Down to Iringa

The day started with a dollop of downhill sprinkled with headwind and warming temps. I had added my light jacket, dayglow orange, as a chill barrier, and useful hi-viz for the traffic. It lasted a lot longer than the temperature dictated. There wasn't a lot of useful road shops before lunch and I resorted to my days old fried bread as I pedalled. At least the rolling landscape of yesterday's road was less pronounced today. I dropped a couple of hundred metres before a steep uphill into town. The bigger regional town of Iringa sported a few western hotels, coffee shops and fancier restaurants for those inclined. I was. The better equipped 4g Royal was my 2 night location. I'd had some help finding it from a local tour arranger/guide who'd seen me arrive. He'd also suggested The Alexander Hotel as a better quality restaurant. It turns out also a bar for many of its safari tour operators. The assistance was at least partly self interested. Iringa sits between the prime Kilimanjaro National Park and the smaller southerly National parks. It's likely an easier environment to navigate than the main cities of Dodoma, Arusha or Dar es Salaam. Especially for tourists who are covering that mix of sites. A late lunch became an early dinner of pepper steak chips & salad. Delicious. Despite forgetting to give strict instructions on medium/rare. Medium was still very tender. Mushroom sauce tasty. I left the coffee till tomorrow. And forewent the beer for a later event, where it would be more reasonably priced. Back into tap to pay land, via phone, the trip funds once again contributing directly. After a leisurely stroll around town I located a nearby pub, grabbed a celebratory beer, chatting to locals and catching the last of the local football derby. Mingi would arrive tomorrow and I'd do a bit of sight seeing, some laundry and rest the legs. And the coffee.Read more