Day 136: Closest Shave Yet, then wonderful ride through Mikumi National Park
07:22.49S 34:05.53E A nightmare getting out of Dar-es-Salaam. Then the road from 10km outside Dar to Morogor is horrendous. It is tr surfaced, but so hold that it has tyre grooves up to 5cm deep in the melted tar, and man, on the motorcycle these grooves are just a huge pain. The close shave was about two buses. The one bus coming towards me of me on the other side of the two lane national road, with these grove tracks. Suddenly out from behind this bus and going at least 80km/h, another bus pulls out to overtake the one coming towards me. The race is on and the overtaking bus is only marginally faster, so I can see it will not have overtaken by the time they get to me. No signs of slowing down, flashing lights at me, nothing the two buses just career down on me, at serious speed, with no intention of worrying about me. Seeing this and then looking down at the groove I was in, then left to see there other road hump that’s I’d have to negotiate if I needed to swerve off the road to get out of the way. Well the buses kept coming and it was decision time I had to get out of my grove go over the lefthand hump and look for a space somewhere in the long grass to get out of their way. I narrowly managed to do it, ending up in the grass with bike almost falling over….. I was so mad with those guys, but I was also trembling at the thought of how close I had actually come to a serious disaster. All quite sobering….. 20 Sep Horrendous roads, buses near miss, new tyres, traffic cop and wanting my watch, lunch at Morogoro, a pleasant affair. The ride through Mikumi National Park, stopping at that new game lodge, Accommodation at Mikumi Tan Swiss Hotel, camping, drinks at Colobus bar, camping out was very nice! |