On their cycle leg to Ngwazi Sailing Club, they came across a German man named Daniel who was cycling from Cape Town to Cairo. They mentioned to him that they would be staying the night at the Ngwazi Sailing Club and would be happy for him to join them. Warrick shared with him the co-ordinates but they had expected there to be some signs to the place but there were none, but alas, Daniel managed to still find them.

The team spent one rest day at Ngwazi Sailing Club, which was also Warrick’s birthday. They spent the morning doing some errands which included fixing Warrick and Gareth’s back-wheel hubs and just giving the bikes a much-needed clean. The rest of the day, they just relaxed around camp and Derrick and Gareth prepared a delicious birthday braai for dinner.

The next day, the team had a 90km cycle ahead to African Gardens Campsite which is about 10km from the main town Iringa. Derrick was feeling a lot better after having completed a course of the malaria treatment medication so he decided to get back on his Buffalo bicycle again. The first 40km of the ride were really tough as there were roadworks and the team ended up having to cycle along dirt road diversions with some big climbs. However, as soon as they got through the town called Mufundi, there were no more roadworks and they had an smooth road to ride on with a wide shoulder all the way through to African Gardens Campsite.

Whilst the team were riding, Bryan drove ahead to Iringa to stock up on supplies before going back to setup our campsite. He also gave Daniel a lift as he was having issues with his bicycle so he was going to arrange a bus to Dar-es-Salaam from Iringa. Daniel decided to also stay at the same campsite with them that night.

The next leg of the journey was a long and really hot 116km cycle through to a bush camp by the Mtera Reservoir. In the first 20km, they had a serious climb up to the main town, Iringa, where they spent a bit of time sorting out some admin and drawing some more cash. After leaving Iringa, the team felt like they were in the middle of nowhere as there is very little civilisation along the way. Around 90km from Iringa, they cycled down an incredible mountain pass with amazing views of the Mtera Reservoir. As soon as they descended, the heat picked up to 40 degrees so the team were all suffering. Bryan went ahead to try sort out a suitable place for them to “bush camp” for the night and luckily managed to arrange for them to stay at a mission clinic with a Masai warrior as our security guard.

From the mission clinic, they had a fairly hilly 93km ride to another “bush camp” spot. The team were now cycling through Masai land with some incredible baobab forests scattered across the landscape which was really amazing and helped to take their minds off the heat. Bryan managed to find a bush camping spot for them on the top of a hill by a baobab and rocky formation. To ensure that they got some kind of permission to camp on the hill, Bryan went to speak to a local in the nearby village named Joshua. As there was a language barrier, Bryan had to phone a contact he met in Rungwe named Daniel to help translate English to Swahili, which worked out well and the team had no issues camping in this awesome “bush camp.”

On Friday, 30 September, they had a short cycle of 74km to the Tanzanian capital city, Dodoma, where they are now staying at the African Dream Hotel for one rest day. The first half of the cycle was flat and really beautiful as they continued to ride past baobab forests and then had a gradual climb up to the city. Time has really flown by on this phenomenal journey and the team can’t believe that they only have 6 more days of cycling left to our final destination, Mount Kilimanjaro.

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