Tanzania

From Karonga it was a flat road to the border at Kasumulu. I buddied up with a local who was hauling a rolled up length of roofing iron strapped diagonally across his rear rack. At the 25k mark his house appeared and he waved me farewell. He'd ridden in that morning to get the iron, before returning home. The border crossing was pretty simple. Some forms, an id photo and fingerprint scans. I had a few GB of data on my Malawian sim and wanted to watch today's AC races before crossing and losing reception. I'd hustled through faster than I expected so was pleased to be able to still get coverage sitting outside the Tanzanian immigration building. The following day as I'd ridden back to the border post looking for the atm I'd been spotted by an immigration official who thought I'd come through that morning and skipped immigration. He jumped in a vehicle and pulled me over 3km up the road. Not carrying his ID meant I turned the tables on him , before eventually informing him I'd crossed yesterday. There's a few of those types of scams in this part of the world, but I don't think this was one. He did however get a lecture about carrying ID.
About 15 minutes later another cyclist rolled in. Mingi was Korean and had started in Capetown 2 weeks before me. He was travelling lighter and had been gradually catching me for the last month. The ecclectic campground host at Nata (Botswana) had told him I was ahead of him but he would catch me. I'd unknowingly passed him the day before as I was heading to Karonga and he was camped off route by the lake.
We headed past the discussed guesthouse, landing a more upmarket version before hitting the local bar & restaurant to swap notes and general touring chat.Читать далее