New Experience
Nearly all my mountain biking experience had been
club trips or self organised trips. I had never even thought about
Tanzania much less considered it. But when I read about the planning for
the 2001 exploratory trip by
KE Adventure Travel
I was very keen to go, but
could not make it that year. Hearing about the trip later made me more desperate to
go as soon as I could. While my Giant carbon fibre mountain bike had been
loaded onto aircraft over two dozen times, this would be the first time
for an organised adventure tour. Not only had I not considered
Tanzania before, I could not conceive how I could plan it myself.
I wondered if at the end of the trip whether I would still think that
an adventure tour operator was the only way to do this type of trip.
Certainly the difficultly I had trying to organise a few days
in Zanzibar, and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania's major city)
would put you off trying to organise a mountain bike tour yourself. Unless
you have the luxury of oodles of time to spend in Tanzania on the ground
when you get there to organise things, any money you pay a a tour
operator or African travel specialist to organise a you for you would be
money well spent. See my notes on dealing with Tanzania.
Tanzania
A lot of Australian's out there are probably saying
where is Tanzania? Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, Mozambique and even
Zambia get publicity in Australia, but rarely do you hear of Tanzania, even
though the highest mountain in Africa Mt Kilimanjaro is within it's borders. Well
Tanzania is in East
Africa around 300 km south of the equator, with the Indian ocean on
it's east border and the countries listed above on it's other borders. The
highlands of northern Tanzania offer
spectacular scenery and superb wildlife viewing opportunities.
Arusha the major town in the Kilimanjaro region was the headquarters of
the former East Africa Community combining Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. Dar
Es Salaam on the east coast opposite Zanzibar, is a larger city than the
capital Dodoma.
Getting There
I flew to Tanzania with Emirates. They were the only
airline with good connections into East Africa from Australia, as well as offering
excellent service and attractive fares. I flew into Dar Es Salaam,
went across to Zanzibar for a few days, took an
11 hour bus trip north to Arusha to start the mountain bike safari,
and then after the trip, took a 6 hour bus trip to Nairobi in Kenya to
catch the return flight. The flight to Dar Es Salaam had stops in
Singapore, Dubai and Nairobi. I chose to have a full day stopover in Dubai
arriving at 6:30 one morning and leaving at 8:00 the next morning. As soon
as I arrived in Dubai at the Emirates Airport Hotel, I hoped on the bike
and and rode into central Dubai and along both sides of the Dubai Creek
(Looks like a river or inlet to me), crossing Dubai Creek by passenger
ferry. I also managed to find a bike shop which would exchange some
of my spare tubes as I had packed the ones with the wrong value type. In
the afternoon, I did the city of Merchants Tour which I highly recommend.
I left the tour in the city as I was not interested in more time in the
gold shops, spent more time in central Dubai and caught the local bus back
to the hotel. I checked out the alternatives, but found that the Emirate Airlines accommodation and
tour deals were by far the best value.
The closest international airport to Arusha is
Kilimanjaro airport, however no airline with practical connections to
Australia flies there. I chose to fly into Dar Es Salaam even though
Nairobi is closer to Arusha because I wanted to spend some time in
Zanzibar before starting the mountain bike trip. I found the longer bus
trip between Dar Es Salaam and Arusha on Scandinavia Bus Lines was easy
with big comfortable spacious buses. At the time of day I needed to travel
from Arusha to Nairobi only smaller buses run, making the shorter trip
less comfortable.
My experience with the buses and ferries in Tanzania
was,
on time, efficient and safe. However the small bus from Arusha to Nairobi
had to brake desperately to avoid an accident with a giraffe which decided
to canter across the road in front of the bus traveling at high speed. I
traveled by bus within Tanzania ,partly because it gives you a better
chance to see the country than by plane, and also because many of the
internal flights use smaller aircraft with an all up baggage limit of 15
kg including hand luggage. Impossible with a bike plus sleeping bag,
sleeping mat and clothes.
Dar Es Salaam and Zanzibar
Dar Es Salaam was a pleasant enough place to spend a
day and a half looking around and organising my transport to Zanzibar and
Arusha. However it is nothing really spectacular. I explored Dar Es Salaam
easily by both bike and on foot. See my report on my encounter with the
Tanzania police in Dar Es Salaam.
The ferry to Zanzibar takes less than two hours, so I
got there by mid morning. As soon as I had checked into my hotel in Stone
Town, I hoped onto the bike and rode out to Jozanni Forest Conservation
Area 35km south east of the city. For about AUD20 you get entry to see the
rare red Colobus monkey, Sykes monkey and a variety of other insects and
animals. You also get a personal guided tour lasting about 45 mins. It is
worthwhile to go out to Forest and the bike is an excellent chance to
absorb the culture and geography of this part of Tanzania. The next day I
took a full day spice tour. It was excellent value and very informative on
the culture, geography and history of Zanzibar. The rest of the time I
spent exploring the fabulous and fascinating Stone Town. I was
constantly lost in the maze of narrow streets many only one and a half to
two metres wide. But on the bike all you had to do when you wanted to find
yourself again was ride less than ten minutes in any one direction and you
would get to the outer perimeter and relocate yourself to where you wanted
to go. If you are traveling to this part of the world, Zanzibar and Stone
Town is a must, and even better if you can do it by bike.
The Start
I traveled by bus to Arusha. From the bus I had the
most spectacular view of Mt Kilimanjaro for a short period. By the time
the bus made a stop the opportunity for a great picture was gone. I did
not get a really good view of the elusive cloud hidden Mt Kilimanjaro for
the remaining twelve days. The lesson is, if you get a good view of
Kilimanjaro stop the bus, car, plane or what ever, as the opportunity is
rare and you should not let slip. I arrived in Arusha late
afternoon , and had a about three hours before meeting up with the East
Africa KE Adventure agent, the leader, Roman and the support crew before heading
out to Kilimanjaro international airport to pick-up the other members of
the group. All the other participants flew directly into Kilimanjaro
airport.
After we found all the members of the group and
loaded their gear, we headed north in the four wheel drives towards our
accommodation for the night via a fairly rough track. It was around 10 pm by the time we got to Momella Lodge
for our first night. The original Lodge was built to house John Wayne for
the film Hatari. A lot has obviously been added to it since.
The Group
We had quite a range of people on the trip as below.
Roman had not done a great deal of serious mountain
biking before this trip. The first few days he really struggled particularly as
the first day was so difficult and not conducive to skill improvement. He
was forever at the rear. However Roman's natural ability and enormous
brute strength came through and by the middle of the ride he had worked
his way through the group. However his lack of experience and ride fitness
took it's toll by the end of the ride.
I had been worried that despite my experience that
they may not have wanted me on the trip because they thought me too old.
Imagine how relived I was to meet Pete and discover that not only was I
not the oldest on the trip but that Pete was approaching one and a half
times my age. Pete was riding an older Garry Fisher bike with a higher
centre of gravity and longer wheel base. Closer in geometry to today's
hybrids than a current design mountain bike. Pete always seemed to be last
(after Roman improved) which gave most of the rest of us a
opportunity for a rest and a chat waiting for him. As
soon as he arrived off we went without giving him much chance for a rest.
I did not think that Pete was going to make it. But I was well and truly
wrong. After a flat spot in the middle of the ride, he seemed to get
stronger towards the end. Some days he always seemed to be way behind, but
he kept plugging along. Then suddenly towards the end of the day, there we
was, one of the first to arrive at camp. Maybe he was just playing possum
with us and pacing himself well.
The Return
The bus from Arusha took me direct to Nairobi
airport. I arrived about four hours before my flight to Dubai and although
there were staff there, they would not check-in my luggage. The airport
information counter put me in touch with a tour operator, Come to Africa
Safaris, at the airport. They looked after my bike and the rest of my
luggage and organised with a taxi driver for a two hour tour of Nairobi.