700km!!! We made it to Singida. 

A bigger town, a bit similar to Dodoma. Big Rocks are all around the town…they look beautiful in the sunset light in between the sandy earth, some Mango and palm trees. Here we have a rest day again. We got ice cream and chocolate!!!, which we don’t get anywhere in the small towns where we cycle through. We treated ourselves with the chocolates and a few beers and today we could sleep in and got Spanish Omelet for breakfast. We all seem to really need this rest day after the last 4 days cycling. We had a few hills here and there and had a big day of 120km (we didn’t really plan on it and in the end it was counterproductive because we were too tired to keep going the next day). This day started easy with downhill and then cycling on the flat, so we felt strong to keep going. We had a long stretch without town and we had not enough water and food for camping, so we decided to keep going to the next town (that was after we did already about 100km or more)…but then a big hill came and the midday sun was on us, it must have been one of the hottest days. I was not feeling well all of the sudden, it might have been the heat, the exercise or both together…after a bottle of cold water over my head I felt a bit better. We somehow made it to a guesthouse in the town which was not on the road, like our map said, but 3km along a side road that was just sand. The guesthouse we found then was the most basic place we stayed in. No shower or running water, a communal toilet, a bucket of water that we could use for washing ourselves. The bed was too small for Danny and me together, the mosquito net useless because of many holes, no fan and it was very hot.

On top of that we all had stomach problems and diarrhea from something we ate. Luckily we still had some toilet paper with us. After the worst nights sleep, feeling mentally and physically exhausted and sick, the next day we made it slowly to the next town which was 20km away and found a decent guesthouse with a shower and stayed there. I think at that time both me and Dylan felt so horrible we would have gladly taken the plane to fly home.

After a little sleep and a shower, resting my belly (which was in cramps all morning) I felt better though and the next day we were fresh on the bike, maybe not a 100% with a little sore muscles but the cycling now seemed easy and we stopped after 82km, feeling tired but not dead, that good feeling of tiredness after a day of activity. My stomach was fine again and the next day was only a 40km cycle into Singida, where we are now. 

It now feels kind of normal to be here in Africa, the daily routine of cycling, being the only white people, being in a hot climate in a vast landscape with small villages, markets and many children screaming excited “mzungu mzungu” waving and running after your bicycle etc…Everything that seemed so strange and new in the beginning.

Our next destination is Mwanza at the Lake Victoria…in about a week we plan to be there and stay for a few days and visit one of the islands on the lake that has elephants and giraffes.

Pictures are coming later…