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Iringa is on the top of a summit which you reach after a big uphill of a couple of kilometers, after you turn left on the main road going to Dar es Salaam. It used to be a German stronghold, that is maybe why at the pub 255 where I saw the match everybody was cheering Italy and super Mario.
The time zone confused me! This morning I had appointment for breakfast at 7,30, around 7 one of the girls from COPE, knocked at my door asking if everything was fine, yes I said. Then when I arrived at the table for breakfast I realized that my 7,30 were 8,30 in Tanzania! Initially I thought the Blackberry had done some strange update, then comparing also the time on the bicycle’s speedometer I realized I had been following the wrong time since I entered Tanzania, better late than never! The positive thing is that the dark comes much later than in Zambia and that from tomorrow by leaving at the real 7,30 I will be able to ride a bit more kilometers. The doctor from COPE gave me a ‘food basket’ with a small chocolate tart made in Italy, which I will keep for when I will be in crisis.
In the first leg of today’s route I crossed several forests of eucalyptus and pines traversing Sao Hill, where there is a thriving project started by the Norwegians for the sustainable exploitation of the forest, I noticed a certain resemblance with that area of South Africa at the border with Swaziland, the air and the altitude are mountain like, I tried to breathe deeply to oxygenate myself at best considered the coming efforts.
Today I took the stage easy with the approach of the retired who takes the dog to the park, rather than the cyclist rolling towards London. The easy approach worked well, like it happened to me also other times for other things in Africa, and I arrived in Iringa when it was still light, despite the many road works I found on the way.
By now I am in Tanzania for more than 400 km and like it was happening in Zambia on the road to Chipata there are some bus drivers, going back and forth, who recognize me and greet me happily. This does not exempt them from throwing me out of the road pointing at me like a pin of bowling, they have a hoot with an annoying sound, strident and powerful, which honked in sequence means ‘get out of the way my friend and now’. In a quite slow context, it is hard to understand what pushes them to skid and bend on the turns like Valentino Rossi, they look like mad molecules, heated, ready to explode. The heavy foot of the local drivers must have been noticed also by the Chinese, who in their construction sites have solved the problem introducing for very long stretches an alternate one way and … the three wheeled safety car like in Formula 1 … the convoy of vehicles cannot overtake the three-wheeler, which at the sides of the cabin has two round signs of overtaking forbidden which make it look like a small mouse with big ears chased by angry and frustrated beasts who would want to tear it to pieces.
Tomorrow towards Dodoma on the gravel!
Nyororo S 8° 30.42’ E 35° 04.45’ – Iringa S 7°77.00’ E 35°69.00’
121 km