Mbeya....Last night in Tanzania
Beyond the Saddle ....Cairo to Cape Town
Howard Fairbank
Wed 28 Mar 2007 17:54
Staying at a hotel in a little satellite village 10km west of Mbeya. This is
right at the junction of the road to Malawi, which we will head off on
tomorrow.
Cycled 94km today:
After two days of supporting Ruth I headed off on my own today. Started
early, and with a lot of 'stored energy' to get rid of I really pushed it
getting to the hotel stop first. The first 50km were the now well used
undulating hills, heading west with a beautiful sunrise behind me, From 50km
the route started headed towards the mountains and the 1600m plateau on
which Mbeya sits.
Just before the main climb, I came across some quite impressive falls just
off the road, so stopped for a while to explore. After that I had to deal
with a 2okm climb to the finish. All in all I great challenging cycling day.
Scenery has changed quite a bit with large volcanic mountains all around.
Temperature has dropped quite dramatically with the elevation change.
Tomorrow is apparently a stunning scenery day, but involves 1850m of
climbing combined with 2500m of decline.
More about this all tomorrow!