to Muzani: into Tanzania

September 14, 2015

“Now we make the switch” Patrick says. We’ve gone through immigration on the Rwanda side and the road drops down to the Rusumo River. Midway, traffic switches sides, we are now back to riding on the left side of the road.

There is a passport check on the bridge above the falls. We can see the canyon, the river, the spray from the falls, and can even hear the falls. We just can’t see the falls because the bridge is built over them.

We have left Rwanda behind, but not the hills. There is a steep climb up to the passport control for Tanzania. The parking lot is full of trucks and the office is difficult to find. Patrick takes the passports and two $100 USD for the visa. USA and Irish citizens pay $100, all other nationalities pay $50. Rachel stays to watch the bikes.

Patrick comes back for a different $100 bill, there was a problem with this one. He takes another $100 bill and comes back again, this time because of the date of the bill, had to be 2006 or later. Patrick had done the research and knew that some borders are picky about accepting bills. We were prepared and the third bill was ok.

The final thing was to change our Rwandan Francs into Tanzanian shillings. Money changers were ready, so was Patrick. He had researched what the bank exchange rate and knew what was an ok deal.

The exit is somewhere through the maze of trucks. As we weave our way through we see that the hill continues. The landscape becomes harsher and drier, and less populated. There are lots of areas clear cut and burned. We are happy that we are not cycling along this section when all the burning was happening. The villages are sparse, with stick and mud huts, very little shops until one "town" where we stopped for drinks. Some of the children just stare at us as we pass by, a few shout and ask for money.

We arrive in Mukazi mid-afternoon and hope to find a guesthouse. Amidst the rickety wooden stalls and things being sold out on the street, there is one nicely painted building with Cassanova Guesthouse, Restaurant and Bar. Patrick searches to find someone to check in, took some doing. When Patrick asked for a beer at the guesthouse, someone went after them for us and brought them back in a green plastic bag, like in Turkey, just as we hear the call to prayer. Tanzania is 45% Muslim and 45% Christian.

The guesthouse is basic and clean. “Self -contained” means the toilet is a porcelain basin set in the floor and flushed with scoops of water from a giant water container. And the shower also is done with scoops of water. No running water for the sink either. The mosquito net over the bed is stuck and can’t be unfurled so we use our own. Dinner is a restaurant across the street (there was no restaurant at Cassanova), back to African meals of rice and beans and fish.

A totally different standard than what we experienced in Rwanda.

Entering a chain link 'cage' for Rwanda immigration and across the Rusumo River into Tanzania.

He is probably carrying at least twice the load we have and on a single speed. Who knows how many times he has pushed up this hill..... And muzungus do it for fun. We live in very different worlds.

It is a lot hotter and drier here. The hills behind are Rwanda.

The telephoto lens makes this look worse than it is, but this corner of Tanzania is damn hilly!

Respectful kids in their school uniforms, some of their woolen sweaters are so full of holes that we wonder how they are able to put them on without tearing them in pieces. The girls do a curtsey while responding to our "hello how are you?".

Most of the country side is deforested and burned. Many remaining larger trees are killed by stripping them of a ring of bark. It is unclear what the land will be used for, clearly the dry season is too dry to grow crops, but maybe the wet season is long enough to grow something.

Charcoal, the fuel for cooking fires. It seems like the poorest people can still strip the forest and sell these bags at the roadside.

Today's ride: 64 km (40 miles)
Total: 6,929 km (4,303 miles)

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