Today’s blog entry is composed of several posts from Lucas. Thanks Lucas……
The first 17 km of our day were almost all downhill, some sections pretty rugged and steep. Most people in our group weren’t so fond of it but I found it to be pretty fun. We rode all the way down to the plains/savannah, barely visible in the distance of this photo… about 1400m of elevation loss. This photo is of one of the better sections of the trail down. Amazingly, the minivan that’s our support vehicle made it down the same road/trail we went down.
Once at the bottom of the long descent came a section on a hot, very straight sandy road then some single track riding on a sandy trail through the savannah. It was hot all day and we tried to find shade wherever possible when stopped, as evidenced in this photo of us all crowding under the shade of a tree. There were also a lot of thorn bushes, giving the section through the savannah the nickname “flat tire paradise.” Luckily, there was only one flat tire that needed to be repaired on one of our guides’ very worn tire.
After lunch came my favourite section of the day… a nice, small trail along the irrigation canals and rice patties. Apparently this is the time of year for them to prepare the rice patties, so there were a lot of people out working in them.Omary, one of our guides posing for a photo in front of Ndungu Lake. This is the source for the irrigation canals in the last photo. It would have been nice to jump into the lake but, unfortunately, fresh water swimming is not recommended in Tanzania due to parasites in the water.
Omary, one of our guides posing for a photo in front of Ndungu Lake. This is the source for the irrigation canals in the last photo. It would have been nice to jump into the lake but, unfortunately, fresh water swimming is not recommended in Tanzania due to parasites in the water.
Crossing a dam and then heading back into the savannah. Note the large group of kids behind Isa, one of our guides… they enthusiastically followed us for a very long way.
Did I mention that it was hot today?! My mom’s speedometer recorded a high temperature of 45 C along a road near the end of our day and it was often reading around 40-43 C during the rest of the day. Much, much hotter than the cool air of the mountains we left this morning.
