From Mazabuka, Zambia, to Kigali, Rwanda

Greetings from Kigali Rwanda!

Much has happened since the last posting we made in Mazabuka, Zambia while we were taking a much needed 2 day break , having travelled solidly for almost a week. Little did we know the roads that we had been travelling on up to that point were like a highway compared to the roads further north.

One of the highlights was our 2 night stay, right on the Lake Tanganyika, the place we stayed at (lake Tanganyika lodge) was very remote and we followed a windy 4x4 rocky track which both tested and built our off road biking skills! The lodge is right on the lake edge which gave us the most amazing campsite from which to view the sunset across the lake. At night we had brilliant canopy of stars above ..-and spotted a number of shooting stars which was quite special. This would be our last in Zambia before entering into Tanzania…

The section of road that we travelled on through the western side of Tanzania was particularly tough – both physically and mentally demanding. We saw absolutely no tar for 1000 km, we frequently had to slow down to navigate the sandy stretches of road which were very humbling. Riding through the sandy parts requires skill and is made more challenging with the 2 side pannears that I carry. I’ve come off on two occations , losing balance whilst moving through thick sand...lesson learned and new respect gained for the off road!

We found that the poor road conditions in the west of Tan didn’t put breaks on
the truck drivers moving on our route. Trucks and 4x4’s for that matter would move through at about 100 km per hour kicking up a dust storm– we quickly learned to make way early for the trucks, even if they were on ‘our’ side of the road. Riding after sunset has not been an option on the dusty roads and we had to bushcamp on 2 occations. The 2nd campsite was stunning, we road about 200m off of the main route and set up tent on a hill overlooking a plain of tall yellow grass... for the stretch through Tan which was approx 1000km we saw running water once. As you can imagine both Jo and I were layered in red dust (i’ll upload the evidence)




We finally reached some respectable tar on 30th June, which took us over the Rosuma river and falls, and through the rolling hills of Rwanda and into the capital of Kigali, where we have been resting out and catching up on the recent genocide tragedy which has scarred the Rwandan country – it makes me realise how grateful we South Africans should be with how smooth the changeover of governments was back in 1994..

I better be off, I still need to finish of my packing – we are leaving shortly for the Ugandan border.
Till then take care.