Get Me Out of Here!

The night in Royal Inn Hotel in Dodoma was probably the worst night I have had since being in Africa. I knew that the room was very average but at 9pm I was ready for bed after a tiring days riding in 30 degrees. But my sleep was short lived as I was woken up at 11pm to the sound of music with serious base which appeared to be vibrating the wall behind my beds headboard and continued until 5am. On top of this the rain outside was coming down in buckets and didn’t stop all night.With that and a cold shower and no WiFi I very was pleased to leave this hotel.

It wasn’t long before I realised the effect of the previous nights rain as the rivers had broken their banks.

After travelling approximately 40 miles out of Dodoma I noticed in the distance what I though to be big motorbikes lined up at the side of the road. Could this be fellow motorbike

travellers?

As I got closer I realised it was 4 motorcycles who had pulled over, 3 BMW’s and a Kawasaki 250 trail bike. As this was the first time I had come across any bikers during my trip so far, I decided to stop to check all was ok.

To my surprise all of the riders were ladies who had been part of a round the world challenge carrying a baton for the South Africa to Nairobi leg and they were now returning to South Africa via Malawi. Annette was riding the Kawasaki single cylinder 250 four stoke trial bike for the trip from Malawi to Nairobi and back Respect to her as that is a long way on a small trail bike, especially when her colleagues were riding BMW GS 1200‘s and a GS700.

When I asked them why they had stopped they told me that the road was completely flooded ahead and no cars were getting through. Not being able to get through would have a massive implication to my ability to reach Iringa, so I went on ahead to see how bad the flood was ....Oh my god the road had completely disappeared and a raging torrent of water was flowing over what was the road. There were trucks lined up on both sides of this flood and no one was getting through.

After grabbing a Coca Cola for all of the ladies we decided to wait it out until the water level subsided a little and see if we could get across. After about 30 mins I rode down to the waters edge and noticed a lorry was now attempting to get across so I decided to give it a go following closely to the back of the lorry. As I approached half way point the water was way over the front wheel and I could feel the current wanting to take the wheels away from me. Keeping the power on I managed to make it to the other side but the ladies were unsure if they could make it. Annette tried first on her trail bike and made it. In the mean time I managed to get a lift back over to the other side in a 4X4 to help the others get their bikes over which we managed successfully.

We were soon continuing our way towards Iringa. It was great to be riding with other bikes having travelled over 1000 miles through Kenya and now Tanzania by myself without meeting any other bikers. We ended up riding some great twisty mountain roads before eventually arriving in Iringa.

I had pre booked a hostel in Iringa and the ladies wanted to press on and get closer to Malawi, so we parted company although I may meet up with them tomorrow evening if I make it to the Malawi border in time.

I arrived at my pre booked hostel hoping that I would have a hot shower, WiFi And some food only to find that the owner was not there but I met a fellow traveler who was staying at the hostel who informed me that there was no food served and the WiFi was not very good. With that I turned round and rode 5 mins back to a hotel I had just passed....it had a hot shower and WiFi!!!

Hopefully I will get some sleep tonight before making an early start to Malawi.