to use
my phone, to get my watch, to get my sunglasses. Insisting, not knowing
when to stop, all of it with the perfect politician-crook smile.
feet that tell a story. This is the national shoe, a cheap Chinese
flip-flop. How do you cross the thorny savannah for 50 km with that??
anyway, as soon as I hit Arusha, I went to the Blue Heron for a big juice
and ice-cream, but the owner saw me coming and offered me a huge one
beforeI could ask! Sweeet. I then got yellow roses for Karine. I got more
success, more looks, more smiles from the passer-by with the flowers on the
bike than during the whole trip!
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