Day Three - Bush Camp to Stockholm Hotel in Mbeya

Distance: 94.53km
Ride time: 3:52
Climb: 1079m

Today was probably the nicest ride I've had for a while. The paved parts of Tanzania are probably a close second to Ethiopia for enjoyable riding. Nice hills to ride up and down, good views, good pavement. Unlike Ethiopia, I don't have to worry about a little kid karate kicking me off my bike on the fast downhills.

The morning was pretty cruisy. Stuart, Gisi and I were all feeling a bit tired from the previous couple of days, so it was a pretty slow pace. We were still catching and passing the usual suspects. After a while though, we started to feel that none of us felt like smashing ourselves today. Stuart and Gisi planned on doing a sensible, spinning pace and skipping lunch. I decided to backtrack for a bit and ride with Steph. Her bad toe is pretty annoying on the bike and riding alone with an injury can really suck.

When I rejoined with Steph, she was going a fair bit faster than she normally does. I was feeling like I had plenty left in the tank, so we bumped it out to lunch. It sounds terrible, but it is way less effort to ride with someone that is even a tiny bit slower. Hopefully, Steph felt like she got a good deal being pulled to lunch.

After lunch (scrambled eggs with bacon!) we had the hard part of the day: a 25km climb up to the hotel where we would be staying. The average gradient for the climb was 2.5%, which is enough to be challenging. Especially in the humidity - dropping down yesterday and this morning meant that it was pretty muggy again.

Looking back down the climb to the valley below.

It sure was nice to get to the top of the climb and still have enough left in my legs to do a decent clip through the town. Doubly so since there was a fresh, cool tailwind.

All in all, an enjoyable day on the bike.

Camping tip of the day: If you are camped in long grass and expect a dew, trample down the grass under your vestibule. Otherwise, you will be pretty damp in the morning.